Date: 2007-09-10
Speaker: HARRY RED (democrat)
Chamber: S

went to the White House along with NANCY PELOSI. the Speaker of the House. They came out with an agreement. and only 14 Senators opposed -in a truly bipartisan votefunding of this effort. So I have been disappointed that some announced it a failure even before it got started good. But we all committed to one thing. and that is that General Petraeus would come back and he would report to us and we would hear from him. Some thought we needed more than that. So we as a Congress included in our funding legislation a requirement that another commission be set up. an independent commission. with retired officers and so forth. GEN Jimmy Jones. former Commandant of the Marine Corps and former Supreme Allied Commander Europe. chaired that commission. He reported last week. Also. we had the Government Accountability Office do an independent analysis of the benchmarks in Iraq. Now we are having General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. who is clearly one of the best respected Ambassadors in the State Department with experience in this region of the world. They are giving us their report today and tomorrow. If Congress concludes this effort ought not to go forward. so be it. -But we ought to do it afterlistening to our generals. In fact. I noticed some of the polling data showed more than twothirds of the American people prefer to have their decision process be informed by the military. and only less than 10 percent. I think. or maybe 20 percent. said the Congress should set the military standards. Here is an article by Bing West I noticed in the National Review in May. He has been to Iraq multiple times. He has written two books on the Iraq war. He said: The new American military team has infused the effort with energy and strategic clarity. and seized the initiative. In this war. the moral/psychological element outweighs the physical by 20 to 1. I think there is a good bit of truth in that. I think we- have seen a more coherent. focused strategy under General Petraeuss leadership. With regard to his testifnony and its truthfulness. I remember interviewing him before he was to testify in January. before being sent to Iraq. and he said: I will tell you one thing. Senator. I am going to tell you the truth as I see it if you send me there. So the next morning I thought I would ask him that very question before the corpmittee while he was under oath. I said: Youve indicated. I think. in your opening statement [General Petraeus] that you .would. but Id like you to say that so the American people would know that a person who knows that country [Iraq]. whos written a manual on counterinsurgencyif you believe it cant be successful. you will tell us so we can take a new action. That was my question to him: Will you tell us if you think this will not work? Because he told us and made the public statement our effort in Iraq was difficult. but he did not think it was impossible. He replied to me this way: Sir. I firmly believe that I have an obligation to the great young men and women of our country who are putting themselves in harms way. and certainly to all Americans. to tell my boss if I believe that the strategy cannot succeed at some point. I believe this man told us the truth today as he saw it and will tell us the truth before theArmed Services Committee tomorrow. as God gives him the ability to do so. He finished near the top of his class at West Point. He was No. 1 in his class at the Command and General Staff College. He has a Ph.D. from Princeton. He has been in combat. He has led one of the Armys finest combat divisions in combat. He has trained the Iraqi Army. He knows most of the Iraqi leaders pretty well because of his time there. We could not have a better person. We need to listen to him and then make our independent judgment after he testifies. So I thank the Chair for this time. I hope all Americans will participate. as Congress should. in evaluating where we are today. Then. once we make a decision about what our next step will be. I would call on my colleagues to not do things that undermine the strategy once we have established it. Dont come up 2 weeks after we have voted on what to do and then say it is a failure. Lets dont do that this time. Lets agree tono matter what it is. no matter how it comes outhave our debate and then our vote. and lets establish a policy and stick together and work hard to make it a success. I thank the Chair. and I yield the floor.