Washington, DC - Today at a press conference with Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Carl Levin (D-MI), and Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today reiterated her call for a change of course in Iraq, saying, “The Bush-Cheney administration has stretched our military to the brink, stretched the facts to fit their ideology and stretched the patience of the American people with rhetoric instead of results. The Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld team cannot gloss over the cold, hard facts.”

Their press conference comes on the heels of yesterday’s Democratic Policy Council (DPC) oversight hearing on the war in Iraq. Read more.

Below is a transcript of Senator Clinton’s opening statement at the press conference:

You know, as we enter this final week before adjournment, the Senate will be rushing to complete its business so that Senators can hit the campaign trail.

It's obvious that Republicans are trying to shift the focus away from the administration's failures in Iraq, to other issues.

They may not have a plan to complete, successfully, the mission in Iraq, but they do have a plan to win elections here at home.

The stakes are too high to let them take such a low road. Iraq continues to be of great concern. And as we just heard from Senator Reed, the Army is operating under tremendous strain.

What Senator Reed just described to you is just a small portion of what we hear, the three of us on the Armed Services Committee.

Now, the Army can't even submit a budget because they know they won't get what they need. The Bush-Cheney administration has stretched our military to the brink, stretched the facts to fit their ideology and stretched the patience of the American people with rhetoric instead of results.

The Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld team cannot gloss over the cold, hard facts.

Their policies are failing, our military is breaking and the American people are demanding a change.

The writing is on the wall and it doesn't say: Mission accomplished. It says: It's time to change course.

I just came from a meeting with President Talabani of Iraq, where he acknowledged many of the challenges that we face in Iraq; but, where, understandably, from his perspective, he says: We want you to stay until we tell you to go.

Unfortunately, the Republican-led Congress continues to support the Bush Administration's failed strategy in Iraq.

And, most neglectfully of all, the Republican-led Congress has failed to engage in meaningful oversight of the Bush administration's Iraq policy.

The Administration has lost focus on winning the war on Iraq, and all Washington Republicans can focus on is winning elections here at home.

Yesterday I attended the first oversight hearing that really deserves that description, that's been held on the war in Iraq. The Democratic Policy Committee, because we can't get cooperation from our Republican colleagues, held a hearing where three former military officers -- two army generals, one Marine colonel, who served in Iraq, who have a long history of active, distinguished service on behalf or our country -- testified about the failures of the Bush administration's Iraq policy.

Now, the Democrats organized this hearing because the Republican Congress has refused to conduct meaningful oversight. We haven't heard, in any formal way, from commanders on the ground, either active duty or retired.

We rarely even hear from outside experts who bring a different perspective and point of view.

You know, sunlight is the best disinfectant, and this Republican Congress has spent too long trying to keep Bush administration failures in the dark.

What we heard from these retired military officers was deeply disturbing, but it wasn't anything we haven't heard before. It just was the first time we actually heard it in a hearing room in the Congress.

One former general referred to a war being, quote, "fought on the cheap." And they all agreed that the execution of our policy in Iraq has been, quote, "incompetent."

Now, I joined my colleagues, Senator Levin and Senator Reed, first, last November, and again this past spring, when they proposed a change of course in Iraq.

Under their proposal, supported by the Democratic leadership in both houses of Congress, we would begin a phased redeployment of U.S. troops this year as a means of pressuring the Iraqis to take more responsibility for their future.

We would also be pressuring them to deal with their internal political challenges, not kick them until next year, which apparently they've decided to do; and put a real international effort together to try to decide what the neighbors were going to do to prevent a failed state on their borders.

The news reports this week regarding the April classified national intelligence estimate assessing the impact of Iraq on the global war on terror only adds more urgency to the importance of changing course in Iraq.

At this point, I would settle for just admitting that we're on the wrong course while we try to figure out what to do next. Let's have that debate in the Congress and in the country.

Having reviewed the NIE, I'm very much in favor of the decision to declassify it. This needs to be part of the debate, and this is information from those whom we entrust with assessing threats we face and providing their best analysis.

Now, this November Americans will decide if they want to change course in Iraq or whether they want to continue with a rubber-stamp Congress that continually supports a failed policy in Iraq, and now, as we can tell from what's been leaked about the NIE, a failing policy in terms of containing, deterring and defeating the terrorist leaders and operatives in the global war on terror.

This is an important choice, and we need to continually remind our fellow Americans of what is at stake. And I particularly thank my colleagues because of their leadership over many years on behalf of these issues.

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