Chris Dodd: “The Iraqis are going to have to take responsibility for their future. This, in my view, is a strategy for success in…”

“The Iraqis are going to have to take responsibility for their future. This, in my view, is a strategy for success in Iraq. This is a reasoned and responsible approach. It is realistic. This is not cut-and-run. The alternative is for more of the same, in my view-- endless occupation, violence, instability, and the erosion of America's global leadership and national security. I do not underestimate the challenges facing the Iraqi people. They will need to make an extraordinary effort in the coming months and years to secure their future. But we have been giving them the necessary tools to do so. Let's not forget when the President signed the Defense authorization bill into law last year, again, those words: This should be the year of transition. We have given the Iraqis the necessary tools. Now it is up to them. The sage words of Benjamin Franklin, following the success of the 1787 Constitutional Convention come to mind in thinking about Iraq at this moment in history. When Franklin was approached by a Mrs. Powell of Philadelphia on the streets of Philadelphia and said to him: What have you given us?--Ben Franklin said to that woman: Mrs. Powell, we have given you ``a republic, if you can keep it.'' The Iraqi people are asking a similar question of us: What have we given them? We have given them a republic, if they can keep it. But it is up to them to keep it. I urge the adoption of the Levin amendment. It puts us on the right road for success. Mr.…”