January 10, 2007

CONGRESSMAN GREGORY W. MEEKS
CALLS ON PRESIDENT BUSH TO REJECT IRAQ TROOP SURGE
President Bush is Unwavering in his Rigid Stay the Course Strategy and is Determined to Ignore the Recommendations of the Iraq Study Group

(WASHINGTON, DC)Congressman Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY) a member of the House International Relations Committee released the following statement in response to President George W. Bush address to the nation:

Tonight, President Bush has made it clear that he is determined to ignore the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, the counsel of his own generals, and the message from the majority of the American people that the Iraq War should not be an open-ended engagement and redeployment should be a top priority. Instead of a new strategy, the President has announced more of the same with plans to send as many as 20,000 additional troops to Iraq.

The plan I heard from the President tonight sounded much like his old one: Stay the course, deploy more troops, prescribe goals and objectives for the Iraqi government, and convince the American public that withdrawing from Iraq would make us less safe despite all the evidence that staying there is exactly what will lead to increased violence and less security for the United States.

Sadly, the President is unwavering in his rigid stay the course strategy despite knowing that previous attempts at a surge in troops have failed to stop the deteriorating security situation in Iraq. We saw that increased troops did not work in the spring of 2004 when troop levels were raised from 122,000 to 137,000, but this did nothing to prevent Muqtada al-Sadrs Najaf uprising. April of 2004 was the second deadliest month for American forces. The President increased troop levels in Iraq three times in the past 12 months without favorable results, only a downward spiral and increased chaos in Baghdad.

The President stated that he has made it clear to the Prime Minister and Iraqs leaders that Americas commitment is not open-ended. However, every action the President has taken including his announcement tonight simply sends the message that our commitment has no end. The evidence shows that adding 20,000 additional troops to the 132,000 already deployed will not secure Iraq, but certainly will be an additional strain on our military personnel and their families. We have already lost over 3,000 soldiers in Iraq. More than 22,000 have been wounded or injured. Now, President Bush is asking our military families to risk and sacrifice even more for a war that has never been credible on the basis of a policy that 70 percent of the American people reject.

As the President ignores the reality in Iraq, we see the increased potential that Arab allies could face a situation where the conflict in Iraq spills over into the region and becomes a wider war in a region with the worlds largest oil reserves. That is precisely why it is a mistake for the Administration to flagrantly ignore a key feature of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group recommendations: engage the countries of the region and begin comprehensive talks with all of Iraqs neighbors to bring peace to Iraq.

As a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, I plan to help Congress exercise its oversight responsibilities and get answers from the Administration as to why this and other reasonable and proven strategies were left out of the Presidents new way forward while we continue to facilitate a civil war with failed methods of engagement.

###