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For Immediate Release
July 12, 2007 |
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Levin Statement in Support of the Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act |
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(Washington D.C.)- U.S. Rep. Sander Levin (D-Royal Oak) made the following floor statement in support of H.R. 2956, the “Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act”:
I rise in support of the rule and urge my colleagues to support the bill.
It has become painfully obvious that the White House is incapable of changing course in Iraq. The Bush Administration’s talking points about the situation in Iraq change from week to week, but the fundamental strategy remains the same. The President is determined that our troops will remain in Iraq no matter what.
The latest White House talking points are aimed at getting the American people to believe that the surge in Iraq just began a couple weeks ago, instead of six months ago. In fact, the President announced the surge back on January 10, and the troop escalation began in early February.
The White House is emphasizing today that it finds that Iraq is making “satisfactory” progress in some areas, such as the cooperation between U.S. forces and tribal sheiks in Anbar province as well as the formation of a Constitutional Review Committee, although the constitutional review itself is not complete. The reality is that the Iraqi Government has not approved a law to share Iraq’s oil wealth. It has not enacted legislation to reform the De-Ba’athification laws. It has not disarmed the militias. It has not made progress on ensuring that Iraqi Security Forces are providing even-handed enforcement of the law. It has not made progress toward increasing the number of Iraqi Security Forces units capable of operating independently. It has not made satisfactory progress toward establishing a date for provincial elections.
In the past six months, nearly 600 or our troops have died. More than 13,000 Iraqis have died. The level of violence in Iraq has not decreased. The violence and attacks have simply shifted away from places where our forces are concentrated.
Six months into the surge, there is no indication that the Iraqis are coming together to make the political decisions necessary to end the sectarian violence that is tearing their country apart. Time has shown that whatever small chance there is of the Iraqi factions coming together, it will not happen as long as the U.S. military commitment in Iraq remains open-ended. We need to change course. The bill before the House does just that. It requires the Department of Defense to begin a phased and orderly redeployment of our combat troops from Iraq starting in 120 days of enactment, with the troop reduction to be complete by April 1, 2008. No other way has worked to convince the Iraqis that they need to step up and reach a political settlement to end the sectarian violence.
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