Washington, DC – Speaking from the Senate floor, U.S. Senator Mark Dayton today emphasized the need for multinational cooperation to help resolve the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. He also called for both the Lebanese and the Iraqi governments to take responsibility for their own nations.

The full text of Senator Dayton’s statement is below.

Mr. President, I rise this morning, first, to commend the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, for her efforts to negotiate a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah and to engage other countries in helping to make and keep peace there. I salute her for her express willingness to return to that region as soon as it is practical to achieve her goals.

I am appalled, as all civilized people are, by the terrible destruction and the maiming and loss of human life in Israel, in Lebanon, and in Gaza. That is why I found it so disturbing that the Lebanese Prime Minister and the Speaker rejected Secretary Rice's proposals, before she had even left their country and was on her way to Israel.

The Lebanese government and the Lebanese people cannot have it both ways. They cannot want an immediate cease-fire on the one hand, yet continue to support Hezbollah as it kidnaps Israeli soldiers inside Israel to start this war and then rains destruction on Israel’s cities and civilians. As long as Hezbollah keeps those kidnapped Israeli soldiers and continues to fire its rockets into Israel, there can be no ceasefire and there can be no peace for Lebanon. As long as the Lebanese people and their government house terrorists who have sworn the total destruction and elimination of the democratic State of Israel; support their terrorist acts in that country and against Israeli citizens; and allow their own country to be used as a staging area for terrorist acts, there can be no peace for Lebanon.

Just as the Lebanese people and government must stand up for their country and themselves, and demand that those who want to continue the acts of violence and the repercussions for their fellow Lebanese citizens must cease and desist or leave their country, so must the government and people of Iraq stand up for their own country and for their own future.

Earlier this week, just as Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki was engaged in a public relations tour of Washington, D.C., President Bush announced the redeployment of American troops back into Baghdad, because of the failure of the Iraqi government to run even its own capital city, much less its own country, and the failure of the Iraqi security forces to protect that city, in addition to other significant areas of Iraq. There were further reports that the United States military command had to replace the supposedly top Iraqi units, because of their failure to stand up effectively against the insurgents.

Mr. President, I submit that the only cutting and running in Iraq is by the Iraqis, and that President Bush's plan of stand up, stand down is failing miserably. It's become Iraqi stand down and U.S. stay.

I voted, just a couple of weeks ago, against this body establishing arbitrary timelines and deadlines for the redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq, because I respect that our military commanders and our soldiers there have terribly dangerous and difficult missions to perform, and I believe it's imperative that we give them what they say they need in order to carry out those missions. But the fact that they need more troops, or, at least, no fewer American troops is further evidence of the miserable failure of this Administration's policies and plans for Iraq. After all, the U.S. forces there are carrying out the mission that has been assigned to them by their Commander-In-Chief, the President of the United States. It's a mission that's defined by his policy, and that policy is failing. It's past time that we admit that failure, that the Administration, starting with the President, admits that failure and tells us how he proposes to correct it.

It's time that we send an emphatic message to the Prime Minister and the government of Iraq: Quit your bickering, your squabbling, your posturing, and get down to the business of running your own country and running it successfully. Stop opining about others' actions elsewhere in the Middle East, condemning Israel and fanning the flames there, which is counterproductive to Secretary Rice's efforts to negotiate a cease-fire there. Take note of the fact that a country like Israel, located in the same region of the world, with the same kind of barren terrain, without even the oil resources that Iraq enjoys, is able to run its own country, provide prosperity and, most of the time, peace for its own citizens, defend its borders and provide for internal security within its country. That's a model that the government of Iraq, as well as the government of Lebanon, should be following and trying to respect and build upon, rather than to denigrate.

I don't know what the future holds for Iraq, but I do know that it's become one where their lack of effort, or at least their lack of success, seems to be condoned and enabled by this Administration's policy. And as long as the Iraqis know they have carte blanche, as long as they know that our forces will be there to back up their efforts, to correct their mistakes, to stand up as they are standing down, I don't see how that country, its government, and its security forces are going to make the progress necessary for them to become an independent and viable nation.

But I do know that it's their responsibility. We have been there for over 3 1/2 years—almost three years since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's evil regime. We have given them more than enough time. We have shed more than enough American blood and lives, lost forever, lives maimed and altered forever. And all this Administration here is telling us is ‘stay the course’. Stay the course. Stay the course. I submit, to stay the course only makes sense when there is an end to that course. It only makes sense when it's part of a successful stand-up, stand-down strategy. But it is so clearly demonstrated now that that strategy is not working, that it's going in the wrong direction, that it's time for this Administration to tell the American people what it intends to do and how it intends to reverse that failed course; and what stay the course is going to mean absent that turnaround; and what we must do to achieve it.

We need to enlist the rest of the world as Secretary Rice, to her credit, is attempting to do in the situation involving Israel and Hezbollah. We need to admit that we need the active assistance of the United Nations and of other nations, which have stood back because of the cavalier way in which the Bush Administration went into this war, rejecting any common effort. It's understandable that they don't want to put their troops, their own citizens' sons and daughters, into those perilous conditions that are the creation of this Administration and the result of the failure of its ability to correct them. But we must enlist their help. We must enlist the help of everyone in the world necessary to bring about true peace in Iraq and throughout the rest of the Middle East. Thank you, Mr. President.

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