It is time to change direction, ensure that 2006 is a year of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty, and implement a new strategy that:

• Encourages Iraqi leaders to take control of their own country and make the tough political choices that will stop the civil war and stabilize the country;
• Recognizes that U.S. troops have served honorably and done their duty by getting rid of Saddam Hussein and helping Iraqis start rebuilding their country;
• Revitalizes the U.S. military, allowing forces stretched thin by extended deployments in Iraq to restore their strength and replace equipment worn down by three years of fighting;
• Speaks honestly with the American public about the true costs of the war and the challenges we face in Iraq;
• Begins a responsible redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq before the end of 2006 in order to transfer power and responsibility to Iraqis; and
• Makes a transition to a more limited mission of counterterrorism, training, and logistical support of Iraqi security forces, and force protection for U.S. troops.

This administration continues to present the American people with the false choice of "cut and run" or "stay the course." After nearly three years of war, the right policy is to change the course. Congress must hold the President accountable instead of rubber stamping his policies.

• President Bush's "stay the course" policy has cost American taxpayers $300 billion to date but has not made Americans more secure.
• Staying the course fosters a culture of dependency among the Iraqis, who need to take responsibility for their own affairs.
• Staying the course plays into the hands of our enemies, giving global terrorist groups a recruitment tool and rallying cry that further weakens America's security.
• Staying the course means ceding American national security policy, military deployments, and force posture to the whims of Iraqi politicians.
• Changing the course means taking back control and transferring the military mission at a time of our choosing, not waiting for Iraqis to step up to the task.

Over three years after President Bush declared, "Mission Accomplished," and a year and a half since Vice President Cheney pronounced the insurgency in its "last throes" the casualty count in Iraq continues to rise, with more than 2,500 Americans killed and about 20,000 wounded. Approximately 130,000 U.S. troops continue to face an increasingly capable, bloody, and fractious insurgency and a growing civil war. Troops are performing honorably, but this administration's failure to recognize grim realities on the ground in Iraq is putting the mission at enormous risk. Rather than engaging in a candid discussion about the war, the Bush administration has presented the American people with a false choice of either "stay the course" or "cut and run." The right policy is to change the course and implement a new and viable strategy.

Iraqi leaders must take control of their country and make the difficult political choices that will stop the civil war and stabilize the country. President Bush's slogan of "when they stand up, we'll stand down" does not provide Iraqis with real incentives to take responsibility for the future. As long as American forces are in Iraq indefinitely, other regional players will not play a constructive role, instead leaving American troops to bear the brunt of the insurgency and a burgeoning civil war. American disengagement will force all stakeholders to take responsibility for putting Iraq on the road to long-term stability. The United States should work with the international community, including Iraq's neighbors, to help Iraqis reconcile sectarian differences through more robust diplomacy.

Responsible redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq must begin before the end of 2006. The United States must not withdraw all forces immediately, but as General George Casey, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, recently explained: "Less is better because it doesn't feed the notion of occupation." A strategy of redeployment will relieve the pressure of repeated deployments on our overburdened Reserves and National Guard, restore readiness, and provide the military with the flexibility to fight the threat of global terror in other critical theaters such as Afghanistan.

A transition to a more limited mission focused on counterterrorism, training and logistical support of Iraqi security forces, and force protection for U.S. troops is required. The United States has trained more than a quarter of a million Iraqi security forces over the past three years, and these numbers continue to rise. To protect this investment and give Iraqis a chance for success, the United States should shift is military mission in Iraq to one that is more focused on counterterrorism and training and logistical support of Iraqi security forces. Shifting to this posture will help enhance force protection for U.S. troops.

Revitalize the U.S. military by allowing U.S. ground forces stretched thin by extended deployments in Iraq to restore their strength and replace equipment worn down by the last three years of war. Despite repeated vows to protect the military, the Bush administration has left the world's greatest fighting force significantly overextended. A recent Pentagon-commissioned report concluded that the Army cannot maintain its current pace of operations in Iraq without doing permanent damage to the military. Readiness levels for the Army are at their lowest levels since Vietnam.

Speak honestly with the American public about the true costs of the war and the challenges we are facing in Iraq. The President has a credibility gap as he refuses to level with the American people about the true political and military situation in Iraq. Rosy, inaccurate, and misleading assessments like "stay the course" and "we have a clear plan for victory" are rhetorical platitudes, not plans for success. Sixty percent of the country disapproves of the President's handling of the situation in Iraq. Even the President's recent efforts to sound more "realistic" remain disconnected from the sectarian civil war occurring in Iraq today. The time is long overdue to move beyond slogans and provide the American people with a realistic outline of the costs of war and a true path to stability that includes political settlements between Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds while ensuring that Iraq is on a sustainable path to maintaining its own political, economic and security needs.

The President and his advisors must be held accountable for their mistakes in Iraq and be forced to conduct the war in a transparent manner. Under law, the President is required to submit regular unclassified reports to Congress that not only outline specific political, military, and economic benchmarks, but also hold the Administration accountable for its decisions. Thus far, the Bush administration has failed to provide fair and accurate assessments of the status of operations in Iraq and has failed to accurately outline the projected costs of future operations. The Congressional leadership has not and Congress should demanded legal compliance from the President.

