Time for a Timeline

Time for a Timeline

March 10, 2006

Yesterday Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld lobbied on Capitol Hill for additional funding for the Iraq war. While the two officials will most likely secure the requested $65 billion in emergency security funds, they faced intense questioning from the Senate Appropriations Committee and mounting public dissatisfaction over President Bush’s handling of the Iraq war. Rice and Rumsfeld’s testimony gave no indication to the American people that the Bush administration understands that its “stay the course” strategy in Iraq has failed. It is time to change the course.

• The Bush administration’s open-ended commitment to Iraq has made Americans less safe and must come to an end. On the eve of the third anniversary of the war in Iraq, the time has come for decisive action to put the United States back in charge of its national security. The United States should announce and implement a strategic redeployment of its troops from Iraq – gradually drawing down its forces by the end of 2007. This military drawdown should be coupled with more vigorous diplomatic and political efforts. The key problems in Iraq require political and diplomatic – not military – solutions.
  
  
• The Bush administration must intensify efforts to train the Iraqi security forces to enable a drawdown of U.S. troops. After three years of many failures in training Iraqi security forces on the part of the Bush administration, the U.S. military is making some progress helping train and empower a new Iraqi army. But efforts to train the Iraqi police and build functioning ministries of interior and defense continue to suffer. The Bush administration must make institution building a priority.
  
  
• The Bush administration PLANS TO cut and run on reconstruction in Iraq. While Rice and Rumsfeld yesterday outlined the importance of additional security funding for Iraq, they ignored the country’s unfinished reconstruction projects. Because the bulk of new construction money has been allocated to prisons with no significant new money going elsewhere, it is evident the administration has turned its back on rebuilding Iraq.