Earth to President Bush: It's Time to Get Real on Iraq

Washington, DC - - Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Chairman of the House Committee on Judiciary and Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus made the following statement regarding recent news about Iraq:

"Last November 7, the American people voted to change the course in Iraq.Two weeks ago, the strongest member of the so-called 'Coalition of the Willing,' the United Kingdom, announced it would begin withdrawing its troops from the Iraqi quagmire.Last week, polls showed for the first time that a majority of Americans support a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.What is the response from the Bush administration?They are sending more than 20,000 additional American troops to small, unprotected outposts in Baghdad's most violent neighborhoods.

They just don't get it.

The rest of the world gets it: the largest contributors to the coalition are reducing their forces.The UK, which provides half of the 14,000 coalition troops in Iraq, announced last week that it was withdrawing 1,600 troops, with the remaining 5,500 to be withdrawn by the end of 2008.South Korea is pulling out half of its 2,300 troops by April; the South Korean parliament wants complete withdrawal by the end of the year.There are 16 countries no longer participating in the coalition, including New Zealand, Japan, Spain and Italy.Moldova and Denmark will end participation by August.

The American public gets it: a majority of Americans now favor setting a deadline for troop withdrawal.Two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the surge, with more than half saying they strongly object.Two-thirds of Americans believe the Iraq war was not worth fighting, with half believing so strongly.A majority of Americans also support establishing requirements for the training and resting of military units that would have the effect of limiting the number of troops available to send to Iraq.

In spite of the worsening violence in Iraq, in spite of the continuing loss of international support, in spite of record-low approval ratings, in spite of the Republicans' resounding defeat last November, the administration continues to insist that some ill-defined "victory" is the only acceptable outcome in Iraq.They propose sending tens of thousands more American troops into harm's way without the proper equipment and training.They continue cutting funds for veterans' programs, with deplorable results like those at Walter Reed Army Medical Center that were exposed by the Washington Post last weekend.Somehow, the vice president manages to keep a straight face when he proclaims that the British withdrawal is because of success in Iraq.