[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 66 (Wednesday, May 12, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H2911-H2915]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               IRAQ WATCH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Chocola). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) 
is recognized until midnight.
  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues and I tonight have come to the 
floor in a continued series of discussions that we have styled as the 
Iraq Watch. We, unfortunately, have had to be involved in this now for 
several months. We do so because we believe very strongly that this 
situation in Iraq is of such high challenge that the U.S. Congress owes 
an obligation to be involved in the tough decisionmaking and not just 
punt to the executive branch of the United States Government. We 
believe that there are some serious issues that need discussing, and we 
intend to do so tonight.
  But before we get to some of the controversial issues that need 
discussion, I think it is important to note the unanimity that this 
country has and the total bipartisanship we have in three or four very 
central elements in this challenge pertaining to Iraq, and I want to 
list four of those.
  First, all of us are dismayed and appalled at the savagery of the 
United States contractor who was executed in a horrendous act that 
Americans are seeing and hearing about on their television screens 
tonight. I think it is important for us to recognize the sense of 
outrage that we need to maintain as a healthy sense, and not to give it 
up and say it is another act of violence. We need to retain our sense 
of outrage at their behavior.

[[Page H2912]]

  Second, we have a bipartisan consensus in this country that we are 
dismayed and disturbed by the occurrences in our prisoner of war camps. 
Today, as Members of Congress, we join in a bipartisan way, 
unfortunately, to review the incredibly disturbing still pictures and 
videotapes which still have not been released of some of the things 
that went on in the prison camps.

                              {time}  2320

  There is a bipartisan recognition that those actions damaged our 
potential success in Iraq and that we in a bipartisan way want to find 
a way to make sure that never happens again because we have too many 
challenges already in Iraq to add to those challenges by self-inflicted 
wounds. Third, we have a national consensus that extends our feeling of 
loss to many of the innocent Iraqis who have found themselves in harm's 
way as a result of this action. Fourth, and perhaps this is the most 
important for us to reiterate, in any discussion of Iraq, there is 
absolute unanimity across this country in expressing pride and respect 
for the heroism and the professionalism of our troops in the field in 
Iraq. No matter what we say tonight about the civilian leadership who 
unfortunately we believe have made some very grievous errors to our 
soldiers' disadvantage, it is very important to realize there is total 
consensus in this country and in the House of Representatives 
respecting the dedication of our troops, notwithstanding the difficulty 
in the command and control structure that happened in these prisons. 
Those are four points of consensus and unanimity that we have in this 
country that we intend to make sure we note.
  With that, I would like to turn to some of the challenging things 
that we need to talk about tonight, if I may, if the gentlemen will 
give me a few moments. The unfortunate truth is, however, that the 
professionalism of our soldiers in the field, hundreds of thousands of 
whom are serving with distinction, has not been matched by some of the 
civilian decisionmakers pertaining to the Iraqi operation. There, 
unfortunately, have been a series of substantial errors which have 
posed challenges to us that now we have to dig ourselves out of. I want 
to mention 10 of those very quickly in summary form to set the 
framework for our discussion tonight. There are 10 serious mistakes, 
errors, of judgment and negligence that have been made by our civilian 
authorities in the executive branch of this government which are now 
putting us in a very, very deep hole, of what was already a challenging 
position. I will quickly summarize those 10 that we will discuss 
tonight.
  First, the United States Government told the American people in 
unequivocal terms that there was, and I think I quote from the chief 
executive, no doubt but that Iraq possessed and was deploying some of 
the most lethal weapons systems devised by man before this war. That 
statement unfortunately has proved to be false. It is one that we 
should think seriously about as we move forward in Iraq.
  Second, the executive branch and the civilian authorities of our 
Nation told the American people in unequivocal terms that there was a 
clear, convincing and cogent connection between Iraq and the heinous 
attack on our Nation of September 11. That assertion after months and 
over a year of digging has not turned out one solitary shred of 
evidence to substantiate that assertion; and as far as we know tonight, 
that assertion was false. Why is it important to recognize the falsity 
of those two assertions preceding this war? It is important to 
understand both the Iraqis' response and the world's response and now 
our difficulty in obtaining assistance for our troops in the field 
because the war started on two basic falsehoods, and this is a 
recognition that we have to have as we form a strategy to have success 
in Iraq.
  The third issue. We were told in very clear terms and this Congress 
was told in many briefings that we would be welcomed as liberators, we 
would be welcomed with rose petals at our feet. The savagery that our 
men and women who are serving in Iraq have seen was hardly a sense of 
liberation. Why is this important? It is important because it explains 
some other failures by the civilian leadership in our Nation.
  It explains the fourth failure, the failure to have adequate troops 
on the ground at the time the Iraqi Army collapsed. We had multiple 
truth-tellers who told the truth to the executive branch, what was 
needed in Iraq; and they have all been fired. General Shinseki told the 
President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense that we 
would need several hundred thousand troops on the ground to prevent 
Iraq becoming an infested place of looting and anarchy the day after 
the Iraqi Army collapsed. He was ignored and then fired.
  General Zinni essentially said the same thing. He was ignored, then 
he was fired. We have seen this as a consistent pattern of truth-
tellers about Iraq. When Joe Wilson blew the whistle on the falsehood 
we heard from that Speaker's rostrum during the State of the Union, his 
wife had her job diminished by secretly outing her as a member of the 
CIA. The sad fact is advice given to the civilian authority has not 
been followed.
  The fifth error. We knew that to bring democracy to Iraq, we need to 
bring democracy to Iraq. The way to bring democracy to Iraq is to have 
elections. The first proconsul we had, Jay Garner, said, let's have 
early elections; we might get the Iraqis to buy into this system. He 
was fired. He was let go. The successful example in southern provinces 
of Iraq which has had successful elections is now not being followed, 
and we have no idea from the plan from the administration when that may 
occur. We need elections in Iraq.

