Political Quotes

“last February, the Iraqi Government set October 1, 2008, as the date for provincial elections to occur. These elections are critical to U.S. and Iraqi efforts to bring about reconciliation in their country. For instance, those elections will give members of the Sunni community, many of whom did participate in the previous rounds of provincial elections, a chance to vote for fair representation in Iraqi's provincial councils. Unfortunately, the provincial elections law, which is the enabling legislation needed for these elections to take place, remains stalled in the Iraqi Council of Representatives and will likely delay provincial elections by at least several months. The administration's silence on the Iraqi Government's failure to adopt election laws that were promised in February--and which set a date of October 1 for those elections--is disturbing, and it is the exact wrong way to send a message to the Iraqi leaders. Many of us have tried repeatedly to get this administration to shift responsibility to the Iraqi leaders for their own future, since there is a broad consensus that there is no military solution and only a political settlement among the Iraqis can end the conflict. The administration, however, has repeatedly missed opportunities to shift this burden to the Iraqis and appears willing to miss another opportunity.”