Van Hollen Statement on the Petraeus-Crocker Testimony Before the House Armed Services Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee

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Van Hollen Statement on the Petraeus-Crocker Testimony Before the House Armed Services Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee

United States Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) today released the following statement on the Petraeus-Crocker testimony before the House Armed Services Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"The testimony by General David Petreaus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker today offered no new information from what the Bush Administration has put forward in recent weeks. The whole purpose of the so-called ‘surge' was to create political space to enable the Iraqi government to undertake political reconciliation. The GAO report on Iraq released last week underscored that this not happened, with Iraq only meeting one of eight legislative benchmarks. And in the assessment of our intelligence community, as enunciated in the declassified NIE of August 2007, the Iraqi government will become more precarious over the next six to twelve months. Our brave American service men and women are sacrificing daily for a policy that has no end in sight. A policy of ‘more of the same' is no strategic vision, strains our military to the breaking point, and enables Iraqi leaders to dither endlessly instead of reaching a political consensus over the future of their country."

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