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Heard on the Street

Key Steps Yet To Be Taken

posted on 03/10/08

Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), Iraq Trip Report, January 17-18, 2008:

“The bottom-line question typically posed with regard to Iraq is: “has the surge worked?" Like a tourniquet: it has stopped the bleeding. But the very delicate political surgery needed to repair the deep wounds of Iraq and initiate a long-term process of healing and stability has not taken place, and that is the critical and decisive issue that we continue to face. Because these critical political steps have not been taken and because the reduction of violence has been a result of multiple and dynamic factors in Iraq, the current relatively benign security situation can be reversed. American and Iraqi security forces have not yet achieved a self-sustaining situation of relatively low levels of violence.”