  The next error. We have failed wholly to build an international 
assistance for our troops. This needs to be an international 
responsibility. American taxpayers should not be the only ones footing 
the bill in Iraq. In fact, the rest of the world footed the bill for 
the first Persian Gulf War under the first President Bush. Now the 
American taxpayer is paying this almost lock, stock and barrel both in 
blood and in treasure.
  The next error. We consciously sent, and when I say ``we,'' I mean 
the executive branch in the United States, consciously sent American 
men and women into battle without armor. We knew we were sending people 
into the warren's den of RPGs, rocket-propelled grenades, improvised 
explosive devices; and we sent them in these little thin-skinned 
Humvees to drive around for a year and a half, and we have had over 700 
lost Americans, many of whom because we did not have adequate armor in 
the field. Now, yesterday, when we went through the streets of Baghdad, 
we went in armored personnel carriers and we did not lose anyone, which 
are impervious to rocket-propelled grenades and a lot of IEDs. We 
ignored the clear advice that we needed a stronger, more well-armored 
force in Iraq, and we lost sons and daughters because of it. I will say 
a good thing for this administration, they are now finally beginning to 
rush to this battlefield as fast as they can the armor we need.
  The next error we had, I think it is number seven, we did not even 
have body armor for these people. We did not have flak jackets.
  Mr. STRICKLAND. Will my friend yield?
  Mr. INSLEE. Briefly. Then I need to complete my two more.
  Mr. STRICKLAND. May I, with kindness, challenge a statement my friend 
just made. My friend from Washington said the administration is rushing 
as quickly as they can to provide the armament our soldiers need. I 
think that is not the case. The only company that produces up-armored 
Humvees that the Pentagon does business with is an Ohio company from my 
State of Ohio. That company is located in Fairfield, Ohio. They are 
capable of producing up-armored Humvees at the number of about 500 per 
month. The Pentagon, although we desperately need them, is only buying 
about 300 a month. So even in this case, where they should be 
protecting our soldiers as quickly as possible, they are not doing what 
they could and should be doing and they are not doing it, certainly, as 
rapidly as possible.
  So when it came to the body armor, and the President has actually 
accused his opponent for the Presidency, the Democratic nominee, of 
voting against body armor for our troops, I think they are talking 
about that $87 billion supplemental, the fact is that at the beginning 
of the war in Iraq, when our soldiers first went into that country, 
many of them went in without body

