September 28, 2005

Reid: Bush Must Do More Than Say He Has A Plan

Washington, DC – Democratic Leader Harry Reid released the following statement about the Bush administration’s failure to lay out a clear strategy for success in Iraq:

“Our troops and the American people need the President to pay more than just lip service to a strategy for the war in Iraq, they need him to lay out what that strategy is with clear markers by which success can be measured. Despite the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq for more than three years, President Bush has failed to lay out what his strategy is, both politically and militarily, in order to achieve the progress needed to bring our troops home. In the coming days, the administration will have yet another opportunity to lay out in public what needs to be done in order to achieve success in Iraq.

“I hope the president’s key advisors will describe to the American people in detail what progress is being made to train Iraqi troops, what number of Iraqi troops will be required in order to hand over responsibilities to them and what will be required of our troops in the months ahead. They also need to do more than acknowledge dates on Iraq’s political calendar. They need to spell out what specific actions are being taken to achieve the political consensus necessary for a stable political future.

“The American people and Congress are growing increasingly frustrated with the refusal of the Bush administration to come clean and talk straight about the war in Iraq. While we agree that it is in our own national security interest to achieve success in Iraq, it is the president’s responsibility to lay out a clear plan to get us there. I hope he and his advisors will finally use this opportunity to do just that. Together, America can do better.”

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