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July 18, 2007

Up early, Whitehouse addresses Senate on Iraq

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse addressed his colleagues around 7 a.m. today during their all-night session, which can be viewed on C-Span 2 (Channel 32 locally).

Whitehouse outlined ways in which the Iraqi government “has not made satisfactory progress” on issues such as establishing provincial council authorities and preparing for elections.

“It is clear that the Iraqis have not made that progress,” he said.

“We must announce that we will re-deploy our troops,” Whitehouse continued. “This is a necessary step.”

Whitehouse said the United States has “an enormously complex problem, a problem that we have tried to solve by military efforts alone.”

But the country’s efforts have failed, he said, “not because anything was lacking in our troops.” The failure has come because the “strategy was wrong,” he said, and it is up to the Senate to challenge that strategy.

“The Levin-Reed amendment is the new direction Americans have called for,” he said of the amendment co-sponsored by his fellow Rhode Island senator, Jack Reed, which calls for the United States to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq 120 days after enactment of the bill. “I urge my colleagues to let us vote. Let us vote up or down.”

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Posted by Kate Bramson  at 7:24 AM | Permalink

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Veritas | July 18, 2007 11:03 AM link

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