[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5214-5215]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, this is an important week not only because 
we are going to finish the housing bill this week but also because 
General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will testify. There are a 
number of questions they must be asked by Members of the Senate. The 
first one is will our troops come home soon or when will our troops 
come home. And I think they should be asked if the Iraq war has made 
America safer.
  When the surge began more than a year ago, President Bush labeled the 
strategy ``return on success.'' As the surge succeeds, according to the 
President, our troops would come home. We are already hearing General 
Petraeus has recommended to freeze the troop levels. In fact, there 
will be more troops after the freeze takes place than before the surge 
started. I assume President Bush will accept this request by General 
Petraeus. By the President's own measure, without our troops returning, 
there will be no success.
  General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will be asked a number of 
other questions. We have seen what happened a week or 10 days ago in 
Basra: al-Sadr was attacked by the Iraqi armed services. Al-Maliki, the 
leader of Iraq, didn't notify the American troops or anyone else and 
simply took off after al-Sadr. That attack was basically a failure. The 
police didn't police. The Iraqi police didn't police. At least 1,000 
Iraqi soldiers laid down their arms and quit. In fact, they didn't lay 
down their arms, they gave them over to al-Sadr's forces. Because of 
that, British artillery was asked to engage, and they did. U.S. troops 
were asked to come in, and they did. U.S. air support was asked to come 
in, and they did. We lost a number of soldiers and a significant number 
of soldiers were wounded.
  As some of my colleagues will recall, when this attack by al-Maliki's 
forces took place, President Bush said: This is what it is all about. 
This shows the success of what I have been telling everyone.
  Our troops in Iraq face a civil war that is growing more violent by 
the day--by the day. Any notion of renewed commitment to peace among 
Iraqi factions is betrayed by the news every day. Yesterday, five 
American soldiers were killed. In one attack, 2 were killed and 31 were 
wounded.
  General Petraeus has to be asked the question: Why is this happening? 
The battle, as we see in the papers today, is intensifying between al-
Sadr and al-Maliki. We have heard today's news that the Sunnis are 
becoming more violent. The Green Zone, which is supposed to be a safe 
haven, the safest part of Iraq, has seen a series of attacks over the 
last couple weeks. People have been killed in the Green Zone. Our 
soldiers are now being killed in the Green Zone.
  The chorus for a smarter strategy in Iraq is growing among defense 
and military experts. COL John Gentile, a West Point history professor 
who has served two tours of duty in Iraq, has said directly about 
Petraeus's action in Iraq, as reported in headline news today in the 
Wall Street Journal, among other things:

       We've come up with this false narrative, this incorrect 
     explanation of what is going on in Iraq. We've come to see 
     counterinsurgency as the solution to every problem and we're 
     losing the ability to wage any other kind of war.

  General Petraeus must respond to the criticism of Lieutenant Colonel 
Gentile.
  General Petraeus is responsible solely for the conditions in Iraq. He 
has responsibilities nowhere else. But others,

[[Page 5215]]

including Secretary Gates, Admiral Mullen and Congress and the 
President must consider Iraq in the context of America's interests 
throughout the world. So General Petraeus must be asked: Has the war 
made us safer?
  Based on every measure, the answer is a resounding no. Because of 
Iraq, our military's readiness for full-spectrum combat is stretched 
dangerously thin and becoming more so every day. Our troops are serving 
their second, third, fourth, fifth--and some are believed to be headed 
to Iraq for the sixth time. This is taking a tremendous toll on them 
and their families and the overall status of our military.
  We are not ready for an unexpected crisis that could arise overnight 
someplace other than Iraq. Each additional tour results in 
substantially higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder. On one 
tour, 12 percent of the soldiers are coming back with post-traumatic 
stress disorder; three of four tours, approaching 30 percent.
  I, in my office last Friday, was leaving, and a young man and his 
wife were there with a baby. The young man married this very pretty 
lady, his wife, the mother of his child, when he was 15. She was 19. He 
joined the Army and went to Iraq. I said: How are you doing? He said: 
Not very well. These were his words: My cognitive abilities are gone. 
He is having trouble thinking. That is what post-traumatic stress 
disorder is all about.
  The military is in such dire need of recruits. I can remember when I 
practiced law I did some criminal defense work. One of the things we 
would try with some of these young men who were in trouble was to see 
if we could get them in the military. The answer was no; they had 
criminal records. It is not the case anymore. If you haven't graduated 
from high school, the military will still take you. If you have 
committed a felony or a serious crime, the military will still take 
you. In fact, one out of every eight of our new recruits--that is 13 
percent--have received a waiver for past criminal misconduct. Some of 
these are felons, these people who are going into the military after 
having committed a crime. But even with these people who have no high 
school diploma, those who have been involved in serious crimes, we are 
still struggling in meeting our recruitment goals.
  As has been reported in all the print press and the electronic media 
today, we are losing our combat-hardened leaders, those with 
experience--sergeants, captains. There was a good report on the radio 
this morning about what are we going to do for colonels and generals 15 
years from now, if all the captains are leaving.
  We recognize General Petraeus's responsibility is Iraq, but in these 
hearings, these meetings with General Petraeus, he is going to have to 
understand we have taken our eye off the ball in other crucial areas of 
the world, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Korea, Iran, all 
through the Middle East. America's No. 1 enemy, bin Laden, remains 
free. Al-Qaida is going strong. Because of Iraq, courageous men and 
women of our National Guard don't have the manpower and equipment to do 
their job and protect us here at home. Because of Iraq, our moral 
authority is lost in the eyes of many. Our foreign allies are unwilling 
to stand by our side. General Petraeus is going to have to respond to 
some of these questions: When will our troops come home? Has the Iraq 
war made our country safer? These are the questions that matter. The 
American people deserve a fair assessment of both.

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