41 Democratic Senators Call on President Bush to Exercise Leadership on Iraq in the Months Ahead

Today, on the eve of Iraq’s parliamentary elections, Senator Dianne Feinstein joined 40 other senators today to call on President Bush to make 2006 a year of transition in Iraq.

The senators marked the important milestone of these elections and praised our brave men and women in uniform who are making this election possible. In the letter, the senators called on the president to show the leadership that will to make these elections a turning point that will make America safer and allow our troops to begin to come home.

The senators wrote that the four months following these elections will be critical in order to forge the necessary political consensus that will allow the political factions in Iraq to finalize the constitution and create a stable government. In making 2006 a successful transition the senators reminded the president that his “leadership will also be needed to ensure that we leverage the influence of the international community and Iraq’s neighbors to push for a sustainable political compromise, and that we stand up sufficient numbers of capable Iraqi security forces so that our troops can begin standing down.” Without the president’s leadership and the delivery of a clear message to the Iraqi people that now is the time to take the training wheels off of their government, a successful transition will not be possible.

The senators also continued their call for the president to lay out a detailed strategy for success in Iraq that makes clear the way forward in Iraq. They wrote that, “while we appreciate your recent speeches on this issue, we regret that the American people have still not been presented with a plan that identifies the remaining political, economic, and military benchmarks that must be met and a reasonable schedule to achieve them.” They urged the president to use today’s speech to provide that detailed plan that the American people and our troops deserve.

The ext of the letter is available here.