(WBBM) -- Sounding like a presidential candidate, Ill. U.S. Senator Barack Obama joined Congressmen Mike Thompson and Patrick Murphy for a Capitol Hill news conference Tuesday on legislation calling for "benchmarks of success" in Iraq.
Obama says the Iraq War De-escalation Act of 2007 would stop troop escalation and require a responsible, phased redeployment of American forces from Iraq in a manner that protects U.S. troops and exerts leverage to achieve a political settlement among the Iraqis.
The legislation would cap the number of U.S. troops in Iraq at the number in Iraq on January 10, 2007.
It would require a phased redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq not later than May 1, 2007, with the goal that all combat brigades redeploy from Iraq by March 31, 2008, a date consistent with the expectation of the Iraq Study Group.
If the Iraqis are successful in meeting the thirteen benchmarks for progress laid out by the Bush Administration, this plan also allows for the temporary suspension of the redeployment, provided Congress agrees that the benchmarks have been met and that the suspension is in the national security interest of the United States.
As for how he plans to push for this legislation to become law, Obama says, "I think things are going to evolve very rapidly." Potentially we can gather the kind of majority support that we need to get this moved."
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