Dennis Kucinich: “at a time when we should have an exit strategy for our troops, this amendment provides Members of Congress with an exit…”

“at a time when we should have an exit strategy for our troops, this amendment provides Members of Congress with an exit strategy for themselves, from responsibility for Iraq. This amendment states that we should withdraw our troops from Iraq only when the Iraqi forces are able to combat the insurgency and only when the government of Iraq is stable, at peace, and is not a threat to its neighbors. We all know that we are light years away from both of these requirements. This amendment will keep us in Iraq forever. Furthermore, this amendment is essentially flawed because it fails to address the correlation between the U.S. presence in Iraq and utter chaos and civil war-like state that country is in. The U.S. presence in Iraq is fueling the insurgency and has turned Iraq into a training ground for the insurgents. The insurgency is growing stronger by the day, and attack tactics are becoming more advanced. An article published in New York Times on June 22 described how Iraqi rebels are refining bomb skills and pushing the GI toll even higher. Improvised explosive devices are now sufficiently sophisticated enough to destroy armored Humvees. This means our soldiers are more vulnerable and casualty rates will go higher than ever. In May there were 700 attacks against American forces using improvised explosive devices, the highest number since the invasion in 2003.…”