Acting President Pro Tempore: Senator from Georgia.
Saxby Chambliss: Mr. President, we all know and understand that Americans are deeply concerned about the war in Iraq.
Saxby Chambliss: We all represent the finest and bravest men and women across this great country who put themselves in harm's way to protect our very way of life.
Saxby Chambliss: We all want our brave men and women who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan to come home as soon as possible.
Saxby Chambliss: Members of Georgia's military community have given mightily to our efforts in the Middle East.
Saxby Chambliss: In fact, members of the 3rd Infantry Division, headquartered at Fort Stewart, Ga., are heading to Iraq for the third time as we speak,
Saxby Chambliss: and I wish to underscore how much we appreciate them and their families.
Saxby Chambliss: These resolutions which the Democrats continue to put forth undermine these men and women.
Saxby Chambliss: Any attempt to set a timeline for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, as the latest resolution does,
Saxby Chambliss: will embolden the enemy and tell them exactly how long they need to wait until they are free to take over and wreak havoc in Iraq.
Saxby Chambliss: I understand the desire to have the Iraqis take responsibility for their own country and step up to the plate in terms of taking the political, economic,
Saxby Chambliss: and military actions necessary to secure Iraq, and I strongly support that goal.
Saxby Chambliss: However, this resolution is the wrong way to accomplish it.
Saxby Chambliss: These resolutions -- and I believe there have been about 17 put forth over the course of the last couple
Saxby Chambliss: of months -- simply send the wrong message to our troops, and they send the wrong message to the enemy.
Saxby Chambliss: Winston Churchill once said: "Nothing is more dangerous in wartime than to live in the temperamental atmosphere of a Gallup poll, always feeling one's pulse and taking one's temperature."
Saxby Chambliss: I think that sums up what is going on here today.
Saxby Chambliss: These resolutions only serve to micromanage the war by a political body which simply is unable to do it effectively.
Saxby Chambliss: We have a commander in chief who is entrusted with managing and leading our military during wartime, and the Commander in Chief's new plan for Iraq deserves a chance to succeed.
Saxby Chambliss: These resolutions are designed to ensure that the president's plan fails, not that it succeeds.
Saxby Chambliss: Also, these resolutions are completely contradictory to the Senate's support for Gen. David Petraeus, our new commander of the multinational forces in Iraq.
Saxby Chambliss: No senator opposed Gen. Petraeus's nomination.
Saxby Chambliss: I have not heard anyone criticize him, and rightly so.
Saxby Chambliss: We need to give Gen. Petraeus and his counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq a chance to succeed.
Saxby Chambliss: The people of Georgia, myself included, want Gen. Petraeus to succeed.
Saxby Chambliss: We understand the consequences of failure, and there is no question the latest resolution we are considering in this body will not help him succeed.
Saxby Chambliss: This resolution advocates transitioning U.S. forces in Iraq to protecting U.S. coalition personnel, training and equipping Iraqi forces, and conducting coun ter ter ror ism operations,
Saxby Chambliss: and calls for a diplomatic, political, and economic strategy to stabilize Iraq.
Saxby Chambliss: Many people say the situation in Iraq requires a political and not a military solution.
Saxby Chambliss: I strongly agree with that position; however, it is not possible to have a political solution or to make political progress if citizens live in an unstable and unsafe society.
Saxby Chambliss: Some level of order and stability must be in place before a political solution can take hold.
Saxby Chambliss: In America, we take order and stability for granted because we live in a country that is extremely safe, secure, and stable.
Saxby Chambliss: However, Iraq is not the United States.
Saxby Chambliss: Iraqis do not live in a secure and stable society, and order and stability must be in place before there can be any hope for a long-term political solution.
Saxby Chambliss: The additional troops we are sending are meant to create that order and stability, particularly in Baghdad.
Saxby Chambliss: We need to give this effort a chance to succeed, and we need to create stability and order before we can be hopeful about a long-term political solution.
Saxby Chambliss: The Reid resolution opposes the president's plan without offering any concrete alternative.
Saxby Chambliss: It opposes the mission which the Senate has unanimously confirmed Gen. Petraeus to carry out,
Saxby Chambliss: and it will not serve to help our troops and our commander in Iraq succeed in the mission we have sent them on to accomplish.