[[Page H2913]]

armor to protect them. That was many months before we voted on that 
supplemental. Many months. It was the President, it was Mr. Rumsfeld, 
it was this administration, this Pentagon that sent our soldiers into 
harm's way without adequate body armor. It took them an entire year 
from March when the war started until March the following year before 
all of our soldiers were outfitted with this body armor. Even tonight 
as we sit here and stand here in the safety of this House Chamber, 
there are soldiers in Iraq who are driving around in Humvees that are 
not adequately armored, and this Pentagon is not solving that problem 
as quickly as they can. I thank my friend for yielding.

                              {time}  2330

  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for the calculated and 
exact improvement of my discussion.
  Mr. STRICKLAND. It is a matter of life and death.
  Mr. INSLEE. It is. And, Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
leading on this issue about this flak jacket failure.
  I do want to make the point, though, I think the administration has 
made some changes in its policy that are starting to move in the right 
direction, but they are a year, and we have suffered dramatically as a 
result of that. We welcome these changes that we are seeing now. Now 
the President says now he wants the U.N. to come in and help us. But 
frankly it is very difficult, after we stuck our finger in the eye of 
the rest of the world, to encourage people. But we want to encourage 
the administration to move.
  And I will just mention two other things, and then I will yield to my 
colleagues. Two other areas: One, this administration has not proposed 
a single plan on how to pay for this war. Every single dollar that is 
being spent in this war is coming out of the backs and the futures of 
our children of deficit spending. We have a $500 billion deficit, and 
this President was not forthright enough with Americans to even put in 
his budget one dollar for the Iraq War, knowing that every dollar he 
put in the Iraq War would be additional deficit spending.
  Winston Churchill said, ``All I have to offer you is blood, sweat, 
toil, and tears.'' We cannot now just tell the people of America let us 
fight the Iraq War and then go shopping. We cannot simply have the only 
people sacrificing in America those in the frontlines of Iraq. This is 
a tough battle, and the President of the United States cannot fight it 
on the cheap. We need to face the difficulty in Iraq straightforward 
and have the tenth thing we need, and then I will yield.
  We need something we have not had for 1\1/2\ years now. We need a 
plan for success in Iraq, and we still do not have one this late in the 
game. And the reason I say that is tonight, as we are sitting here, 
supposedly we are going to have a turnover to a sovereign government in 
Iraq on June 30 and no one has a clue who they will be, no one has a 
clue what they will do, and the sad fact is the only thing this Iraq 
group is going to do is issue library cards because, frankly, we are 
running Iraq because we are the only force that is capable of doing 
that right now. We need a plan. We need some fresh thinking. I have 
some thoughts I will describe a little later.
  I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Delahunt).
  Mr. DELAHUNT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Washington for 
his usual insightful review of the salient points.
  I think we should welcome back the original founder of Iraq Watch. He 
has been unable to attend the last several conversations because of 
other business, but he is certainly welcome here tonight, and that is 
the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Hoeffel).
  The events of the past several weeks have obviously been very 
disturbing in terms of what has occurred in the prison facility, Abu 
Ghraib. And I think every American feels a sense of profound, profound 
shame, and there has been much talk and much criticism.
  I found a story that was reported today in the Washington Times and 
the headline reads ``Outrage Erodes Morale of Troops.'' And there were 
comments by some of our colleagues from the other side of the aisle. 
One was made by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), the House 
majority leader, which I will not even address because the gentleman 
from Texas (Mr. DeLay) has a proclivity to make statements that some 
describe as over the top. But the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Hunter), the Chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services, whom I 
think we all respect, the report stated that he blamed Democrats who 
have been harshly critical of the war effort for eroding troop morale. 
The quote is, ``I'm concerned that a number of Members of Congress have 
lost their sense of balance. They think their role here is to bash the 
American military. It is demoralizing for the troops.''
  Clearly, it has never been the intention of any individual who serves 
in this House, be he or she Republican or Democrat, to erode morale or 
to bash the military. I do not think anyone in any way wishes to 
denigrate the commitment and the contribution and the manner with which 
our military overall has conducted itself. But at the same time I think 
that the chairman has it wrong. It is not Democrats. There are a number 
of Republicans, and he should be aware of that, that have criticized 
the so-called post-major combat phase of this adventure for some time 
now. One only has to watch and observe the Monday morning TV programs.
  But the reality is that morale has been low among our military for 
some time, not because of criticism of the civilian leadership of the 
Pentagon, the Department of Defense, Mr. Rumsfeld, Mr. Wolfowitz, Mr. 
Feith, and including the Vice President of the United States, who is 
described in a recent book as suffering from war fever in terms of his 
obsession about invading Iraq. I think it is rather interesting that 
this poster I have here which is back in November 2003, a Newsweek 
cover that states ``How Dick Cheney Sold the War.'' It is clearly true, 
given what we know now, that he had great influence in terms of 
advancing the military invasion of Iraq by the American military.
  But now to go back to the morale issue, there was an interesting 
story, and maybe the chairman of the Committee on Armed Services is 
unaware of this, but it was reported last Sunday in the Washington 
Post, and the title is ``Dissension Grows in Senior Ranks on War 
Strategy.
  ``Deep divisions are emerging at the top of the U.S. military over 
the course of the occupation of Iraq, with some senior officers 
beginning to say that the United States faces the prospect of casualty 
for years, without achieving its goal of establishing a free and 
democratic Iraq.''
  These are not Members of the Democratic Party in Congress. These are 
not Members of the Republican Party in Congress. This is senior 
military personnel.
  ``Army Major General Charles Swannack, Jr., the commander of the 82nd 
Airborne Division, who spent much of the year in western Iraq, said 
that he believes that at the tactical level at which fighting occurs, 
the U.S. military is still winning, but when asked whether he believes 
the United States is losing he said, `I think strategically, we are.'
  ``Army Colonel Paul Hughes, who last year was the first director of 
strategic planning for the U.S. occupation authority in Baghdad, said 
he agrees with that view and noted that a pattern of winning battles 
while losing a war characterized the U.S. failure in Vietnam.''
  These are senior members of the military establishment in this 
country.

