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Sen. Biden deems troop surge a failure |
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By Ilan Wurman
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Posted: 06/01/07 04:56 PM [ET] |
Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) said “enough is enough” after a top Pentagon official suggested on Thursday that a true assessment of the troop surge in Iraq could not be completed by September.
“The surge has not worked and will not work because its basic premise — to give time for a strong central government to take hold — is fatally flawed,” he said in a press release issued Friday.
Biden, a White House hopeful who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued his comments after Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the U.S. commander for daily operations in Iraq, announced that the surge would need to continue until spring of 2008 to succeed.
“Enough is enough,” said Biden. “After misleading the American people that the troop surge would be temporary, limited in number and limited in duration, the administration is finally acknowledging the truth — the ‘surge’ is really an escalation with no end in sight.”
Odierno on Thursday commented on the September deadline for reporting back to Congress on progress in Iraq. “Right now if you asked me, I would tell you I’d probably need a little bit more time to do a true assessment,” said Odierno.
Biden believes a political settlement is needed in Iraq. “I advocate separating the parties, giving them breathing room in their own regions, held together by a limited central government,” he said.
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