[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 60 (Tuesday, May 4, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H2527]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, I THINK NOT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I watched the weekends events 
somewhat in horror, but also somewhat in recognition that our troops on 
the ground, our enlisted officers, Reservists and National Guard, 
operate under the most heinous conditions, and certainly the actions 
that we have seen in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners is not to be excused, 
but I lay the burden more on the policymakers and those who have 
extended the stays of those civilian troops, 6 months, 12 months and 18 
months, those who made the statement a year ago May 1, ``mission 
accomplished.'' The burdens of disarray of the military in Iraq lay at 
our feet.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe that we cannot, as a Congress, do nothing. I 
would hope that we will hear more potently from the President, the 
Secretary of Defense, and the Joint Chief of Staff on the solutions in 
the aftermath and the crisis of a so-called mission accomplished.
  Although those acts were to be not tolerated, we must find the trail 
of hierarchy that created such havoc that our soldiers who were there 
to liberate, have turned into those who would perpetrate such acts. 
That is what I want to speak about this evening: Mission accomplished, 
I think not. Until we pass what I am now calling, and we are now 
reviewing and hoping to write as legislation for this House, the 
Welcome Home Act of 2004. Mission accomplished, I think not. Until we 
write legislation for those combat veterans who have come home from 
Iraq and Afghanistan, really, the Vietnam War of the 21st century.
  And what do I believe is appropriate for those wounded and those 
individuals coming home from this war? First of all, an apology and 
explanation by this administration for the war and the present status 
of the conditions in Iraq and, yes, Afghanistan. Provisions for long-
term mental health needs for those veterans, both wounded and those not 
wounded and their families; immediate treatment for trauma, mental 
trauma if you will, that will be ongoing and that we have already 
discovered in some of our military hospitals today; continuous 
educational opportunities for these young men and women, and maybe even 
the Reservists and the National Guard who now come home with a whole 
different attitude about life and their future; family counseling, so 
that the terrible murder of a military spouse of a returning veteran 
cannot happen again; enhanced opportunities for homeownership so our 
military families are not in cramped conditions after the military 
person leaves the particular branch and so they are not Nicole Goodwin, 
an Iraqi combat veteran who is now homeless, walking the streets of New 
York; health care for 10 years so that those ailments generated by the 
combat situation and the Veterans Hospital will not maintain and keep, 
we will have care; long-term health care and rehabilitation when the 
veteran's benefits run out; military whistleblower protections so that 
those individuals who have seen things in Iraq that should not happen, 
such as what happened in the prison and the abuse of prisoners or what 
is happening in terms of those individuals who are outside of their job 
description of which they were brought into the military, where 
carpenters are being police officers and truck drivers are being 
gunners, we need to find out what is wrong with this system and this 
war.

                              {time}  2030

  Provisions for those who are severely injured with long-term 
understanding of those severely injured and the families who lost loved 
ones. Who is attending to those families after the burial? Who is 
comforting them, and what are the resources being provided for those 
families? And so I would suggest that a lump-sum payment under the 
Welcome Home Act of 2004 be made to those families of the severely 
injured and those who lost loved ones out of the profits of the Iraqi 
oil fields.
  Mr. Speaker, mission accomplished, I think not, until the Welcome 
Home Act of 2004 is both legislatively presented to this Congress, 
until we acknowledge the wrongness of this war by giving some dignity 
to those who are coming home, who are coming home to lonely places, to 
homelessness, to bad health care, to the inability to provide for their 
family. We must provide for these severely injured veterans as well as 
those families who have lost loved ones because, as we know, the toll 
of those dying continues to rise; and 736, Mr. Speaker, is not the last 
count that we will have. How can we claim a mission accomplished unless 
we present the Welcome Home Act of 2004 alongside a final resolution to 
the conflict in Iraq?

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