David Price: “our country is facing a difficult, even desperate, situation in Iraq with an insurgency that seems to be gaining…”

“our country is facing a difficult, even desperate, situation in Iraq with an insurgency that seems to be gaining strength, a reconstruction effort that is lagging, and an international coalition that is deteriorating. President Bush seems determined to put the best face on the situation, but the American people are increasingly pessimistic and distrustful of what they hear. We are overdue for a major course correction. It is my intent today to make the case for such a correction and to outline what its major elements should be. What are our objectives in Iraq? A careful reading of the President's Fort Bragg speech of June 28 reveals a shift of emphasis, from standing up an independently functioning democracy to preventing Iraq from becoming a basing point for international terrorism. That is ironic, for most analysts, including the 9/11 Commission, agree that the Iraqi regime had no discernable link to the perpetrators of 9/11. It is our invasion and its chaotic aftermath that have attracted al Qaeda and other international terrorists to Iraq. In any event, by whatever definition of the American mission one chooses, our effort is falling short, dangerously short, of what it will take for Iraq to achieve self-rule and the capability of self- defense and for the American occupation to end. The news of recent days leaves little doubt that the insurgency, which Vice President Cheney described as in its ``last throes,'' is anything but.…”