From the Senate Majority Offices today, desk of Senator Harry Reid:
Today we renew our call to President Bush:
There is still time to listen.
There is still time to come to grips with the facts on the streets of Baghdad and throughout Iraq.
There is still time to sign this bill and change course in Iraq.
In just the four days since we passed the conference report, new facts have come to light that make our call for a new direction even more urgent:
This weekend the U.S. death toll in Iraq passed 100 for April — making it the deadliest month of the year and one of the deadliest of the entire war.
That bears repeating: despite the President’s claims of progress – this has been one of the deadliest months of this four year war.
[…]
This way forward is consistent with what our military leaders are telling us, including General Petraeus — who repeated again last week that this war can only be won politically, not militarily. Our plan:
- Immediately transitions the U.S. mission away from policing a civil war
- Begins the phased redeployment of our troops no later than October 1, 2007 with a goal of removing all combat forces by April 1, 2008
- Imposes tangible, measurable and achievable benchmarks on the Iraqi government;
- Launches the kind of diplomatic, economic and political offensive that the president’s strategy lacks;
- And rebuilds our overburdened military.
