Timelines And Benchmarks Necessary To End Iraq War

WASHINGTON, DC – Chief Deputy Whip Diana DeGette (D-CO) issued the following statement in response to President Bush's address to the nation on the war in Iraq:

"While I am encouraged that President Bush will redeploy a limited number of U.S. troops from Iraq, the President continues to ignore the need to establish concrete timelines and benchmarks to successfully withdraw all of our troops and end this misguided war. The President's redeployment plan merely reduces our troops to pre-surge levels – troop levels that were unacceptable at the end of 2006, and are again unacceptable now.

"General David Petraeus' progress report illustrates that the ‘surge' has produced unbalanced results. While the U.S. military continues to do the heavy lifting, the Iraqi Government has not made any significant political progress. General Petraeus conceded that violence remains too high and an independent report found that the Iraqi Government is far from taking over security responsibilities.

"The clock is running out on the President's failed war strategy. Having opposed giving the President the original authorization to go to war in 2002, I cannot support any plan that weakens our commitment to timelines and benchmarks that will bring our troops home and end this war quickly and responsibly."

Last week, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) Report found that the Iraqi Government has met only 3 of the 18 Congressionally mandated political and military benchmarks. Also, the Jones Report [Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq] concluded that the Iraqi Government is still far from being able to take over security responsibilities.