WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Representative George Miller (D-CA) issued the following statement today expressing his serious concern about the continued failure of U.S. policy in Iraq and the need to begin the phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

“Recent news reports continue to offer deeply sobering evidence of the failed U.S. policy in Iraq, a failure that has led to a civil war in that country. These reports cry out for a new policy that begins with a specific plan for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in a manner that ensures their safety.

“A new study by the highly respected military strategist Anthony Cordesman reveals that the U.S. military has no clear sense of how many Iraqi police and Iraqi army are in fact trained and ready to fight. Military officials have been telling Congress, the White House and Pentagon leaders that there are over 300,000 trained police and army ready to go. The truth, according to Cordesman, is that the training effort is a total failure. Now Congress is going to be asked to give this effort another two or three or five years in the hope that one day it will finally work, and that a continued U.S. presence will be needed to get it right.

“Another recent news report found that the insurgency has plenty of money to sustain its attacks against Americans and other Iraqis and that the money will continue to flow to the insurgency because the United States does not know enough about the insurgency itself and because corruption in Iraq is rampant and cannot be controlled.

“News reports also indicate that the Baker commission intends to conclude in its still secret report to President Bush that the United States should begin to talk with Syria and Iran about the future of Iraq. These talks should have occurred three years ago, when they would have had a better chance of shortening America’s lone involvement in Iraq. Talking to Iran and Syria is still important; in fact, it is necessary. But talks with Iran and Syria must not be allowed to become an excuse for a protracted U.S. presence in Iraq.

“There is no sound basis on which the President can ask American soldiers and their families to stick it out in Iraq for another few years in the desperate and vain hope that the training effort will finally succeed. This is nothing more than a continuation of the current failed policy. If talks with Iran and Syria begin without a plan for a phased withdrawal from Iraq, the talks will never reach a conclusion. The parties will spend their time arguing over the shape of the tables rather than the end of the war and America’s uniformed personnel will continue to die.

“A hard phased withdrawal is absolutely integral to the success of the Iraqi government beginning to take responsibility for its country and for Iraq’s neighbors beginning to take responsibility for stability in the region. America should begin to engage Iran and Syria but should only do so after we have laid out the plan for the phased withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

“There is only one group left that wants and benefits from a continued U.S. presence in Iraq – and that is Al Qaeda in Iraq, which benefits from the mobilization of its insurgents that is fueled by the U.S. presence.

“I am not alone in recognizing that a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops is necessary. I joined Congressman Murtha in calling for a phased withdrawal over a year ago. That year has passed and we still have no timetable for withdrawal. I am encouraged that Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, a Vietnam veteran and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote yesterday in a Washington Post opinion piece that, ‘The United States must begin planning for a phased troop withdrawal from Iraq.’ He concluded that such a plan was imperative. ‘If the president fails to build a bipartisan foundation for an exit strategy, America will pay a high price for this blunder -- one that we will have difficulty recovering from in the years ahead.’ I could not agree more.

“Congress must demand the truth from our military leaders on the ground in Iraq. And those leaders must be allowed to tell the truth, whether to Congress, to the Secretary of Defense or the President himself. But most importantly, America’s honorable soldiers and their families, and the security of our country, must not be jeopardized based on the false and unachievable hopes that if we stay just a little bit longer everything will work itself out in Iraq. The evidence is clear that that is not the case. The question is whether Congress and the President will accept the evidence and act in accordance with it.”

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