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For Immediate Release
02/02/2007
Pelosi: NIE Offers a Bleak Assessment for War in Iraq
Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement regarding today’s release of a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq:
“The National Intelligence Estimate on the prospects for Iraq’s stability offers a bleak assessment of the likelihood of a significant reduction in violence in the next 12 to 18 months. There is a deadly circle in Iraq: the lack of security makes necessary political accommodations difficult and the lack of political accommodation fuels sectarian violence. Last week, when my colleagues and I were in Iraq, we saw firsthand that no number of U.S. troops is going to change that situation; it can only be changed by the Iraqis and, it is not clear that they have the willingness to do it.
“Rather than commit more U.S. troops to a struggle that is the responsibility of the Iraqis to resolve, our emphasis should be on working with Iraq’s leaders and Iraq’s neighbors to produce the kind of political and diplomatic breakthroughs that offer the best chance to stop the violence.”