Congressional Candidate Tom Perriello: "Petraeus is Half Right"

April 9, 2008—Ivy, VA—In light of the testimonies by Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker before Senate and House leaders, VA-05 congressional candidate Tom Perriello asserted that Americans are being offered a false choice in Iraq, and that the only solution there is a political one.

"Our generals have been winning battles but we are not winning the war because our political leaders have provided no plan for victory and ask the wrong questions. Gen. Petraeus is right that immediate withdrawal would be disastrous. But sticking with the Administration's current policy is just as dangerous. We owe it to our troops to provide a new path to victory, such as the N.E.W. Plan for Iraq I helped launch in 2006. We need to shift the debate from troop levels and timelines to a new political power-sharing arrangement that can anchor a manageable peace without a U.S. troop presence," said Perriello.

"The question is not whether the surge reduced violence. It is whether the surge moved the ball forward on solving the underlying political standoff that keeps us there. We need a solution, not a stalemate," said Perriello.

Perriello is a national security analyst who has worked in Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, and Darfur on justice-based security solutions. He has been a fellow for the Century Foundation, consulted for the International Centre for Transitional Justice, and served as special advisor for the International Prosecutor of the war crimes tribunal in the showdown that forced the Liberian dictator Charles Taylor from power.

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Tom Perriello for Congress * PO Box 306 * Ivy, VA 22945 * 434-882-4163
www.perrielloforcongress.com

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