Ted Kennedy: Kennedy On Iraq

Remarks as prepared for delivery

July 11, 2007 -- "Mr. President, as the Senate resumes debate on Iraq, our heartfelt support and appreciation go to our troops in harm’s way.

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All Americans support our troops. They’ve fought bravely and they continue to fight bravely under extraordinary circumstances. They have answered the call to service. Many are on their third or fourth tour of duty in Iraq, separated from their families and loved ones for years. They have borne a great burden, and we owe them an extraordinary debt of gratitude.

History will write however, that the President has repeatedly failed them by failing to have a policy worthy of their sacrifice.

The President failed our troops from the outset, by sending them into this misguided war without a plan to win the peace and by refusing to send sufficient troops to keep the peace. Who can forget the words of General Eric Shinseki, who warned that America would need “several hundred thousand” troops to secure Baghdad? Who can forget the way the Administration shunted him aside, ignored his advice, and allowed the looting and violence to spiral out of control? The Administration’s insistence that a small, rapid force could achieve regional change and maintain a stable Iraq was utterly wrong, and chaos took the place of peace.

The President also failed our troops by repeatedly sending them into battle without proper equipment. Secretary Rumsfeld’s callous comment that “stuff happens” and his mindless assertion that you “go to war with the army you have -- not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time” still ring loud and clear in this chamber, a constant reminder of the failure of leadership at the highest level of the Pentagon.

The President failed our troops by relying for too long on a military solution to politically inspired violence and failing to engage in sustained regional diplomacy. We have been behind the curve every step of the way, rather than leading, reaching out, and working to find solutions with Iraq’s neighbors.

The President has also failed our returning troops home. Who can forget the horror we felt over the reports of our injured soldiers being housed in mold-infested rooms at Walter Reed hospital? The services and medical care that our troops need and deserve have fallen far short of meeting our responsibility.

We have given the President every opportunity. He has failed our troops by clinging to an unworkable policy that delivers less and less for our military and our mission in Iraq and stands no chance of succeeding now, in September, or ever.

The best way to honor our troops is to bring America’s involvement in this misguided war to an end – not to pour more and more American lives into the endless black hole of our failed policy in Iraq.

The American people know this war is wrong. Voting against it was the proudest vote of my entire career in the Senate. It’s wrong to abdicate our responsibility by allowing this failed war to drag on and on, and allow casualties mount to higher and higher.

We don’t need to wait until September to know that the surge will prove to be no better than the surges and failed strategies that preceded it. President Bush keeps trying to buy more time for his failed policy by promising yet again that hope and change is around the corner. But after more than four years of such smoke and mirrors, Congress and the American people have lost faith in the President’s competence in managing the war.

The American people have heard these new pleas before from the President. The death of Saddam’s sons was supposed to have quelled the violence. It didn’t. Capturing Saddam and bringing him to justice were supposed to have stopped the violence. It didn’t. Three elections and a new Iraqi Constitution were supposed to have brought stability. They didn’t. At every critical step, the Administration has promised calm, but there is no calm. Our soldiers have constantly been faced with an increasingly violent and lethal insurgency.

The promise of success around the corner through the surge is no different.

Initially, the Administration told the American people that the surge would add 21,500 troops to Iraq. But they didn’t reveal about the fact that there would be a wave after the surge, and we ended up sending nearly 30,000 troops.

In January, Secretary Gates said, “It’s viewed as a temporary surge.”

In February, Secretary Gates told the Senate Appropriations Committee, “I think General Petraeus believes that he will have a pretty good idea whether this surge and whether this strategy is working, probably by early summer.”

In April, Secretary Gates told us more time would be needed. He said, “I think it's been General Petraeus' view all along that…some time, at some point during the summer, mid to late summer, perhaps, he has thought that he would be in a position to evaluate whether the plan was working so far.”

In May, President Bush said even more time would be necessary. He told us, “As General Petraeus has said, it will be at least the end of summer before we can assess the impact of this operation. Congress ought to give General Petraeus' plan a chance to work.”

A week later, Secretary Gates said the Administration would “make their evaluation of the situation and the surge in September.”

Temporary surge. Early summer. Mid to late summer. At least the end of summer. September. These are the Administration’s desperate efforts to hide its failure just a little longer.

I have no doubt that in September, the Administration will ask for yet another chance. But there are no more chances. Time is up.

