WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. John Kerry issued the following statement today in response to the release of a new report by retired Marine Corps General James Jones, who concluded that current Administration efforts to train Iraqi security forces are failing.

 
“If anyone still needs evidence that the Bush policy in Iraq isn’t working, this new report from our nation’s military experts is a clear-eyed assessment of its failure,” Kerry said. “The White House has spent more than $19 billion training an Iraqi army that remains stubbornly sectarian and dysfunctional, and plans to spend another $5 billion next year. The Iraqi army isn’t ‘standing up’ as the White House has promised for four years. We are spending endless amounts of money on an army that is unwilling or unable to stand up for Iraq, while the President sends more Americans into the middle of a civil war we can not end. I will continue to push for a new plan for Iraq that starts with setting a clear deadline for redeploying our troops and redefines the American mission.”

 
Jones’s study suggests disbanding the entire national police force and starting over. On Tuesday, Kerry chaired a Foreign Relations Committee meeting that heard the first public assessment from the General Accounting Office on the lack of overall progress in Iraq.

 
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