Ben Cardin: “nearly a year ago, when President Bush announced his decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Iraq, he predicted…”

“nearly a year ago, when President Bush announced his decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Iraq, he predicted that increased U.S. troop levels would stabilize the country so that its national leaders could reach political agreement. More troops would enable us to accelerate training initiatives so that the Iraqi army and police force could assume control of all security in the country by November 2007. According to this plan, the Iraqi army and police force were to assume control of Iraq's security last month. Well, the information before us in December, like the reports before us in September and July, show us that President Bush's troop escalation hasn't delivered on the President's promises. It has failed to stem the civil war going on in Iraq, failed to allow Iraqi forces to take control over their own security, and failed to lead to political reconciliation. That failure was clear when I last came to the floor to discuss this issue in September, and it is clear today. With troop levels still 24,000 above where they were a year ago, and with no plans to lower them below pre-surge levels, not even President Bush's claims that substantial progress toward the ultimate goal of the escalation--political reconciliation--has occurred.”