Saxby Chambliss: For these reasons, I urge my colleagues to oppose the resolution.
Saxby Chambliss: Mr. President, I yield the floor.
Acting President Pro Tempore: The senator from Texas is recognized.
John Cornyn: Mr. President, I wish to point out some of the bitter ironies of this debate.
John Cornyn: Since roughly January, when the new majority took charge of this Congress, there have been numerous proposals with regard to how we should conduct ourselves in Iraq.
John Cornyn: I have tried to keep track of the various resolutions that have been proposed and, as my colleagues can see, there have been, according to my count, at least 17 resolutions.
John Cornyn: They start with the Biden and Levin resolutions, the Reid-Pelosi resolution, the Murtha resolution, the Biden-Levin resolution, the Conrad funding cut resolution, a waiver plan, a timeline plan,
John Cornyn: the Feingold resolution, the Obama resolution, the Clinton resolution, the Dodd resolution, the Kennedy resolution, the Feinstein resolution, the Byrd resolution,
John Cornyn: the Kerry resolution, and then the latest, the Reid resolution we are on today.
John Cornyn: Under this current iteration before the Senate, it says: "The president shall commence the phased redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment
John Cornyn: of this joint resolution, with the goal of redeploying by March 31, 2008, all U.S. combat forces from Iraq, except for a limited number that are essential for the following purposes:
John Cornyn: protecting U.S. and coalition personnel and infrastructures, training and equipping Iraqi forces, and conducting targeted coun ter ter ror ism operations.
John Cornyn: The reason I find this list of resolutions -- and now with the culmination on March 15 -- somewhat ironic is we are beginning to see some of the signs of success of the new plan,
John Cornyn: the Baghdad security plan proposed by Prime Minister Maliki, with the support of the United States.
John Cornyn: For example, in the Associated Press yesterday, Robert Reid wrote that bomb deaths have gone down 30 percent in Baghdad since the security crackdown
John Cornyn: that began a month ago and that execution-style slayings have been cut nearly in half.
John Cornyn: I ask unanimous consent that the entire article be printed in the Record following my remarks.
Acting President: Without objection, it is so ordered.
John Cornyn: I want to add a few key quotes to highlight what this article says.
John Cornyn: "...there are encouraging signs.
John Cornyn: Gone are the 'illegal checkpoints,' where Shiite and Sunni gunmen stopped cars and hauled away members of the rival sect -- often to a gruesome torture and death."
John Cornyn: He goes on to say: "The rattle of the automatic weapons fire or the rumble of distant roadside bombs comes less frequently.
John Cornyn: Traffic is beginning to return to the city's once vacant streets."
John Cornyn: Consider this: In the months before the security operation began, February 14, police were finding dozens of bodies each day in the capital -- victims of Sunni and Shiite death squads.
John Cornyn: Last December, more than 200 bodies were found each week -- with the figure spiking above 300 in some weeks, according to police reports compiled by the Associated Press.
John Cornyn: Since the crackdown began, weekly totals have dropped to about 80 -- hardly an acceptable figure
John Cornyn: but clearly a sign that death squads are no longer as active as they were in the final months of last year.
John Cornyn: Mr. President, I think it is important to recognize that it has only been since February 14 that this new security plan has been operating and that Iraqi brigades and American surge forces are coming
John Cornyn: over the period of months and will not finally be deployed there for some time yet.
John Cornyn: Yet we are seeing some preliminary indications -- nobody is claiming success or victory, but there are some preliminary indications that the plan is actually working.
John Cornyn: The article quotes Major General William Caldwell, and I share in the sentiments he expresses when he says: "I would caution everybody about patience, about diligence.
John Cornyn: This is going to take many months, not weeks, but the indicators are all very positive right now."
John Cornyn: We should also be cautious and patient and diligent, but we should also recognize that progress is being made with this new plan proposed by General Petraeus,
John Cornyn: embraced by the president and his new secretary of defense, Robert Gates, and we should give it the chance to work.
John Cornyn: That is precisely the reason I think this resolution is so misguided.
John Cornyn: The idea that we have simply lost and we have to give up, with no constructive alternative plan being suggested to deal with what will occur.
