“Last week was an important one for the future in Iraq.  First, the transition of civilian leadership at the Pentagon was completed with the confirmation of Robert Gates to the post of Secretary of Defense.  Second, the Baker-Hamilton Commission, studying the war in Iraq, released its recommendations for reshaping the involvement of our country in this conflict.

 

Now is the time to compose a close to the dangerous situation in Iraq.

 

Robert Gates is expert in matters of national security.  He has a long and distinguished record of service at the Central Intelligence Agency and in other national security jobs.  His experience with intelligence-gathering agencies will be a significant benefit in the job he is about to take on. It is not often reported that the vast majority of foreign intelligence-gathering conducted by the United States is in fact accomplished by our military.  In Iraq, Afghanistan, and our global effort to find and eliminate terrorist threats, counterintelligence is key to the safety and security of our country.

 

The task before Secretary Gates will truly be a difficult one.  His mandate is to create progress where there has been little, and to redefine this conflict in the terms of a path to stand-alone Iraqi sovereignty.

 

He will be assisted by the strong recommendations of the Iraq Study Committee, co-chaired by James Baker and Lee Hamilton.  Baker was most noted for serving as Secretary of the Treasury for President Ronald Reagan and Secretary of State for President George H. W. Bush.  Hamilton, who served in Congress for 34 years, also acted as vice-chair of the 9-11 Commission and now sits on the president’s Homeland Security Advisory Council.  Both individuals are well aware of the challenges of constructing a measured, complete defense of our country against the new perils
of terrorism.  Both are also aware that the lives of Americans at home must be vigilantly
protected, and so must the lives of our men and women in uniform serving overseas.  Gates, too, was a member of the group which produced the report.

 

Our national discussion about Iraq must emphasize the very elements that Gates, Baker and Hamilton bring to the table: intelligence-gathering and use, diplomacy and our fight against terrorism, respectively.  At the same time, we must de-emphasize the role of U.S. troops in Iraq, bringing them home when their jobs are finished. 

 

The problem with defining when troops are no longer needed has been the lack of clear-cut objectives for progress.  Now, at the most important moment in the transition of authority from U.S. and Coalition forces to Iraqi ones, we must define these goals in terms of the speed and efficiency of their completion.  It is time for Iraq to do the work of preserving law and order. Even outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld thinks so.

 

There is going to be an intense debate over the Baker-Hamilton report and how America should change course in Iraq.  What is completely clear to me, however, is that changing course is imperative, and our strategies must be changed over the course of weeks, not months.

 

Our soldiers in the field are doing phenomenal work under extreme circumstances.  When they come home, I am relieved.  When they don’t make it back, I am crushed and heartbroken.  When we send them back to Iraq, I worry like a mother – and as a mother, I have worried about my family serving in Iraq.

 

In a transition of power to the Iraqi people, we must find a strategy that enables them, and us, to move forward quickly and efficiently.  We owe that much to our men and women in uniform, the Iraqi people and the American people.  Clear military, political and diplomatic objectives, along with a realistic timetable to achieve them, will create an important measurement by which the next 15 months in Iraq will be judged.”