WASHINGTON, DC- U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) today released the following statement on his votes to revise U.S. policy on Iraq and to state that no action should be taken to undermine the safety of our troops.
"We need a new policy in Iraq that does not repeat the mistakes of the past. The Reid amendment offered that change. That is why I voted for and was an original cosponsor of that resolution.
"In particular, the Murray amendment protects the troops in the field, before they are deployed through proper training, and after they return home through quality medical care and other support. We cannot drop our returning troops at the shoreline.
"The situation on the ground in Iraq has changed greatly in the last year, but our Iraq policy has not. We need benchmarks and we need to shift the mission of U.S. troops in Iraq away from combat roles toward training and support roles as well as conducting counter-terrorism operations."
