This is Not a Plan

This is Not a Plan

November 30, 2005

This is not a plan for making Americans secure. It has no tangible benchmarks for success, fails to provide an honest assessment of the reasons for increased violence on the ground, and ignores the real challenges of securing a lasting peace in Iraq and combating global security threats:

• No Honest Assesment: You cannot devise an effective strategy for victory without an honest assessment of what is happening on the ground in Iraq. Until he provides that honest assessment of the reasons for the continuing violence, the President’s “credibility gap” on Iraq will continue. No amount of “happy talk” is going to change these difficult realities.
  
  
• Ignoring the Facts: Insurgent attacks on US forces are occurring at an all time high of 100 per day according to the Pentagon’s own most recent estimates. The size of the insurgency has actually remained the same or grown over the last year (ranging from 15,000 – 20,000), despite months of military operations aimed at killing and capturing insurgents. The Administration has not given us a credible read on the actual number of trained Iraqi security forces is – or how many of the alleged security forces are actually controlled by insurgent militias. He also ignores the impact of our prolonged occupation on U.S. ground troops and on the willingness of Iraqis to support the insurgency.
  
  
• No Benchmarks for Success: You can’t plan for success without specific benchmarks for measuring success. The Senate recognized this two weeks ago, when it overwhelmingly endorsed an amendment calling on the Bush administration to provide a "schedule" for meeting U.S. objectives in Iraq. "Short term," "medium term," and "longer term" – the only benchmarks in the President’s plan -- is not a schedule.
  
  
• Strategic Redeployment: The Center for American Progress’ “Strategic Redeployment” plan proposes a specific plan for achieving a successful drawdown of US forces in Iraq and a redeploying our military forces to other “hot spots” to combat global terrorist networks.