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September 10, 2007

R.I. congressmen criticize Petraeus' Iraq report

Members of Rhode Island's congressional delegation today criticized Gen. David H. Petraeus' report to Congress on U.S. troop levels in Iraq as continuing a stay-the-course strategy from the Bush administration that has little to show for itself.

"The administration wants us to continue the status quo for another year in the hope that the Iraqis will resolve their political differences, even though we have seen little progress in that area to this point," Rep. James Langevin said in a statement. "In my opinion, that is too much to hope for, and we as a nation must decide if we want to continue sacrificing American lives and taxpayer dollars when the Iraqis have not taken responsibility for their own future."

Langevin said that everywhere he went for community meetings in his district last month, he heard the same thing: "We need to get ou tof Iraq as soon as possible."

Langevin said Petraeus recommended relatively minor troop reductions before next summer, returning forces to the pre-"surge" level of 130,000 troops.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said in his statement that while Petraeus' report argues security is improving in Iraq, "with 160,000 American troops on the ground and more than $700 billion spent, we should expect some progress of some kind. What has not improved is the political environment necessary for Iraq to begin to stabilize and move forward.

"Nothing fundamental will change in Iraq unless its leaders have the will to work together."

Rep. Patrick Kennedy said in a statement that "nothing in today’s hearing suggests that a level of success has been achieved that would support staying the course any longer. If we truly wish to build an America that is safer and stronger, we need to begin drawing down in Iraq, to redeploy our soldiers and Marines back home and concentrate our efforts in Afghanistan where our real enemy, al-Qaeda, is making a resurgence.

"No parade of statistics, no pleas for more time, alters this fact: the war in Iraq is a diversion from real threats to America’s security.”

The three congressmen are all Democrats.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 6:55 PM | Permalink

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