Pelosi: ‘Iraq Report Describes a Policy Badly in Need of a New Direction’

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07/12/2007

Washington, D.C.— Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today in response to the Bush Administration’s report showing there has been unsatisfactory progress in Iraq:

"The report describes a policy badly in need of a New Direction. The report is not a snapshot of what is happening in Iraq today, but a sad reality of what has been occurring in that country for the past few years.

"Since the President announced his surge six months ago, we’ve lost nearly 600 American troops and spent more than $60 billion. But by the Bush Administration’s own admission, there is unsatisfactory progress on the key benchmarks endorsed by the President in January and political reconciliation is non-existent.

"The American people see the danger in clinging to an untenable situation in Iraq. That is why they favor by large margins a redeployment of our troops. The President stubbornly refuses to develop a redeployment plan or devise a redeployment schedule, preferring to hope, despite the abundance of evidence to the contrary, that his failed policies will somehow make tomorrow better than today.

"Especially in matters affecting the security of our country, Congress must act when the President will not. Today, the House will vote on a bill that recognizes that the job our troops were sent to Iraq to do is done.

"After nearly five years of a failed policy in Iraq, we have a duty not just to voice our opposition, but to vote today to end the war."

http://speaker.gov/newsroom/pressreleases?id=0245