Jack Reed: “we are engaged in a debate that will be critical to the future of this country. We have now for many years been engaged…”

“we are engaged in a debate that will be critical to the future of this country. We have now for many years been engaged in Iraq. We have seen substantial casualties of our military men and women, not only those who have given the ultimate sacrifice but those who have been seriously wounded. We have seen our position in the world, particularly in that region, seriously eroded. We have a situation where, unwittingly perhaps but actually, Iran has become a more powerful agent in that area of the world because of the policy of this administration. I think we have the opportunity at this juncture to change this flawed strategy; also, to improve the operational skill of this administration because not only was the strategy flawed, but the implementation was absolutely horrid. The Iraq Study Group made many useful suggestions, and key to those suggestions was to begin a phased redeployment of our forces. This was similar to language Senator Levin and I proposed last June, which talked about a phased redeployment of our combat forces, leaving residual missions for other forces, and also talked about an ambitious diplomatic effort to try to adjust politically the various forces and the various tensions in the country of Iraq and in the region. It was interesting to note that many months after the Levin-Reed proposal, the administration finally participated in a regional conference last week involving both Iran and Syria and the other neighboring countries.”