Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV); Sen. Joe Biden, Ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee (D-DE); Senator Carl Levin, Ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee (D-MI); and Senator Jay Rockefeller, Vice Chairman of the Intelligence Committee (D-W), sent the following letter to President Bush today, calling on the President for a 1) plan for success, 2) truth about the intensity of the Iraq insurgency, 3) provide Congress and the American people with more detailed information about the costs and 4)assure your committment to bringing the troops home.
Following are excerpts from an editorial Sen. John Kerry penned in the Boston Globe Tuesday titled, 'The Speech the President should give.'
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The Honorable George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
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Dear Mr. President:
We were pleased to learn that you will address the nation tomorrow about your Administration’s Iraq policy. Given the implications events in Iraq hold for our troops, their families, and this nation’s security, we look forward to hearing your remarks.
As you know, the informed consent of the American people is essential for your Iraq policy to succeed. Yet as you recently acknowledged, more and more Americans are raising questions about this policy. We believe your speech tomorrow represents a critical opportunity for you to rally the American people by clearly setting forth your plan for succeeding in Iraq and turning control of Iraq over to the Iraqi people.
We believe this objective can best be accomplished if your speech does the following four things:
(1) Provides a detailed plan for success in Iraq with clear performance benchmarks in the key areas of security, reconstruction, governance, and internationalization. By spelling out a series of specific goals in each of these areas, you will provide our troops, their families, and the American people the ability to see where we are headed and, just as importantly, the ability to assess whether we are making progress in achieving our objectives.
(2) Levels with the American people about the nature and intensity of the threat facing our troops and what additional sacrifices will be required to succeed in Iraq from our military and our taxpayers, the people of Iraq, and our allies. One of the reasons Americans are increasingly concerned about the course of events in Iraq is because they perceive a gap between the Administration’s upbeat assessments about the future of Iraq and the reality of what our troops are confronting on the ground today. In order to ensure that your Iraq policy enjoys the support of the American people, it is essential that you use tomorrow’s address to provide a frank and complete assessment of the challenges we face and the costs we are likely to incur in the days and months ahead.
(3) Declares that you will provide Congress with access to the people and information necessary to make regular Congressional oversight hearings useful. We have been engaged in Iraq for nearly 2 ∏ years. Our troops and our taxpayers have sacrificed much during this period and will be asked to do much more before this war is over. As the elected representatives of the American people and a co-equal branch of government, Congress has an obligation and a right to examine our Iraq policy on a regular basis.
(4) Assures our troops that you are committed to providing them everything they need to complete their mission as quickly and safely as possible and are equally determined to keep this nation’s commitments to them when they return home. We continue to receive reports that our troops lack properly armored humvees and other essential equipment. Equally disturbing was the news that there is a $2 billion shortfall in funding for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and thousands of veterans returning from Iraq may be denied access to the timely, quality health care services they have earned.
As we have said, your Iraq policy is clearly at a critical juncture. We urge you to use tomorrow’s address to clearly spell out a way forward and level with our troops and the American people about the sacrifices that remain ahead. Mr. President, we want you to succeed in Iraq and we want to do everything we can to support you. Your success is America’s success. We can best achieve that by working together.
Sincerely,
Harry Reid
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Carl Levin
John D. Rockefeller, IV
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So what should the president say tonight? The first thing he should do is tell the truth to the American people. Happy talk about the insurgency being in "the last throes" leads to frustrated expectations at home. It also encourages reluctant, sidelined nations that know better to turn their backs on their common interest in keeping Iraq from becoming a failed state.
The president must also announce immediately that the United States will not have a permanent military presence in Iraq. Erasing suspicions that the
occupation is indefinite is critical to eroding support for the insurgency.
He should also say that the United States will insist that the Iraqis establish a truly inclusive political process and meet the deadlines for finishing the Constitution and holding elections in December. We're doing our part: our huge military presence stands between the Iraqi people and chaos, and our special forces protect Iraqi leaders. The Iraqis must now do
theirs.
He also needs to put the training of Iraqi troops on a true six-month wartime footing and ensure that the Iraqi government has the budget needed to deploy them. The administration and the Iraqi government must stop using the requirement that troops be trained in-country as an excuse for refusing offers made by Egypt, Jordan, France and Germany to do more.
The administration must immediately draw up a detailed plan with clear milestones and deadlines for the transfer of military and police responsibilities to Iraqis after the December elections. The plan should
be shared with Congress. The guideposts should take into account political and security needs and objectives and be linked to specific tasks and
accomplishments. If Iraqis adopt a constitution and hold elections as planned, support for the insurgency should fall and Iraqi security forces should be able to take on more responsibility. It will also set the
stage for American forces to begin to come home.
Iraq, of course, badly needs a unified national army, but until it has one - something that our generals now say could take two more years - it should make use of its tribal, religious and ethnic militias like the Kurdish pesh merga and the Shiite Badr Brigade to provide protection and help with reconstruction. Instead of single-mindedly focusing on training a
national army, the administration should prod the Iraqi government to fill the current security gap by integrating these militias into a National Guard-type force that can provide security in their own areas.
The administration must work with the Iraqi government to establish a multinational force to help protect its borders. Such a force, if sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council, could attract participation by Iraq's neighbors and countries like India.
The deployment of capable security forces is critical, but it alone will not end the insurgency, as the administration would have us believe. Hamstrung by its earlier lack of planning and overly optimistic
predictions for rebuilding Iraq, the administration has failed to devote equal attention to working with the Iraqi government on the economic and political fronts. Consequently, reconstruction is lagging even
in the relatively secure Shiite south and Kurdish north. If Iraqis, particularly Sunnis who fear being disenfranchised, see electricity flowing, jobs being created, roads and sewers being rebuilt and a democratic government being formed, the allure of the insurgency will decrease.
Iraq's Sunni neighbors, who complain they are left out, could do more to help. Even short-term improvements, like providing electricity and supplying diesel fuel - an offer that the Saudis have made but have yet to fulfill - will go a long way. But we need to give these nations a strategic plan for regional security, acknowledging their fears of an Iran-dominated crescent and their concerns about our fitful mediation between Israel and the Palestinians in return for their help in rebuilding Iraq, protecting its borders, and bringing its Sunnis into the political process.
The next months are critical to Iraq's future and our security. If Mr. Bush fails to take these steps, we will stumble along, our troops at greater risk, casualties rising, costs rising, the patience of the American people wearing thin, and the specter of quagmire staring us in the face. Our troops deserve better: they deserve leadership equal to their sacrifice.
