What is the Democrat Strategy for Success in Iraq?

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Leader Alert

What is the Democrat Strategy for Success in Iraq?
GOP Leaders Have Offered a Responsible Plan to Help the President's New Iraq Strategy Succeed

Washington, Jan 29, 2007 -

In Senate hearings last week Gen. David Petraeus testified that reinforcing U.S. troops in Iraq is necessary for the President’s new strategy to succeed. The Democrat-controlled chamber then went on to endorse his selection as the new commander of American armed forces in Iraq without a single dissenting Democrat vote despite oft-repeated opposition to the President’s new strategy. An editorial in the Washington Post captured the irony:

“On Tuesday nearly every member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee warmly endorsed Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the new U.S. commander in Iraq, and a number wished him success or ‘Godspeed’ in his mission. Yesterday some of the same senators voted for a resolution that opposes the increase of troops for Gen. Petraeus’s command -- even though the general testified that he could not accomplish his mission without the additional forces and hinted that such a resolution could encourage the enemy.”

Last week, House Republican Leaders and key Committee Ranking Members unveiled a responsible proposal to help measure the effectiveness of the President’s new strategy by setting strategic benchmarks and calling for a bipartisan select panel to oversee the new strategy’s implementation. The proposal is designed to help the President’s new strategy succeed.

It begs the question: what is the Democrat plan for success in Iraq? House and Senate Democrat leaders have stated they oppose the increase in troops, and their whole idea of troop “redeployment” would amount to little more than pulling out our troops and walking away. As Senator Joseph Lieberman (ID-CT) told the Wall Street Journal last week:

“The people in Congress, and the public, were quite right in saying the president’s got to come up with a different approach. And he did. It’s better than any other plan I’ve seen because it holds the hope of success. Most of the other plans are effectively just giving up and walking away.”

Stephen Hadley, the President’s national security adviser, explained in a Washington Post op-ed today that rather than “walking away,” any strategy for success in Iraq “must have a plan for securing Baghdad”:

“Ultimately, a strategy for success must present a realistic plan for bringing security to the people of Baghdad. This is a precondition to advancing other goals. President Bush's strategy offers such a plan -- and it is the only strategy that does.”

It is in America’s strategic interests to ensure regional stability in the Middle East and to deny terrorists a safe haven in Iraq. The President’s new strategy deserves a chance to succeed and it should receive fair and full consideration by this Congress.

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HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner