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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 8, 2008
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Contact: Zach Goldberg
202-225-5801 (office) |
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HOLT STATEMENT ON THE TESTIMONY OF
GENERAL PETRAEUS AND AMBASSADOR CROCKER
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(Washington, D.C.) – Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) issued the following statement on testimony today of General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker at a Congressional hearing on the war in Iraq:
“General Petraeus may be one of the most articulate spokesmen for the Iraq effort, but the bottom line is General Petraeus says the situation is improving and the troop surge is succeeding – only, however, if you redefine success. For five years, the Administration and the generals have tried one definition of success after another and one justification after another to keep ever more American troops in Iraq – discarding each definition when it became apparent we are not making Iraq, the region, or America any safer.
The Counterinsurgency Field Manual that General Petraeus helped write states that ‘Long-term success in [counterinsurgency] depends on the people taking charge of their own affairs and consenting to the government’s rule.’ Iraq’s central government continues to lack legitimacy in the eyes of its people, as the recent combat in Basra and Baghdad has clearly shown. No amount of American lives and money can erase that legitimacy gap.
Since the surge, our soldiers have succeeded in their primary tactical mission: improving security so Iraqis can have a better environment in which to try to settle their political differences. It is clear that the Iraqi government is unwilling or unable to take the steps necessary to reach a political settlement that will end the violence. Unfortunately, the Iraqi government has not lived up to its end of the bargain, as the recent surge in politically-motivated violence has demonstrated.
As the cost of the war continues to mount – in lives, in dollars, in military readiness for other threats, in international reputation and cooperation – then at some point we have to acknowledge that the hoped outcome is not to be and that the withdrawal of our forces is the most rational course of action for America.
Accordingly, we need to take decisive action to end our combat involvement in Iraq and refocus our efforts on and destroying Al Qaeda and eliminating the conditions that breed international terrorism and refocusing our resources on pressing domestic and international needs.”
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