Political Accommodation Missing Piece of Iraq Puzzle (Rep. Joe Sestak)

While today’s hearing provided a good presentation of the Iraqi Provincial Reconstruction Teams’ (PRTs) efforts—and they are doing extremely good work— it is also disconcerting to find a difference of opinion on how well the respective agencies are manning the required billets for the PRTs. Moreover, I still strongly believe that these efforts of the PRTs will—in the long term—be futile unless there is success in bringing about the political accommodations among the various political leaders of the various factions in Iraq. Political accommodation is not only essential for the PRTs to be successful, but it is also what is needed to bring about military stability and security in that nation. In short, while PRTs are necessary, they are far from sufficient, and are actually the second tier of effort needed after we have brought about political accommodation among various factions in Iraq.