WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- The U.S. House majority leader promised dozens of hearings on the Iraq war and Bush administration policy Friday.
"Democrats intend to hold this administration accountable," said Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) "Step one is hearings. A lot of them. We expect dozens across the Intelligence, Armed Services, Foreign Affairs, Appropriations, and Government Reform committees. ... Our goal in the House is to conduct the kind of oversight of the president's policy that has been sorely missing during the nearly four years of this war."
Hoyer said the hearings will not only be focused on accountability, but what to do next and how to shift policy.
He said the Democrats are united around three points: that the Iraqi government must take over day-to-day security operations; that U.S. troops should begin to come home in a phased redeployment beginning within the next six months; and that the United States needs to launch a major diplomatic initiative to rally the rest of the world -- particularly Middle Eastern countries -- around stabilizing Iraq.
"We ... should ask these countries to invest some small percentage of their hundreds of billions of dollars made in oil profits to help bolster security and reconstruction efforts. These countries contributed significant amounts in 1990 and 1991, and they should again," Hoyer said.
He also criticized the United Nations for failing to take strong, multilateral action while Saddam Hussein was still in power, despite repeated resolutions condemning him.
"While the world can and should critically evaluate the administration's flawed execution of this war, we cannot ignore the central argument that our action was, in part, a consequence of the international community's failure to act multilaterally," Hoyer said.
