Friday, January 12, 2007

What Congressman Carney thinks of the urge to surge

Washington, D.C.-Congressman Christopher Carney (D-PA) came out in strong disagreement with the Bush Administration's plan to send 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq and issued the following statement:

"President Bush's plan to increase troops is a mistake. This will not reduce the violence in Iraq. This is a Yogi Berra strategy: deja vu all over again.

"We should be changing our focus in Iraq. Instead of sending more American troops overseas, we should be training Iraqis to handle the jobs themselves. For every Iraqi battalion we train, we need to bring an American battalion home. This should be our focus.

"Also, it is downright irresponsible for the President to send additional troops to Iraq without first reading the upcoming Iraq national intelligence estimate. As a Member of Congress, I believe that we need to make our decision based on the most complete knowledge possible. The national intelligence estimate-which by the way is overdue-would provide that information.

"I was one of those Congressmen in the bipartisan White House meetings that the President referenced in his speech. He may have listened, but it is obvious that he did not heed. How many 'do-overs' does he get?

"I came to Congress to serve and protect my country. We must change our focus in Iraq, not needlessly send more American troops overseas."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

He was on Hardball the other night; Matthews asked him the ratio of disapproval of the war in the conservative Scranton area and Carney stated that it was 9 out of 10.

J. said...

I think that's about right. Although, I wouldn't call Scranton conservative. The rest of his district is.

Anonymous said...

scranton is not in his district...I guess he doesn't know that..