It’s wrong to ask the American people and our military to cling to the false hope that September will bring change. It is wrong to ask our troops to bear the brunt of a failed policy. It is past the time to acknowledge that the Administration’s policy has failed, and adopt a new course now to begin to withdraw our troops from Iraq.

The facts are clear.

President Bush argued that the surge would bring security, create an opportunity for political reconciliation, and enable reconstruction to make progress. When he announced the surge last January, the President said, “America will change our strategy to help the Iraqis carry out their campaign to put down sectarian violence and bring security to the people of Baghdad.”

Yet, more than six months later, the violence continues unabated In Baghdad.

The Pentagon’s own June report on Iraq, which covered the months of February through May, stated “Violence against coalition and Iraqi security forces remained consistent with previous levels.”

Unidentified bodies continue to be found in Baghdad at an alarming rate. Press reports say that in April, 411 unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad. In May, 726 bodies were found. In the first six days of June alone, 167 bodies were found in Baghdad. Many showed signs of torture and execution. Some had been beheaded.

U.S. casualties have also increased in Baghdad during the surge. Our troop losses in Baghdad this year have more than doubled over the same period last year. The number of Americans killed in Baghdad from January through June in 2006 was 96. But the number from January through June in 2007 was 250, two and a half times higher.

The presence of additional U.S. troops in Baghdad has also resulted in a spread in violence outside the city. The Pentagon’s June report confirms this trend. It said, “Many insurgents and extremists have moved operations to Diyala, Ninewa, and the outlying areas of Baghdad Province…”

American soldiers are bearing the brunt of the violence, and they understand this trend well. From January through June of this year, we lost 86 troops in Diyala – more than four times the number of troops killed there in all of 2006.

Attacks against Iraqi civilians are spreading across the country as well. According to the Associated Press, nearly 1900 Iraqis have been killed in suicide attacks in 2007 and more than 4,400 have been wounded.

Our troops continue to be attacked and killed at a higher rate than ever across Iraq. Every month in 2007, American casualties have been higher than in the same month in 2006.

In January this year, 83 of our soldiers were killed, compared to 62 in the same month a year ago.

In February this year, 80 of our soldiers were killed, compared to 55 in the same month a year ago.

In March of this year, we lost 81 of our soldiers, compared to 31 in March a year ago.

In April of this year, 104 of our soldiers were killed, compared to 76 in the same month a year ago.

In May of this year, 126 of our soldiers were killed, compared to 69 in the same month a year ago.

In June of this year, 100 of our soldiers were killed, compared to 61 the same month a year ago.

We don’t need to wait until September to conclude that the surge has led to greater violence – not less – and that the time has come to bring our troops home.

Political progress has been non-existent. In announcing the surge last January, President Bush told the American people that it would facilitate reconciliation. He said, “Most of Iraq's Sunni and Shia want to live together in peace -- and reducing the violence in Baghdad will help make reconciliation possible.”

In fact, it has not happened.

In December 2006, the Iraq Study Group outlined a list of commitments made by the Iraqi Government and stated that by the end of 2006 or early 2007, Iraqis would need to approve a provincial election law, set an election date, approve a petroleum law, approve a de-baathification law, and approve a militia law.

In fact, none of the dates has been met and none of the crucial Iraqi legislation so essential to reconciliation has been approved.

The Pentagon’s report in June made this point bluntly. It said, “Key legislative or reconciliation actions—such as the Hydrocarbon Law, de-Ba’athification reform and Article 140 (Kirkuk)—were not completed during this reporting period.”

The Pentagon’s June report also addressed the problem more generally. It said, “Reconciliation remains a serious unfulfilled objective.”

It said, “Mass-casualty attacks on Shi’a targets and the April 2, 2007 attack on the Council of Representatives have made the Shi’a wary of reconciliation.”

It said, “There is also significant evidence of violence against Sunni Arabs, sometimes involving government security forces, that undermines reconciliation efforts.”

It said, “Public perceptions of violence have adversely affected reconciliation.”

As long as the commitment of our troops continues to be open-ended, there is unlikely to be progress on reconciliation. It won’t be until the Iraqis know our troops will not fight their civil war indefinitely that they will they begin to make the hard political choices necessary to achieve reconciliation.

