| January 10, 2007 |
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congresswoman Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth), Vice Chair of the Republican Conference, tonight released the following statement in response to President Bush's address to the nation in which he outlined his new Iraq strategy.
"While there is disagreement on many of the aspects of the war in Iraq, most Members of Congress and our constituents agree that the Iraqis must take a much stronger position in establishing security and stopping the violence. The President has responded both to the seriousness of the situation and to the call for increased participation by the Iraqis tonight. Therefore I will support the increased troops as backup to the Iraqi plan for security in the Baghdad region with the benchmarks he has laid out.
"This increase in troops must be in response to the verified Iraqi commitments outlined by the President. We cannot continue this war without the commitments the President has required of Prime Minister Maliki and his government.
"In order to verify these benchmarks and our progress, I call on the Administration to brief Congress on the progress in Iraq starting as soon as 10 days after the initial phase begins and continuing on a bi-weekly schedule throughout the progress on this new plan. These meetings should be bi-partisan and classified and include senior leaders from the Department of Defense, Department of State, National Security Council and the intelligence communities."
"I also agree that we need to increase the size of our military to continue to fight the war on terror and meet future threats."