John Cornyn: In all probability there will be massive ethnic cleansing and a vast humanitarian crisis when the various sects continue to escalate their conflict against one another,
John Cornyn: which likely will draw in other, for example, Sunni majority nations such as Saudi Arabia to try to protect the Sunni minority in Iraq, as Iran,
John Cornyn: a Shiite majority nation, seeks to take advantage of the chaos there.
John Cornyn: Without the stabilizing influence of the U.S. and our Iraqi allies and this new Iraq security plan, it is probable that this troubled area of the world will descend into a vast regional conflagration.
John Cornyn: What I don't understand about this resolution is that there is virtually not even a nod of the head or a tip of the hat to the fact that, as Senator Levin pointed out,
John Cornyn: there are about 5,000 to 6,000 al-Qaida foreign fighters in al-Anbar Province.
John Cornyn: This so-called phased redeployment, which is just Washington-speak for getting out of town as fast as you can, leaves a void, a power vacuum in this area where al-Qaida can basically run wild
John Cornyn: and continue as they did in Afghanistan before 9/11 -- to plan, recruit, train, and finance terrorist attacks and launch them against the United States.
John Cornyn: I am sure I wasn't the only one who was chilled at the testimony released today in the newspapers of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who confessed to beheading Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter,
John Cornyn: in Iraq and some 30 other terrorist attacks, including the attacks of 9/11.
John Cornyn: But how anybody in good conscience can advocate simply quitting in Iraq with the threat of 5,000 to 6,000 al-Qaida foreign fighters there, with the risk of a regional conflict,
John Cornyn: along with the tremendous body blow that would cause to the American economy, I don't know.
John Cornyn: I just don't understand it.
John Cornyn: I was also surprised to see in today's New York Times some comments by Senator Clinton, who, of course, is running for the Democratic nomination for president.
John Cornyn: Notwithstanding this resolution and her stated support for the resolution, she is quoted as saying she foresees a "remaining military as well as political mission" in Iraq.
John Cornyn: If elected president, she would keep a reduced military force there to fight al-Qaida -- I am glad to hear that -- to deter Iranian aggression, protect the Kurds, and possibly support the Iraqi military.
John Cornyn: It is a little troubling.
John Cornyn: While she says that would be her goal, it appears to be inconsistent with this resolution that she also says she will vote for.
John Cornyn: This is another quote in the article of March 15 in the New York Times.
John Cornyn: She said: "So it will be up to me to try to figure out how to protect those national security interests and continue to take our troops out of this urban warfare, which I think is a loser."
John Cornyn: Asked if her plan was consistent with the resolution, Mrs. Clinton and her advisers said it was, noting that the resolution also called for "a limited number" of troops to stay in Iraq
John Cornyn: to protect the American Embassy and other personnel, train and equip Iraqi forces, and conduct "targeted counterterrorism operations."
John Cornyn: I don't know how that is consistent with this resolution.
John Cornyn: I don't know how it is consistent with her other statement that she made on the campaign trail when she said: "If we in Congress don't end this war by January 2009, as president, I will."
John Cornyn: It is speculated in this article that what she is proposing is a mirror image of a plan advocated by Dov S. Zakheim, a Pentagon comptroller under Donald Rumsfeld.
John Cornyn: He estimated that no more than 75,000 troops would be required for the kind of plan she describes, as opposed to the 160,000 troops the United States will have in Iraq once the surge is complete.
John Cornyn: But I wonder whether it is wise to embrace a plan proposed by the Pentagon's comptroller -- in other words, the Pentagon's numbers cruncher, the budget man,
John Cornyn: as opposed to the plan proposed by Gen. David Petraeus, who is an acknowledged expert in counterinsurgency matters,
John Cornyn: the very kind of plan that is being executed now with the Baghdad security planning -- clearing, holding, and building.
John Cornyn: I cannot understand how you would embrace a plan essentially proposed by the Pentagon's bookkeeper as opposed to the Pentagon's best generals.
John Cornyn: I see the distinguished whip on the Senate floor.
John Cornyn: I will yield the rest of our time to him.
John Cornyn: I cannot understand why our friends on the majority side cannot make up their minds.
John Cornyn: We have 17 resolutions and counting.
John Cornyn: It seems as if each day brings a different plan but none to address the most urgent needs for our national security in the Middle East.
John Cornyn: Mr. President, I yield the floor.