Iraq

Christopher wants to do everything he can to help our mission succeed and bring our troops home.

As the former chairman and current Ranking Member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Christopher has chaired more than 90 hearings on counterterrorism issues, including 22 before September 11.  Fifteen of the hearings focused specifically on the war in Iraq.  Christopher has also made 21 trips to see firsthand what conditions are like on the ground.  This allows him to make important observations and recommendations on what we need to do to improve our mission.

While Christopher supports a timeline for the withdrawal of most of our troops, he has consistently resisted a precipitous withdrawal because it would erase the hard-fought gains we have attained and enable Iran to control the region.  After his 14th visit to Iraq in August 2006, Christopher concluded we needed to force the issue by setting firm timelines for Iraqi security forces to replace our troops who are doing police work.

In July 2007, after voting against two timelines he believed would withdraw our troops too quickly, Christopher offered a compromise requiring the majority of our forces to be drawn down by December 2008.  It was a reasonable timeline, but the Democratic majority would not allow a vote on his proposal.  Four months later in November, Democrats offered Christopher’s compromise timeline and, of course, he voted for it.  This proposal failed in the Senate.

In May 2008, Christopher voted for a new timeline offered by the Democratic majority that would bring most of our troops home by December 2009.  He considers this an acceptable timeframe.  Ironically, this plan, which Christopher continues to support, would bring our troops home six months sooner than Senator Barack Obama’s own timeline.

Christopher believes we need to engage Iraq economically, militarily and politically.  This is a war the free world cannot afford to lose.  If we leave prematurely, among other negative results, fuel prices will continue to spiral, Iraq could descend into civil war, Islamic terrorists will have won a huge victory, and Iran would become the dominant player in the region.  We simply cannot allow this to happen.