Reply from Senator Kennedy

Dear Ms. __________:

Thank you for your letter on the situation in Iraq. It’s the most pressing problems facing our nation, and I appreciate this opportunity to share my views.

I, and all Americans, support our troops. They’ve fought and continue to fight bravely, and we owe them an extraordinary debt of gratitude. Unfortunately, the President has failed to give our troops a policy worthy of their sacrifice. He failed them when he sent them into a misguided war without a plan to win the peace. He failed them when he sent them into battle without adequate equipment, and he continues to fail them by relying on a military solution to violence that requires a political solution.

When the President announced the current troop surge, he claimed it would be limited in size and duration. We have now sent nearly 30.000 troops as part of the surge, and still the President says we must wait longer for results. It’s obvious that the surge has failed. Violence continues unabated in Baghdad and has spread across the country. The political progress that was supposed to accompany the surge has yet to materialize. The promised reconciliation between religious and ethnic groups, the restructuring of the oil industry, and other basic reforms and benchmarks have yet to be achieved. As long as our troop commitment remains open-ended, and we continue to fight their civil war for them, the Iraqis will have no incentive to make the hard political choices necessary.

We have given the President every opportunity to show progress, but our soldiers face an increasingly violent and deadly insurgency. Congress and the American people have lost faith in the Administration’s competence and its ability to manage the war. It’s time to change course in Iraq. The President must listen to Congress and the American people, begin to withdraw our troops from Iraq, and develop a serious plan to move forward.

Again, thank you for sharing your views on the war. I’ll continue to do all I can in Congress to see that our forces are withdrawn and that our nation adopts a competent and attainable policy for Iraq.

Sincerely,
Edward M. Kennedy