[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 24030-24031]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, it is time for us to review our policy 
in Iraq. We have been aware this day was coming for some time.
  To recap how things have occurred, we had hearings in the early part 
of this year to confirm General Petraeus. This has been General 
Petraeus's third tour in Iraq. I first had the opportunity to meet with 
him when he commanded the 101st Airborne in Mosul. He was part of the 
initial invasion--a brilliant combat commander who impressed all of us 
on our CODEL.
  I later visited him in Iraq when he was in charge of training the 
Iraqi military and their police. It was a critical moment in their 
development. He was asked to go back early to do that, and he agreed to 
do so.
  He then returned to the United States and wrote the counterinsurgency 
manual for the Department of Defense. Before the ink was dry on that 
manual, the President asked him to go back to Iraq, for the third time, 
to lead this critical effort at this critical time.
  So I wish to first say how disappointed I have been that some have 
seen fit to attack this man, attack what he might say. I am afraid, 
frankly, the purpose of that was to sort of preemptively smear his 
testimony. I saw most of his testimony this afternoon. As a member of 
the Armed Services Committee, I expect to see more of it tomorrow and 
to be there tomorrow when he testifies before our committee and to hear 
it all in complete form.
  So let me say this: It is right and just and appropriate this 
Congress, which sent him there in January, I believe, which voted on 
May 24 to fund the surge--we had a lot of debate about this surge, 
whether we should do it, whether we should increase our troop levels. 
The situation in Baghdad was not good. The situation in Al Anbar had 
made some improvement but was not where we wanted it to be. The country 
was in a difficult time.
  The President said: Let's step up the troop level. Let's have a 
surge. We had much debate about it. I know our leader, Harry Reid, went 
to the White House along with Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House. 
They came out with an agreement, and only 14 Senators opposed--in a 
truly bipartisan vote--funding of this effort.
  So I have been disappointed that some announced it a failure even 
before it got started good. But we all committed to one thing; and that 
is that General Petraeus would come back and he would report to us and 
we would hear from him.
  Some thought we needed more than that. So we as a Congress included 
in our funding legislation a requirement that another commission be set 
up, an independent commission, with retired officers and so forth. GEN 
Jimmy Jones, former Commandant of the Marine Corps and former Supreme 
Allied Commander Europe, chaired that commission. He reported last 
week.
  Also, we had the Government Accountability Office do an independent 
analysis of the benchmarks in Iraq.
  Now we are having General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, who is 
clearly one of the best respected Ambassadors in the State Department 
with experience in this region of the world. They are giving us their 
report today and tomorrow.
  If Congress concludes this effort ought not to go forward, so be it. 
But we ought to do it after listening to our generals. In fact, I 
noticed some of the polling data showed more than two-thirds of the 
American people prefer to have their decision process be informed by 
the military, and only less than 10 percent, I think, or maybe 20 
percent, said the Congress should set the military standards.
  Here is an article by Bing West I noticed in the National Review in 
May. He has been to Iraq multiple times. He has written two books on 
the Iraq war. He said:

       The new American military team has infused the effort with 
     energy and strategic clarity, and seized the initiative. In 
     this war, the moral/psychological element outweighs the 
     physical by 20 to 1.

  I think there is a good bit of truth in that. I think we have seen a 
more coherent, focused strategy under General Petraeus's leadership.
  With regard to his testimony and its truthfulness, I remember 
interviewing him before he was to testify in January, before being sent 
to Iraq, and he said: I will tell you one thing, Senator. I am going to 
tell you the truth as I see it if you send me there.
  So the next morning I thought I would ask him that very question 
before the committee while he was under oath. I said:

       You've indicated, I think, in your opening statement 
     [General Petraeus] that you would, but I'd like you to say 
     that so the American people would know that a person who 
     knows that country [Iraq], who's written a manual on 
     counterinsurgency--if you believe it can't be successful, you 
     will tell us so we can take a new action. That was my 
     question to him: Will you tell us if you think this will not 
     work? Because he told us and made the public statement our 
     effort in Iraq was difficult, but he did not think it was 
     impossible.

  He replied to me this way:

       Sir, I firmly believe that I have an obligation to the 
     great young men and women of our country who are putting 
     themselves in harm's way, and certainly to all Americans, to 
     tell my boss if I believe that the strategy cannot succeed at 
     some point.

  I believe this man told us the truth today as he saw it and will tell 
us the truth before the Armed Services Committee tomorrow, as God gives 
him the ability to do so. He finished near the top of his class at West 
Point. He was No. 1 in his class at the Command and General Staff 
College. He has a Ph.D. from Princeton. He has been in combat. He has 
led one of the Army's finest combat divisions in combat. He has trained 
the Iraqi Army. He knows most of the Iraqi leaders pretty well because 
of his time there. We could not have a better person. We need to listen 
to him and then make our independent judgment after he testifies.
  So I thank the Chair for this time. I hope all Americans will 
participate, as Congress should, in evaluating where we are today. 
Then, once we make a decision about what our next step will be, I would 
call on my colleagues to not do things that undermine the strategy once 
we have established it. Don't

[[Page 24031]]

come up 2 weeks after we have voted on what to do and then say it is a 
failure. Let's don't do that this time. Let's agree to--no matter what 
it is, no matter how it comes out--have our debate and then our vote, 
and let's establish a policy and stick together and work hard to make 
it a success.
  I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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