[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 168 (Wednesday, November 19, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H11630-H11631]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE WAR IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about the war in Iraq. 
First of

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all, we all must recognize that over 400 Americans have been killed in 
Iraq and those numbers are rising. One, two, and now 16 and 17 lives at 
a time. We do not even know how many Iraqis have died because the 
Pentagon classifies that information as irrelevant. When we asked 
Ambassador Bremer at an International Relations Committee hearing how 
many Iraqis had been killed, he said he did not know because that was 
not really relevant to reconstruction efforts.
  What we are witnessing are the results of a failed and failing 
foreign policy as a result of the fact that the Bush administration 
launched a preemptive war that was neither justified nor necessary.

                              {time}  2130

  To persuade many Members of Congress and the public to support this 
war, the administration apparently manipulated intelligence information 
and spun a distorted web of deception, and this will not be forgotten. 
Congress should not be talking about adjournment until we have answered 
these incredibly important questions about how we got into this mess.
  That is why I have introduced House Resolution 410, which states that 
Congress should not adjourn until we have started an investigation into 
these questions as called for by the Waxman and the Tauscher 
resolutions. These questions are absolutely relevant. The American 
people deserve the answers. The methods by which we got into this war, 
the poor intelligence, and the unwillingness to work with the United 
Nations have shaped the current quagmire that we face; and, again, this 
is not going away.
  Furthermore, in its rush to war, the administration completely failed 
to properly plan for its aftermath. This shortsightedness has cost 
American, as well as Iraqi, lives and created chaos and insecurity in 
Iraq. Unilateralism, we have found out, and some of us have known for 
many years, is not leadership; and unilateralism will not succeed in 
Iraq, as we are seeing. What we need is an effective transition 
strategy, effective transition strategy, so that we do not leave a 
worse disaster in its wake. That strategy must include a clear vision 
of how and when United States troops will come home and a real plan, a 
real plan, for Iraqi political and economic success. To achieve such 
success, we need to abandon what the New York Times has recently called 
``the miserable United States monopoly in Baghdad.''
  Although United States unilateralism has gravely damaged our 
relations with much of the world, we must continue to at least try to 
internationalize the transition to Iraqi independence. The United 
Nations should have real political and economic authority in this 
effort at peacekeeping and rebuilding. The Pentagon is really not the 
right agency to foster the creation of this new government; the United 
Nations is. And, yes, some of us have suggested to the President that 
Donald Rumsfeld be asked to leave because we believe that he has led 
this effort in the wrong direction and has not planned adequately for 
the protection of our young people. So once again we hope that this 
resolution will come up before we leave.
  As a candidate, George Bush, remember, dismissed the concept of 
nation-building; but as Commander in Chief, he has really mangled it. 
So we should really let the United Nations fulfill its mission by 
leading the effort to forge peace, security, and democracy in Iraq.
  What should the United States role in Iraq be during this transition? 
For starters, we should at least recognize that we need to win friends 
and allies and not make new enemies. Also, I have said before and I 
will say it again, I believe that our Nation should absolutely pay for 
the damage that it has caused through its bombing, through its killing; 
but repairing bombing damage does not mean handing billions of dollars 
to Bechtel and Halliburton with regard to the no-bid contracts which 
they are receiving. Iraq's long-term economic development really should 
be in its own hands just as its sovereignty should be.
  Again, as I have said earlier, we are really in a quagmire right now, 
one of poor planning and poor policy. And it is costing hundreds of 
American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars. Where in the world 
will we find the resources for our senior citizens and our children? 
How are we going to fund Leave No Child Behind, the $9 billion that we 
need to put into public education? How are we going to fund affordable 
housing? Where will we find the resources to ensure our public 
transportation system and all of those quality-of-life issues that 
Americans so deserve? Not to mention our veterans. Where do we find the 
resources to provide their benefits which they so deserve?
  So we must find a way out of this. And of course that means, again, 
for starters that the Iraqi people and their representatives must have 
a greater role and a real role in shaping their own state, and that 
means that the United States must shift authority to the U.N., and that 
means we must adopt new tactics that will enhance U.S. security and 
Iraqi safety by encouraging peace and hope rather than war and fear.

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