Senator Reid: White House Report Fails To Justify President Bush's Open-Ended Commitment To Iraq Civil War

September 14, 2007 -- WASHINGTON D.C. -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid released the following statement today on the latest White House benchmark report:

"As hard as they may have tried to spin it, today's assessment by the White House on the political situation in Iraq once again shows that the President's flawed escalation policy is not working. It certainly does not justify keeping 130,000 soldiers mired in an open ended civil war as the President has chosen to do. Virtually every independent assessment on Iraq thus far has shown that the Iraqi government has failed to meet many of the political benchmarks that they have set; including the recent GAO report which stated that they have not met 15 out of 18 benchmarks. This is unacceptable.

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The White House must drop its stay-the-course policy committing American troops to an open-ended civil war. It is time to change the mission in Iraq to protect our troops and make America safer. Democrats will continue to work to do so and hope that Republicans who had previously called for a change of course in September join us."

Source: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid