For Immediate Release
September 10, 2007
Confronting Fiction with Fact:
Conyers Responds to Petraeus Testimony on Capitol Hill
Washington D.C. – Congressman John Conyers, Jr., chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary and Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, made the following statement in response to General David Petraeus’ testimony on Iraq:
“Once again refusing to heed the facts on the ground and the wishes of the American people, President Bush has reiterated his stubborn commitment to continue his failed policy in Iraq. Today the President’s top General in Iraq told Congress that, instead of bringing our troops home safely and responsibly, the President’s futile escalation will continue for at least another 11 months. General Petraeus argued in his testimony today that the ‘objectives of the surge are being met.’ Given that the stated objective of the escalation was to create ‘breathing room’ for political reconciliation, yet by all accounts there has been no progress at all on this front, I am frankly mystified by the General’s assessment. In context, however, this upside-down view of the fiasco in Iraq is in keeping with four years of Pollyannaish appraisals and unattainable predictions.
The White House and its emissaries continue to urge the Congress and the American people to view the disastrous conflict in Iraq through rose-colored glasses. But we know better. No independent assessment of the situation in Iraq aligns with the picture presented by the White House. The Government Accountability Office reports that the Iraqi government has failed to meet 15 of the 18 benchmarks for success in Iraq as articulated by the President himself. The Jones Commission concludes that the Iraqi National Police force that we have spent millions of dollars training and equipping is ‘dysfunctional,’ riddled with sectarianism, corruption and inefficiency, and should be disbanded altogether. The consensus of the nation’s intelligence community, in the latest National Intelligence Estimate, is that the ‘level of overall violence, including attacks on and casualties among civilians remains high’ and ‘Iraq’s sectarian groups remain unreconciled.’
The Administration’s use of statistics to reinforce its claims of success is problematic. According to a report in the Washington Post, U.S. military leaders and the White House are ‘cherry-picking’ data to bolster their claims that the President’s failed war strategy is working. In order to support this claim, military and Administration calculations are based on a system of categorizing and excluding statistics that ‘selectively ignored negative trends’ and ‘puzzled’ senior intelligence officials and the nation’s chief auditor and head of the Government Accountability Office. For example, people who were killed by a shot to the back of the head are included as ‘sectarian’ casualties, but those killed by a shot to the front of the head are not counted because they are assumed to be dead from ‘criminal’ activity, according to an intelligence analyst quoted in the article.
In fact, the death toll in Iraq is rising. The Associated Press reports that while the President’s escalation has succeeded in bringing violence in Baghdad down from peak levels, the death toll from sectarian attacks around the country is running nearly double the pace from a year ago. The AP counted 1,809 civilian deaths in August, making it the highest monthly total this year. Though the administration continually cites a reduction in violence in Anbar province as evidence of the surge’s success, in fact, the Marines had already established ties to local Sunni leaders long before the ‘surge’ strategy was even announced. June, July and August 2007 marked the bloodiest summer so far for U.S. troops in Iraq, with 264 soldiers killed.
This grim picture is further reflected in Iraqi public opinion. A BBC/ABC news poll conducted in August concludes that Iraqi opinion is at its gloomiest since the polls began in February 2004. According to this latest poll, between 67 and 70% of Iraqis say the escalation has made things worse in the key areas of security, the conditions for political dialogue, reconstruction and economic development. A majority (57%) of Iraqis believe that attacks on coalition forces are acceptable, including 93% of Sunnis and 50% of Shia.
The token drawdown of troops proposed by General Petraeus today, in which nearly a year would pass before troop strength returns to pre-escalation levels, is misleading. In fact, the President has already promised to reduce troop deployments from the extended length of 15 months back down to 12, the standard wartime deployment length. The only way the surge could continue past next summer is if these deployments were actually increased, from 15 months to 18. So, in effect, the General is offering nothing at all in response to the demand of the American people and the Congress to bring our troops home.
The President continues to promote a policy where the lives of our troops are held hostage by a political situation over which his administration has no control. As General Petraeus himself has pointed out, the conflict in Iraq cannot be solved militarily; only a political settlement by Iraq’s leaders can bring this conflict to an end. Despite the fact that Iraqi politicians have made virtually no progress toward this goal in four years, the President insists on a continuing American military involvement, with no end in sight. The American people understand that this policy has failed, and this Congress will continue to fight to bring an end to this disaster and to bring our troops home.”
###09-10-2007###
