Friday, December 08, 2006

Iraq Study Group Statement

The following is Senator Evan Bayh's statement on the ISG panel's recommendation.
Today’s report offers the kind of changes we need to improve the current situation in Iraq, but the final answer rests with President Bush and whether or not he will take the advice he’s been offered.

The administration’s continued insistence to stay the course has produced few results in the past three years and is weakening our overall national security. We need to try a different approach, one that puts pressure on the Iraqi people to make the tough decisions that only they can make if they are to succeed.

The Baker-Hamilton commission accomplishes this through a number of steps, including its recommendations for troop withdrawals, which sends a concrete signal to the Iraqis that we will not remain there indefinitely.

This report represents a bipartisan consensus that we need to change directions regarding Iraq. The president is changing his secretary of defense, but this report now raises the most important question: Is the President willing to change his mind?
Someone commented yesterday about posting a thread on Davis and Bunning's answers to the C-J questions especially their comments on Syria and Iran. I have my own feelings on the subject and I will have more after I read the complete recommendation--the PDF is on my computer waiting to be read. I do believe that we need to exit Iraq sooner rather than later.

My personal opinion as to Iran and Syria have been known for sometime and I guess I'll go ahead and say it now: How can you negotiate with countries that support terrorism or deny actual history of events? One can not have normal talks with Iran's leader until he apologizes for his comments on the Shoah and no longer thinks it's a myth. Syria is a supporter of Hezbollah, a known terrorist group. I just do not know how one can, in all honesty, engage those two countries in normal relations until they renounce their views. Maybe that's the "hard on defense and security" Democrat in me, I don't know. I've said my pece and I am going to bed.

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