Iraq Study Group Report

IRAQ STUDY GROUP REPORT

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, a few moments ago, the Iraq Study Group presented their report. This is an historic document. It is 142 pages long and easily read. Within the confines of this publication is a very important message. I want to salute, first, the members of this Iraq Study Group. These men and one woman have risen to the call of public service in a way that is exemplary for all of us who are involved in public life. Former Secretary of State James Baker, former Congressman Lee Hamilton, Lawrence S. Eagleburger, Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Edwin Meese, III, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Leon E. Panetta, William J. Perry, former Senator Charles S. Robb, and former Senator Alan K. Simpson have produced a bipartisan report on a war that troubles every single American, and their conclusion in this report is clear. Their conclusion is it is time for the American troops to leave Iraq and begin coming home. Their conclusion is that we are no longer waiting, if we ever were, for the permission of Iraq for this to happen. Instead, we are putting Iraq on notice that it is time for them to stand and make the important decisions for their future that will lead to stability in that nation.

They have shown, with this report, an impatience and frustration which has been shared with the American people. On November 7, Election Day, the American people were very clear. They said overwhelmingly by their votes across America they want a change in our policy in Iraq. It is no longer acceptable to lose so many of our best and bravest soldiers, no longer acceptable to be bringing these brave soldiers home for communities to grieve and to pray over

them, as we should, but we must bring this to an end. Twenty thousand or more American soldiers were disabled in this war, some of whom will struggle for a lifetime to rebuild their lives and their futures. It is also time for us to bring an end to the expenditure of money on the war in Iraq; $2 billion to $3 billion a week that we are spending.

At a time when we are cutting back on research at the National Institutes of Health for medical research; at a time when we are unable to fund No Child Left Behind, when we know that our children, our future leaders, need a helping hand and we are unable to provide the resources; at a time when we cannot help working families pay for their health insurance, we are sending billions of dollars over for this war in Iraq, a war that has now lasted longer than World War II.

The report of the Iraq Study Group is a call to action. It is a call for change, and, quite frankly, it is a call on the President, our Commander in Chief, to move forward with new leadership and with a new candor in dealing with the people of Iraq.

They also make a bold suggestion, which I endorse, that we need to open the diplomatic front. We need to bring to the table in the Middle East many countries that we have shunned for a long period of time, countries that, frankly, we disagree with on many basic things. We need to bring to that table Iran, a country which we have very few things in common with but a country we need to bring in and discuss the future stability in the Middle East. We need to bring Syria to the table as well, in the hopes that they will become an agent for positive change in the Middle East and for stability. There are some who will disagree with that, but I am not one of them. I recall, in the darkest days of the Cold War, we would sit down with the Russians, we would sit down with Soviet leaders, we would try to work out differences, try to find ways to bring a peaceful resolution to many contentious problems. That was the American way then, and it should be now in the Middle East.

I salute the Iraq Study Group. They have given us a guidepost. They have given us a roadmap, in terms of our future policy in Iraq, and now, with the American people calling for change, with the Iraq Study Group on a bipartisan basis calling for change, now, the responsibility shifts to the President of the United States. I hope that he will demonstrate his commitment to change by beginning to redeploy American troops out of Iraq starting in January of next year. If we are to meet the goal of this Iraq Study Group of the American combat forces redeployed out of Iraq by March of 2008, then we need to begin that process and begin it as soon as possible. For our soldiers, for their families, for the American people, the President needs to begin this redeployment.

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