Conyers Responds to President Bush's Iraq Speech

Washington, DC - Congressman John Conyers, Jr. issued the following statement today in response to President Bush's January 10 speech on Iraq:

"Last night, the president announced that he will escalate the war in Iraq. Still in his cloud of denial, Mr. Bush seems to believe that he can achieve some ill-defined 'victory' by perpetuating America's involvement in a bloody civil war halfway around the world. It is unclear what such a victory would look like, let alone how it might be achieved. Mr. Bush's 'troop surge' is not a strategy; it is a desperate, last-ditch effort to allow the president to avoid admitting that his war of choice has been a failure.

"Generals and foreign policy experts alike agree that adding 21,500 more troops to the quagmire in Iraq will have little effect on either our chances for 'victory' or the safety and stability of the Iraqi nation. Indeed, President Bush chose this course of action against the unanimous opposition of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and most of the commanders on the ground in Iraq. Everyone except the president seems to realize that the essential problem in Iraq requires a political solution, not a military one. The American people understand it, as they demonstrated overwhelmingly last November. Yet the president wants to put even more American troops in harm's way for no strategic advantage. He persists in his foolhardy escalation, apparently more concerned with preserving his legacy as 'the president who didn't lose Iraq' than with the well-being of either our brave troops or the Iraqi people.

"An escalation in Iraq will do nothing to improve America's security; on the contrary, it will undermine it. Our military is already stretched to the breaking point, and Mr. Bush's "surge" will cause additional damage that will take billions of dollars and many years to fix. Exactly none of the military's active duty or reserve brigades is considered 'combat ready.' Only thirty percent of equipment considered 'essential' to homeland security is on-hand here at home. Should disaster strike here at home or elsewhere in the world, we will be left virtually defenseless while our troops and equipment are bogged down in an unwinnable war that threatens to drag on for years, if not decades.

"While Mr. Bush claims to have been 'listening' to the advice of military and foreign policy experts over the last months, he seems to have emerged as stubbornly committed to his failed policy as ever. It is up to the Congress to put an end to this madness. I particularly want to call on my friends on the other side of the aisle to listen to the voices of their constituents, the everyday Americans who understand what we have at stake in this war in a way that the president has proven himself incapable of doing. We cannot throw away more American lives. We cannot mortgage our children's futures to further enrich war profiteers. We cannot continue to contribute to the devastation of Iraq.

"The president seems unable to comprehend that American military might is not the answer to all the world's problems. But the American people do understand. They know that there is only one way forward in Iraq. We must begin the phased withdrawal of American troops in the next four to six months. We must change our mission from combat to training and logistical assistance for Iraq forces. We must provide the economic assistance the Iraqis need to repair their devastated society and give whatever help they require in moving their political process forward. This is the only way to achieve any sort of victory in Iraq."

###01-11-2007###