Iraq War Policy resolution

Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) the Senate disagrees with the plan to augment our forces by in Iraq by 21,500 and urges the President to consider all options and alternatives for achieving the strategic goals set forth below with force levels other than those proposed; (2) the primary U.S. objective in Iraq should be to encourage Iraqi leaders to make political compromises that will foster reconciliation and strengthen the unity government; (3) the military part of this strategy should focus on maintaining the territorial integrity of Iraq, denying international terrorists a safe haven, conducting counterterrorism operations, promoting regional stability, and training and equipping Iraqi forces to take full security responsibility; (4) U.S. military operations should as much as possible be confined to these goals, and the military Rules of Engagement should reflect this delineation of responsibilities; (5) the U.S. government should expeditiously transfer necessary military equipment to the Iraqi military; (6) the Senate believes the United States should continue anti-insurgency operations in Anbar province; (7) the U.S. government should engage selected nations in the Middle East to develop a peace-and-reconciliation process for Iraq; (8) the Administration should provide regular updates to Congress, produced by the Commander of United States Central Command and his subordinate commanders, about the progress or lack of progress the Iraqis are making toward this end; and (9) our overall military, diplomatic, and economic strategy should not be regarded as open-ended but rather as a new strategy conditioned upon the Iraqi government's meeting Administration-specified benchmarks.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov