Democrats on Iraq Reporting
September 10th, 2007 by Jesse LeeAt 12:30, General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will testify to a joint House hearing about the coming White House report on Iraq. Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Lloyd Doggett discussed the White House’s reporting this morning on the House floor:
Rep. Schakowsky: “On August 6, I was in Iraq and what I learned from that visit that day was that, in fact, that the President’s surge has failed and that there is no end in sight for the war in Iraq… But what’s really important today is that people examine the so-called evidence that progress has been made. That’s why I brought a few charts here. The first one says, is there really less violence in Iraq? Let’s look at what is counted, but even more importantly what isn’t counted. In the evidence that progress has been made, not counted includes Shiite on Shiite violence, which is happening in the South in the Basra area, Sunni on Sunni violence, car bombings aren’t counted, and get this one - this isn’t a joke - people shot in the front of the head are not counted. People shot in the back of the head are counted. I thought at first that that was just an exaggerated joke. It’s true. And finally, the large-scale bombing like the one that killed 500 ethnic Yezidis in August is not counted.” |
Rep. Doggett: “When the surge was announced, the White House said, ‘wait til the summer.’ And as the summer approached, the White House said, ‘wait til September.’ Well, now that this much overrated September is here, they cry, ‘wait til next year.’ The only real mystery about President Bush’s September decision has been what new excuse he would offer to justify staying the same old deadly course. And as the American people have seen through the duplicity of each and other excuse, the President has returned to his original ploy: 9/11. Coincidentally, just as we receive this report on the anniversary of 9/11. He claims that, quote, ‘the same folks that are bombing in Iraq are the ones who attacked us in America on September the 11th.’ That is false and he knows it’s false.” |
Below is a copy of the chart used by Rep. Doggett: