WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Representative George Miller (D-CA) issued the following comment today on the long-awaited report presented by the Iraq Study Group to President Bush.

“For over a year, I have suggested that the U.S. must step up the training of Iraqi security forces, step back from being the day-to-day face of security on the ground in Iraq, and begin to redeploy our troops out of that country. Secretary Rumsfeld arrived at that conclusion just two days before President Bush fired him last month. And now the Iraq Study Group has come to the same conclusion, as have so many others who have demanded that the Administration change course in Iraq immediately.

“The only person who has not reached that conclusion, apparently, is President Bush, and now the question is whether he will show the kind of responsible leadership that Americans expect, which is to acknowledge his failure and adopt a new policy with a clear and achievable mission. The call for a phased redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq is more than just a ‘really interesting’ idea, as the President said this morning. Phased redeployment is the only way to keep what has become the worst strategic mistake in the history of U.S. foreign policy from becoming an unrecoverable disaster.”

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