Mike Levin: “Just about everybody now agrees there is no military solution in Iraq and that the only way to end the violence is for…”

“Just about everybody now agrees there is no military solution in Iraq and that the only way to end the violence is for the Iraqi political leaders to settle their differences. Their own Prime Minister Maliki acknowledged that in November when he said, in words that all of us should remember: The crisis is political and the ones who can stop the cycle of . . . bloodletting of innocents are the [Iraqi] politicians. Our brave service men and women are dying and being wounded while Iraqi leaders dawdle. The Iraqi leaders themselves made specific commitments to pass legislation relative to sharing power, sharing resources, amending their Constitution, holding provincial elections. They made those commitments to be achieved by specific dates. They were their commitments. We didn't impose them on them. These are their commitments that they have not kept. Because they have not kept their commitments, our troops are paying the price, caught in a crossfire of a civil war. If there is any hope of forcing the Iraqi political leaders to take responsibility for their own country, it is to have a timetable to begin reducing American forces and to redeploy our forces to a more limited support mission instead of being everybody's target in the middle of a civil war. That transition is the only way we can force the Iraqi leaders to act.”