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July 10, 2007

Sen. Reed discusses Iraq efforts / Video

Sen. Jack Reed and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., this morning discussed the details of a measure they will offer this week to prod the Bush administration toward a strategic change of course in Iraq.

Watch video of the press conference.

Levin and Reed plan as early as tomorrow to debate the latest version of an amendment they first crafted more than a year ago. If the measure becomes law, it would force the administration to begin troop withdrawals from Iraq within 120 days of its enactment. Another provision of the Reed-Levin plan has been to set a non-binding goal of completing by next spring a shift to a more modest U.S. mission in Iraq, with large but unspecified troop reductions.

"I believe we have to make a change. I believe we have to begin that change very quickly," Reed said at the press conference, adding that the legislation would "start that process."

By next spring, the military's ability to dedicate 160,000 soldiers and Marines to Iraq "virtually comes to an end," unless the administration takes extraordinary measures, Reed said. He added that the public is "deeply concerned" about the administration's Iraq policy.

"Without the confidence of the public and willingness to support it," the strategy cannot be supported over time, he said.

In an effort to draw Republican support for their measure, Reed and Levin have discussed possible changes in its text.

Armed Services Committee member Reed and Levin, the panel's chairman, are members of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's ad hoc council of Democrats who meet periodically to help formulate the party's war policy.

Another member of the group, Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, will offer today the Democratic leadership's first Iraq-related amendment to the 2008 defense authorization bill. Webb seeks to require the armed forces to assign troops to minimum lengths of duty back in the United States between deployments in the war zone. The measure would complicate the administration's efforts to sustain high force levels in Iraq.

-- John Mulligan, Journal Washington bureau

Posted by Jack Perry  at 11:58 AM | Permalink

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Greg | July 10, 2007 10:41 AM link

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