Levin: Escalation’s Goals Have ‘Totally And Utterly Failed,’ Begin Withdrawal In Less Than 4 Months

[FourScore]

Levin: Escalation’s Goals Have ‘Totally And Utterly Failed,’
Begin Withdrawal In Less Than 4 Months

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, recently visited Iraq with Sen. John Warner (R-VA) and reported that the escalation is “totally and utterly” failing to produce the political reconciliation needed.

The media is reporting Levin’s comments as validation of Bush’s strategy. Fox News spins Levin’s comments as “praise” for the “surge results.” ABC claims the comments are proof of “success of the surge.”

In fact, in a conference call with reporters this afternoon, Levin conceded that the troop increase has “resulted in some reduced violence in some places in Iraq,” but specifically said the troop increase has not accomplished its stated objective:

The whole purpose of the surge was to reduce violence so that the Iraqi leaders would have the breathing room to reach political settlement. That was the stated purpose of the surge.

Well, that purpose has not been achieved, even though the level of violence has been reduced in a number of areas. The purpose of the surge, by its own terms, was to have the — give the opportunity to the Iraqi leaders to reach some political settlements. They have failed to do that. They have totally and utterly failed.

SNIP (with audio)

Arguing that political reconciliation will not occur under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Levin called on the Iraqi parliament to replace him. “I hope that the Iraqi assembly, when it reconvenes in a few weeks, will vote the Maliki government out of office and will have the wisdom to replace it with a less sectarian and a more unifying prime minister and government.”

Levin and Warner met with Gen. David Petraeus for 2 hours. Levin said that the situation in Iraq necessitates that the U.S. begin troop reductions within four months...

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/20/levin-iraq-return/

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

1. Levin....Be Quiet

We're going to get the WH.......errrrrr.....Petraeus' report in a couple of weeks. Coincidentally, on 9/11.

I'm confident we'll get an accurate assessment of how poorly......errrrrrr.......SPECTACULARLY, the surge is proceeding.

[UnseenUndergrad]

2. Thank the Gods

Some earlier articles on this very site seem to have taken the spin at face value, so it's refreshing to get some news like this.