Remarks of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold
In Support of the Levin-Reed Amendment to Redeploy U.S. Troops
from Iraq by April 2008
As Delivered from the Senate Floor
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July 12, 2007
Mr. President, it has been 52 months since military
operations began in Iraq. We have now been engaged in the war in Iraq
longer than we were in World War II. Approximately 3,600 Americans
have died and 25,000 have been wounded. More than 4 million Iraqis
have fled their homes, and tens of thousands, at a minimum, have been
killed. With President Bush’s surge well underway, violence
in Iraq has exploded to unprecedented levels and American troop fatalities
are up 70 percent. In short, Mr. President, from all sides the situation
in Iraq is an unmitigated disaster.
As if that weren’t bad enough, our national security
continues to suffer as the administration’s single-minded focus
on Iraq prevents us from adequately confronting threats of extremism
and terrorism around the globe. Indeed, violence and instability continue
to fester elsewhere and at great cost to our national security.
Last November, when the American people cast their ballots,
they expressed their opposition to this war loudly and clearly. And
as the situation continues to deteriorate, they have raised their
voices still louder. I know my colleagues hear their voices, as more
and more of them step forward to call for a long-overdue change of
course.
But at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, those voices
continue to fall on deaf ears. Time and again, the President has made
it clear that nothing – not the wishes of the American people,
not the advice of military and foreign policy experts, not the concerns
of members of both parties -- will discourage him from pursuing a
misguided war that has no end in sight.
Congress cannot wait for this President to change course
in Iraq because he has no intention of doing so. He has made it clear
he will continue to pursue massive military engagement despite the
wishes of the American people, despite the fact that our military
is stretched to the breaking point and despite the fact that our presence
in Iraq has been, according to our own State Department, “used
as a rallying cry for radicalization and extremist activity in neighboring
countries…”
It is up to us here in Congress to listen to the American
people, to save American lives, and to ensure our nation’s security
by redeploying our troops from Iraq. We have the power and we have
the responsibility to act, and to act now.
That is why, Mr. President, I will support the amendment
offered by Senators Levin and Jack Reed. By passing binding deadlines
for both beginning and ending redeployment, the Senate can take a
strong step toward bringing our involvement in this war to a close.
I applaud Senators Hagel, Smith and Snowe for putting principle ahead
of party by cosponsoring this amendment. I hope their example will
inspire still more Senators to realize that it is not enough to criticize
the war or to call upon the President to change course, and that we
don’t need to – in fact, we cannot afford to -- wait for
more reports and more time before taking decisive action.
The Levin-Jack Reed amendment doesn’t go as far
as I would like. I am concerned that the exceptions in the amendment,
particularly for “providing logistical support” to Iraqi
troops, could give the administration too much wiggle room to “repackage”
its failed military mission instead of redeploying our brave service
members.
Nonetheless, I am pleased to see so many of my colleagues
-- on both sides of the aisle – recognizing at last that the
President’s course in Iraq has failed, that Congress needs to
act and that we can and must safely redeploy our troops. Other amendments
that have been proposed fall short because they don’t require
troops to be redeployed. It’s not enough to pass something that
sounds good but doesn’t move us toward ending the war. Weak,
feel-good amendments may give people up here political comfort but
that comfort won’t last long – we can fool ourselves but
we can’t fool the American people.
Mr. President, it is increasingly clear that the war
in Iraq has become the defining aspect of our engagement in this part
of the world and that it, coupled with this administration’s
inconsistent efforts to promote democracy and the rule of law, have
alienated and angered those whose support and cooperation we need
if we are to prevail against al Qaeda and its allies.
Our role in the war in Iraq has generated a level of
political turbulence, throughout the region and beyond, that has given
way to a new variety of al Qaeda-style militants. These militants
are gaining prominence in many countries that have traditionally been
our allies. The longer we remain in Iraq, the longer these new strains
of extremism will threaten the security of the region, and in turn
our nation. As long as the President’s policies continue, Iraq
will continue to be what the declassified National Intelligence Estimate
called a “cause celebre” for a new generation of terrorists.
Al Qaeda and its affiliates are not a one-country franchise
and yet this administration continues to pretend otherwise by calling
Iraq the “central front” in the war on terror. Al Qaeda
and its networks have not relinquished their global fight to focus
exclusively on Iraq. By redeploying our troops from Iraq, we can refocus
on developing a comprehensive, global strategy to combat them around
the globe.
Mr. President, as I said, the administration’s
policies in Iraq are an unmitigated disaster. But there is a way to
mitigate that disaster, to lessen the burdens it is imposing on our
troops, our national security, our taxpayers, and our country, and
that is to redeploy our troops from Iraq. There is no reason to delay
this process until September -- we know now what we’ll know
then and what we know isn’t pretty. We have already read in
the Pentagon’s first quarterly surge report that violence has
increased throughout much of the country in recent months. And we
know that there is no military solution to Iraq’s problems.
The only question is how long we are prepared to wait – and
how many young Americans we are willing to have killed – before
we act.
As my colleagues know, the Majority Leader and I have
introduced legislation that would safely redeploy our troops by setting
a date after which funding for the war would be ended. That is what
Congress did in 1993 with respect to our military mission in Somalia,
and I continue to believe we must be prepared to take that step again
to finally put an end to the war in Iraq. However, if the Levin-Jack
Reed amendment wins the support of a majority of the Senate, that
would be an important step forward, and I will likely not insist on
a vote now on the Feingold-Reid amendment.
If our efforts to end the war now don’t succeed,
however, I will offer Feingold-Reid as an amendment to the Defense
Department appropriations bill when it is considered by the Senate.
I hope that won’t be necessary, but it will depend on whether
enough of my colleagues are prepared to back up their words with action,
to listen to the American people, and to say enough is enough –
this war doesn’t make sense, it’s hurting our country,
and it’s time to end it.
