Anna Eshoo: “our country has just begun the fifth year of war in Iraq. By overwhelming numbers, the American people want a new…”

“our country has just begun the fifth year of war in Iraq. By overwhelming numbers, the American people want a new direction and I believe this bill contains the policy and the plan to help bring an end to the misguided policies of the Administration. Military leaders, Generals Abizaid, Odom and Powell, as well as former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, have all come forward to observe that the Administration's war-without-end policy is not a strategy for success. Today's legislation directs itself to important change. It sets a new course for ending the war. The bill requires accountability: It puts the Iraqis in charge of Iraq. If they cannot or will not bring their country under control, if conditions continue to worsen and political and military benchmarks are not met, beginning in July 2007 (less than four months from today), our troops will begin an immediate redeployment. The bill begins a redeployment: It sets a firm timeline to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq and in legally-binding terms declares that all U.S. troops will be out of Iraq by August 31, 2008, if not sooner. It requires the Iraqis--not our soldiers--to reign in the militias, aggressively pursue the insurgents and provide ``evenhanded security for all Iraqis.'' The bill prohibits the establishment of any permanent military bases. It bans the use of torture.”