Washington, D.C. – In a letter to President George W. Bush, Third District Representative Walter B. Jones (R-NC), along with Reps. Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), Ron Paul (R-TX), John Duncan (R-TN) and Steven LaTourette (R-OH) applaud the President’s consideration of alternatives to the current U.S. policy in Iraq and urge the President not to include an escalation or “surge” of U.S. military forces as part of that new strategy. The letter’s signatories invite other Republican members of Congress to join in indicating their opposition to a “surge” of U.S. forces in advance of the President’s speech concerning his new strategy for Iraq.

“We fully support your consideration of alternatives to the current U.S. policy in Iraq and eagerly await your announcement of a new U.S. strategy,” the letter states. “We respectively urge you not to include an escalation or ‘surge’ of U.S. military forces as part of that new strategy.”

“As members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have indicated in published reports, even a short-term escalation of the number of U.S. troops in Iraq could create larger problems in the long-term. It would increase Iraqi dependence on our forces, deplete our strategic reserve and force extended tours of duty for soldiers and Marines who are scheduled to return to their families,” the letter continues. “Hostile militias could respond by simply melting back into society until the surge is ended. The Pentagon has warned that an escalation of our troop levels in Iraq could lead to an increase in al-Qaeda attacks, provide more targets for Sunni insurgents and fuel the jihadist appeals for foreign fighters to attack U.S. soldiers.”

“Former Secretary of State and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Colin Powell, recently characterized our Army as ‘about broken,’ warning against an escalation of the number of U.S. troops in Iraq,” the letter states. “According to a recent Military Times poll, nearly three-quarters of our servicemen and women think that our military is stretched too thin to be effective.”

“We have already seen the results of a surge of U.S. forces in Baghdad. Last August we increased the number of troops there by 12,000 as part of ‘Operation Together Forward.’ Since then the level of violence and the loss of American and Iraqi lives has increased significantly. According to the Pentagon, there were an average of almost 960 attacks per month against Americans and Iraqis since the surge began. This is the highest level of attacks recorded by the Pentagon since it began issuing quarterly assessment reports in 2005,” the letter continues. “Clearly, the escalation of U.S. troops in Baghdad failed to meet its mission. There is no evidence that expanding this approach even further would lead to a different result.”

“Mr. President, we applaud your re-assessment of U.S. strategy in Iraq. However, we urge you to reject any recommendation for either a short or long term increase in the number of U.S. troops. We are persuaded by all available evidence that an escalation of U.S. troop levels is not the way forward in Iraq,” the letter concludes.