Senator Menendez: Double Dose Of Alarming Reports Reinforces Need To Transition Out Of Iraq

Administration shows it's falling short of benchmarks while intelligence estimate highlights a strengthened al Qaeda along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border

July 12, 2007 -- WASHINGTON – The administration issued an update on Iraq today that did not report that any benchmarks have actually been met. Instead, the report says only that satisfactory progress – a vague distinction – has been made on only eight out of 18 benchmarks in Iraq, while the rest have not seen even satisfactory progress. Meanwhile, it is reported that a summary of the National Intelligence Estimate describes al Qaeda at its strongest level since 9/11 operating in a safe zone along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who opposed the Iraq War from the beginning, released the following statement:

“The White House’s report is deeply misleading – ‘satisfactory progress’ on less than half of the benchmarks shouldn’t be mistaken for those benchmarks actually being met. It becomes clearer by the day that the most important benchmark we should focus on is getting our troops out of Iraq. The military progress we are making is uncertain at best and is more than offset by numerous political failures. ‘Stay the course’ is not only impeding progress, but is actually losing ground on the fight against terrorism.

“The failures in Iraq coupled with the reinvigoration of al Qaeda underscore the Bush administration’s decision to take its focus off of Afghanistan, its disastrous war policy, and the consequences of its ‘stay the course’ mentality. They took their eye off the ball and started a fiasco in Iraq, and now we are paying the price in the form of less security and a beefed up terrorist network. Maybe Secretary Chertoff’s infamous ‘gut feeling’ about an increased terror threat was caused by knowing that Osama bin Laden and his terrorist allies are still out there planning and plotting, thousands of miles away from Iraq.”

Source: Senator Robert Menendez

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