FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 21, 2007
CONTACT: Geoff Embler or Matt Mackowiak
Sen. Hutchison Repeats Call for Semi-Autonomous Regions to Pacify Sectarian Violence in Iraq
WASHINGTON -- Today, in a speech delivered on the Senate floor and later at a press availability held in the Capitol, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) repeated her call for the creation of three semi-autonomous regions to help ease sectarian violence in Iraq. The plan allows the Iraqis to create a decentralized, federal style of government with separate, semi-autonomous states. Sen. Hutchison is an original cosponsor of an amendment to be voted on next week to H.R. 1585, the U.S. Department of Defense Authorization Bill, by Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE). Additional cosponsors to the DoD Authorization bill amendment include Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Arlen Specter (R-PA), John Kerry (D-MA), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR).
EXCERPTS FROM SEN. HUTCHISON’S FLOOR SPEECH
“I am a cosponsor of this amendment. I have said for a long time that it is my belief that if we could allow the sectors of Iraq to have their own semiautonomous governments…we could really begin to see economic stability as well as political stability.
“Of course, we all know that we should have oil revenue that would go to all of the people of Iraq fairly allocated, but I think we have seen in Bosnia a lessening of tensions when there is a capability for the security forces, the education, (and for) the religious sects to have their own ability to govern within themselves. If we could get economic stability I think that would bring the political stability along.
“So, I commend Senator Biden. I have written on this as well. Senator Brownback and I have talked about this in many forums. It is important that we look not only at the great success we are having that General Petraeus reported on. We are stabilizing the country on the security side, we are keeping our commitments. We are going to be able to do it with fewer Americans and bring the Iraqi troops forward.
“But it will not stabilize Iraq. We must have economic and political security. I think it is the most important sense of the Senate that I think we can have in this bill.”
EXCERPTS FROM SEN. HUTCHISON’S PRESS AVAILABILITY
“I don’t think you’re going to have a political stability if you don’t have some economic stability. People have to be able to work and have jobs and I think that obviously security is a major part of that but I also think that the ethnic strife is going to hurt the capability to create that economic opportunity.
“So in my opinion, we could see a lessening of the violence if we had the laws and constitution implemented that the Iraqis have passed themselves that would allow them to have their regions, with their education systems, their religious sects, their security forces so that there is a trust level in the government that would also allow the jobs to be built.
“So I think we should be doing that sooner than later, and that is why I think that this sense of the Senate resolution is a very good one.”
AUDIO:Sen. Hutchison Repeats Call for Semi-Autonomous Regions to Pacify Sectarian Violence in Iraq
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