Press Release

Representative Cummings Urges Bush to Stop Scare Tactics and Bring Home Troops

Congressman Says Troops Deserve Better

"Once again, the President has failed to demonstrate substantial progress in meeting the benchmarks that he himself established as he tries to divert our attention from this weekend's anticipated 'lack-of-progress report' by citing potential terrorist threats," Congressman Cummings said. "The American people-particularly those who are deployed in Iraq-deserve better than the President's strategy of using scare tactics while he puts American lives at risk. Americans deserve a realistic strategy that will bring our troops home safely and the application of a bilateral diplomatic approach to our current policy."

The Bush Administration has consistently changed dates and benchmarks for measuring progress in Iraq, most recently announcing that a troop increase was the solution to rectifying continued escalation of violence in Iraq. Despite the President's claims in April that the "plus up" of troops was already yielding positive indicators, the following month proved to be the worst yet as the lives of numerous American troops and Iraqi civilians were and continue to be claimed.

"As of today, over 3,600 American soldiers have been killed and over 26,000 have been wounded in a war in which they should never have been fighting in the first place," Congressman Cummings said. "Now the President is trying to scare us into following him with blind faith as he ignores commanders on the ground and continues risking hundreds of thousands of American lives while yielding no results."

General David Petraeus, Commanding General of the Multi-National Force in Iraq, determined last month that the U.S. military operations in Iraq will take up to ten years to defeat the ongoing insurgency, despite the 30,000 troop increase. He added that the chances of having a stable Iraqi government in place by September were "slim to none," despite the President's call today to give General Patraeus more time to make the strategy work.

"I have been against the Iraq War from the start," Congressman Cummings said. "However, as long as our troops are in Iraq we must support them by establishing a timely redeployment."

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