Vermont Congressional
Delegation
Objects To General Petraeus’ Call
For Open-Ended U.S. Role In Iraq
WASHINGTON (Tuesday, April 8) -- The members of Vermont’s
Congressional Delegation – U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), U.S. Sen.
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) -- Tuesday
renewed their support for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and
disagreed with Gen. David Petraeus’ call for freezing troop levels in
Iraq and for keeping the door open to U.S. involvement in the Iraq
conflict for the foreseeable future.
General Petraeus is testifying this week before the Senate and House
Armed Services Committees about the troop surge and about the recent
increase in U.S. casualties in Iraq.
Leahy said, “The reality in Iraq is that the troop escalation called
the surge has failed to achieve its central goal. Iraq remains riven by
ethnic, religious, and tribal differences, and the myriad of groups have
made only limited and halting steps toward reconciling their
differences. Violence is again on the upswing, and the recently failed
Basra offensive has emboldened militant groups while revealing the deep
weaknesses of the fledgling Iraq military. Every day more American
servicemen and women are killed or grievously wounded, with no end in
sight to our involvement there. A deadline for the beginning of the
orderly and swift redeployment of American forces, combined with
effective diplomacy, would end Iraqi dependence on the United States and
force some type of peace agreement.”
Sanders said, “The war in Iraq has been a disaster in terms of the
number of dead and wounded, the loss of focus on al Qaeda and
Afghanistan, and the cost that eventually will exceed $1 trillion. It is
unacceptable that we have an administration that refuses to tell us how
many more years we will be in Iraq or how many billions of dollars will
be added to the national debt. The United States has a moral obligation
to support the Iraqi government and military, but we must bring our
troops home as soon as possible.”
Welch said, “We need a change of direction in Iraq. Unfortunately,
all President Bush is offering is more of the same military policy that
has yet to produce the political progress to sustain a functioning Iraqi
democracy. This war has cost our troops and their families, our national
security, and American taxpayers gravely. Now, in the sixth year of this
unjust and unnecessary war, 150,000 of our men and women remain deployed
in an extremely dangerous environment, while the Maliki government is
fighting its political rivals rather than negotiating a sustainable
peace. General Petraeus and President Bush have yet to provide the
American people with a strategy to achieve the political reconciliation
necessary to bring this horrible war to an end.”
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