“By prior agreement, in working with General Petraeus, a majority in Congress agreed to wait until his report back to Congress this September to judge the successes and failures of the current military strategy in Iraq. “The Levin Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Bill and others like it, which include a phased redeployment of troops and date certain withdrawal, does not help Petraeus’ mission and would be counterproductive. “However, if the situation does not improve, it may well be that following Petraeus’ candid assessment in September, we will be implementing a policy predicated more on containment than on combat intervention. “I am concerned and disappointed that the Senate is not discussing the very difficult consequences of a mandated date certain withdrawal including: • the safety of American men and women in uniform as they redeploy or retreat, one of the most difficult military maneuvers; • uncertainty over where our troops would redeploy to, and what difficulties this would present for our allies in the region; • a humanitarian catastrophe and loss of Iraqi civilian lives, including uncertainty regarding the newly formed Iraqi militia members and supporters of the fledgling government; • the real possibility of foreign Sunni insurgents entering the war and escalating it to a regional conflict, endangering the entire middle east, which could require the future presence of U.S. forces; • the emboldening of terrorists plotting attacks throughout Europe and the United States.” “These critical issues have not been discussed in the public debate on Iraq.” Senator Roberts is a former Marine and the former Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.