Senate Floor Statement of Senator Carl Levin on the Emergency Supplemental Conference Report

Mr. President, the emergency supplemental appropriations bill before us today includes $95.5 billion for the Department of Defense, primarily to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is approximately $4 billion more than the President requested for DoD, including $2.2 billion above the President’s request for health care for our servicemen and women and their families.

When our military forces are in harms way, it is our solemn duty to provide the equipment they need and the health care they deserve and we are meeting that duty with this bill.

We also owe it to our troops to give them the best chance to succeed. In the case of Iraq, a majority of the Members of Congress - and a majority of Americans - believe that a change in course in Iraq will provide the best chance of success. That is at the heart of the debate here in Washington.

There is at least a broad - if not universal - consensus that the war in Iraq will not be won militarily and that a political settlement by the Iraqi leaders is required to end the sectarian violence and to defeat the insurgency. General Petraeus made that point in a press conference in Baghdad on March 8 when he said “... any student of history recognizes that there is no military solution to a problem like Iraq.” Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki himself noted five month ago “The crisis is political, and the ones who can stop the cycle of aggravation and bloodletting of innocents are the politicians.”

The debate then is how best to bring about the political settlement that must take place. There are some who say that security - particularly in Baghdad - is key and that if Baghdad can be made secure, the Iraqi politicians will have breathing room to reach the agreements and pass the legislation that will lead to reconciliation.

Others, including this senator, believe that the Iraqis must be pressured to take responsibility for their own future and that the best way to do that is to convince them that our military presence is not open-ended. The emergency supplemental bill before us is designed to do just that.

It forces the Iraqi leaders to take responsibility for their own country by ending the open-ended commitment to provide a U.S. security blanket. Instead it would require the beginning of a partial reduction of U.S. troops, leaving time for the Iraqis to make the political compromises they promised to make months ago.

The bill calls for a change in mission for our forces in Iraq from policing a civil war to a limited support mission so that finally the Iraqis can realize that our military presence in Iraq is not open-ended and that the future of their country is in their hands not ours.

Mr. President, the present course in Iraq is failing. The Iraqis are no closer to political reconciliation today than they were at the time the surge started. Instead of Prime Minister Maliki’s government becoming stronger, it appears that it is weaker. Disagreements within the government have prevented proposals for de-Baathification and oil revenue sharing legislation from even being forwarded to the Council of Representatives for consideration. The committee considering amendments to the Iraqi Constitution appears to be as far from completing its work as it has always been. Meanwhile, the Assembly is apparently planning to go on a two month recess at the end of June. Let me repeat that since it is so unbelievable - the Iraqi Council of Representatives is apparently planning to go on a two month recess at the end of June. And incredibly, Hasan Suneid, a lawmaker and adviser to Prime Minister Maliki, was quoted in the paper the other day as saying that “time is irrelevant.” Well time is plenty relevant to us, our troops and their families.

Baghdad is burning while the Iraqi politicians avoid responsibility for their country’s future. Even the detonation of a suicide bomb within the Green zone, killing Iraqi parliamentarians, has failed to change the political situation. It appears that the Iraqi factions are content to seek vengeance rather than reconciliation.

Senior Administration officials, including Secretary Gates, Secretary Rice and Ambassador Khalilzad have, in fact, wisely used this debate in Congress in an attempt to pressure the Iraqis to achieve political reconciliation. Secretary Gates told the press while visiting Jordan last week that “The debate in Congress ... has been helpful in demonstrating to the Iraqis that American patience is limited. The strong feelings expressed in the Congress about the timetable probably has had a positive impact ... in terms of communicating to the Iraqis that this is not an open ended commitment.” Secretary Gates’ told a press conference last Thursday that “I think one of the ancillary benefits of the debate on the Hill is that the Iraqis have to know, as I’ve said, this isn’t an open-ended commitment. The President has said that, you know, our patience is not unlimited. I don’t think we’ve been very stubborn in communicating these messages to the Iraqis.”

We need to change course in Iraq. We need to “stubbornly communicate” our message to the Iraqis. Voting for this bill will help send that message.