Iraq cannot continue to be a haven for global terrorists that harm the United States and its allies. Contrary to administration assertions, pre-war Iraq was never a source of anti-American terrorism. Today, however, it has become a training ground for al Qaeda recruits and a meeting place for those intent on attacking and killing Americans both in Iraq and elsewhere. The President needs to implement a plan to seal Iraq's borders and keep foreign fighters out. In addition, the administration needs to push Iraqis forward in the political process to maintain and solidify the coalition of Shia, Sunni, and Kurds, in order to isolate foreign jihadists intent on using Iraq as a base for future terror attacks. Moreover, a drawdown must include a residual regional presence as an over-the-horizon force to prevent terrorist safe havens from being established in Iraq. Finally, the U.S. should declare that it does not need, and will not maintain, permanent military bases in Iraq, thereby removing another Al Qaeda recruiting tool.

THE BUSH RECORD

This administration has a long list of failures in Iraq, compounded by a lack of oversight by the Congressional leadership:

• Invading Iraq with an insufficient number of troops to establish law and order;
• Failing to garner significant allied support;
• Failing to devise a political strategy for unifying post-war Iraq;
• Lacking an exit strategy for American troops;
• Failing to secure large caches of confiscated weaponry;
• Disbanding the Iraqi military;
• Poor planning for and training of indigenous Iraqi security forces;
• Allowing widespread corruption among contractors;
• Ignoring and then improperly responding to a growing insurgency;
• Failing to disband sectarian and ethnic militias;
• Inadequately explaining to the American people the political, military and financial costs required to ensure success in Iraq;
• Failing to produce significant quality of life improvements for the Iraqi people despite spending billions in American taxpayer dollars;

Post-war planning was completely inadequate. The State Department's sobering 200-page analysis of Iraq's fractious ethnic make-up and potential for instability was ignored by the Bush administration. The administration disregarded the recommendations of General Eric Shinseki, Army Chief of Staff, who argued that it would take several hundred thousand troops to secure Iraq. Shinseki was unceremoniously sidelined, and the President fired his Chief Economic Advisor, Lawrence B. Lindsey, who estimated the cost of war in Iraq would rise to $200 billion- a number that now appears to have dramatically underestimated the true costs of war. In short, the administration did precious little to prepare for post-war contingencies in Iraq and left the American military with the dangerous job of keeping the peace in a nation that was increasingly breaking apart along sectarian and ethnic lines. The administration exacerbated a dangerous situation by disbanding the Iraqi army, failing to secure massive weapons caches, and misreading the dangerous insurgency at an early stage in the conflict.

The costs of the war continue to rise. More than 2,500 American troops have lost their lives and about 20,000 have been wounded. Despite promises from the Bush administration that the reconstruction would be paid for with Iraqi oil, Congress has already allocated $320 billion to the war effort and the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the number could rise to $600 billion by 2010.

Little progress has been made in quelling the bloody Iraqi insurgency and dealing with the growing problem of militias: The total number of insurgents in Iraq is estimated at 15,000 to 20,000, with no signs of it reducing in strength or support. At least 125,000 members of militias in Iraq operate independently from Iraqi security force commanders, increasing the danger of all-out civil war. The United Nations reported that more than 14,000 Iraqis had been killed in the first six months of 2006, with nearly 40 percent of them killed in May and June. It is estimated that more than 3,000 Iraqis were killed in July.
The billions invested in reconstruction efforts have proven to be inadequate. The World Bank and the Coalition Provisional Authority estimated that Iraq needs $55 billion in reconstruction funds. U.S. grant assistance for Iraq's reconstruction for the past three years was approximately $30 billion. This is roughly the same amount of money, adjusted for inflation, the United States spent in Germany in the six years after World War II. It is double what the United States spent in Japan from 1946 to 1952. The investment of U.S. taxpayer money in Iraq is not justified by the results. Recent reports by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found that the United States will not complete basic water and electricity projects without additional funding which the administration has stated that it will not provide.
The administration created a terrorist haven where one did not exist previously. Contrary to the administration's assertions before the war, Iraq never had an operational relationship with al Qaeda or Osama bin Laden. As a result of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the administration's inability to patrol Iraq's increasingly porous border, there are roughly 2,000 foreign fighters in Iraq today- many of whom pledge allegiance to al Qaeda. As a CIA report recently explained "The al Qaeda membership that was distinguished by having trained in Afghanistan will gradually dissipate, to be replaced in part by the dispersion of the experienced survivors of the conflict in Iraq." This has already begun to occur, with fighters who began in Iraq claiming responsibility for deadly attacks in Jordan and other Middle Eastern nations.

Poor planning has placed a terrible burden on our troops. Many U.S. troops currently in Iraq are now in their second or third tours of duty. Approximately 95 percent of the Army National Guard's combat battalions and special operations units have been mobilized since 9/11. Short of full mobilization or a new Presidential declaration of national emergency, little combat capacity remains in the Army National Guard. A recent Pentagon-commissioned report concluded that the Army cannot maintain its current pace of operations in Iraq without doing permanent damage to the military. Readiness levels for the Army are at lows not seen since Vietnam. Every active Army brigade currently not deployed is unprepared to perform its wartime mission. This failure to prioritize correctly has left vital missions unattended. Natural disaster response, U.S. border security, and international efforts against terrorist groups are all suffering due to the strain on military forces caused by poor strategy and failed leadership in Iraq.