Importantly, the surge has not even been able to deliver on the President’s goal of enabling reconstruction to go forward and fulfill its promise of a better standard of living for the Iraqi people.

On the fundamental issue of providing basic services for the Iraqi people, the Pentagon reported in June “the Iraqi government has made little progress.”

Despite the billions of dollars our government has spent on reconstruction, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found that Iraq is still plagued by power outages, inadequate oil production, and shortages of clean water and health care.

Electricity levels in Baghdad are half what they were before the invasion.

At the Baghdad International Airport, almost $12 million was spent on electrical generators, but more than half the money invested has been wasted.

Problems with reconstruction are not limited to Baghdad.

Of eight reconstruction projects that the United States had declared a success 6 months to a year earlier, the Special Inspector General found that seven of them were no longer operating as designed, because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, or apparent looting.

Of the 142 primary health care clinics planned for Iraq, only 15 have been built—and of those 15, only 8 are open to the public

800 schools have been built and thousands of teachers have been trained, but less than third of Iraqi students attend class.

No one in this Administration can tell the American people in good faith and good conscience that we are making progress in Iraq. Bringing this war to an end will not destroy the Administration’s policy. The policy has already self-destructed. Nothing good will come of staying on the same perilous failed course.

Iraq is sliding deeper into civil war. Instead of solving the problem, the open-ended presence of our military is only making it worse.

Mr. President, the choice is clear. Do we continue to put our trust in those who have led us astray? Or do we end this failed policy and begin a new course in Iraq?

Finally, The cost in precious American lives for this failed mission is reason enough to end this mistaken and misguided war. But the cost here at home hit us again this week when our own Congressional Research Service raised the estimate of what we are spending in Iraq from $8 to $10 billion dollars. A month.

With the passage of this latest defense spending bill, we will have spent 450 billion dollars on the war.

We know where this money comes from. It comes from America’s families, and it means that urgent domestic priorities here at home are going unmet because they are starved of funds.

We know we must deal with the soaring cost of health care, and finding a way to cover the millions of Americans with no health insurance at all. This festering crisis is a major worry for families across America, and we owe it to our people to address it.

Six million uninsured children in America should be enrolled in the Children’s Health Insurance Program. But there’s not enough money to do that. For the cost of six weeks in Iraq, we could cover every one of these children.

For less than the cost of one month in Iraq, we could double the budget at the Center for Disease Control, to keep America’s families safe from, bioterrorism and other deadly epidemics.

For the cost of two weeks in Iraq, we could double the funding for the National Cancer Institute, which is vital to finding a cure for that deadly disease.

For the cost of one day in Iraq, we could double the ability of the Food and Drug Administration to protect Americans from unsafe foods by increasing inspections, upgrading facilities, and hiring more safety personnel.

For less than the cost of a day in Iraq, we could allow a million uninsured Americans to be served by community health centers.

In education, the price of Iraq is also very high.

Each year 400,000 high school graduates do not go to a four-year college because they can’t afford it. For cost of less than a week in Iraq, every one of these students could receive the assistance they need to go to college.

We know that early education programs like Head Start make an enormous difference to a child’s future. But Head Start now serves only half of the two million children eligible for the program. For the cost of three weeks in Iraq, we could serve every eligible child and family in the nation.

The Administration has failed to fund the No Child Left Behind Act by 56 billion dollars since its enactment in 2002. For the cost of less than 6 months in Iraq, we could make our public schools whole by providing all the funding they’ve been denied over the past five years. For the cost of only 49 days in Iraq, we could fully fund this important program for the next school year.

The war in Iraq is also denying urgently needed resources for the first responders and emergency personnel who are keeping us safe at home in all 50 states.

For the cost of one month in Iraq, we could provide 3 million portable radios to our first responders, and enable them to communicate during a natural disaster or terrorist attack. Or we could provide our heroic firefighters with almost 12 million additional units of breathing gear or 40,000 new firefighting vehicles.

The list goes on and on. Countless high priorities here at home must go under-funded or unfunded because the war in Iraq is draining vast amounts of our resources.

In the days ahead, the Senate will debate these all-important issues. For the sake of our men and women in uniform, for the sake of our values and ideals, we must adopt a new course and bring our troops home to the hero’s welcome they have so clearly earned, and get about the business of putting America back on track."

Source: Senator Ted Kennedy