Here's the words of someone who wants to lead on this issue:
The surge has failed in its primary goal: to encourage the Iraqis to reconcile their political differences by providing what President Bush in January called “breathing space.” There has been no progress and no commitment to it. Why should our troops continue to die when the Iraqi legislature chooses to take a month-long vacation instead of working hard to compromise differences?
Gen. Petraeus told me that an American troop presence would be required in Iraq for another nine to 10 years. However, when testifying before Congress last week, he gave no rationale for why the White House's strategy will work in the future. A decade more in Iraq is unacceptable to me and to the American people.
The best approach for our national security is to remove our troops from Iraq and bring them home or redeploy them elsewhere. U.S. military operations can no longer determine the fundamental dynamics on the ground in Iraq or in the political sphere. Failing to withdraw troops will, in the long run, be even more dangerous for us than keeping them there.
The war in Iraq poisons every aspect of our foreign policy and prevents us from properly fighting al-Qaida in its home region.
The young service men and women from Maine that I met at Combat Outpost X-Ray in Iraq, Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and other locations in both countries make us all proud. They have done everything they've been asked to do, and it has been a job well done.
They were sent to Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein, and they did it swiftly and decisively. We need to end their mission, not re-label it.
Congress must lead the way out of Iraq. No amount or recommendations by blue-ribbon panels, cajoling by elder statesmen or non-binding statements from Congress will move this inflexible president.
The only realistic way is for Congress to set a firm, binding deadline to get U.S. troops out of Iraq.
Source: TomAllen.org
Those are the words of a Senator, and they're the words I've been waiting to hear! Please donate to my ActBlue page today, thanks!