                              {time}  2340

  This is not about partisanship. This is criticism coming from the 
military itself regarding the lack or the incompetence, if you will, of 
the civilian leadership that currently resides in the Department of 
Defense.
  Colonel Hughes went on to note that he lost a brother in Vietnam. ``I 
promised myself when I came on active duty that I would do everything 
in my power to prevent that sort of strategic loss from happening 
again. Here I am, 30 years later, thinking we will win every fight and 
lose the war because we don't understand the war we are in.''
  They are worried. This is the senior American military speaking. They 
are worried by evidence that the United States is losing ground with 
the Iraqi public.

[[Page H2914]]

  Some officers say the place to begin restructuring U.S. policy is by 
ousting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whom they see as responsible 
for a series of strategic and tactical blunders over the past year.
  Several of those interviewed said a profound anger is building within 
the Army at Rumsfeld and those around him. A senior general at the 
Pentagon said he believes the United States is already on the road to 
defeat. His quote is, ``It is doubtful we can go on much longer like 
this. The American people may not stand for it, and they should not.'' 
This is a senior general at the Pentagon.
  I hope that the Republican chair of the Committee on Armed Services 
has an opportunity to read this particular report that was in the 
Washington Post last Sunday. He should not blame Democrats or any 
elected official for ever eroding the morale of the troops. We stand by 
the troops, but we do not stand by a policy that no one can understand.
  As to who is to blame, this general pointed directly at Rumsfeld and 
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. ``I do not believe,'' and this 
is his quote, ``we had a clearly defined war strategy and end-state and 
exit strategy before we commenced our invasion.''
  Mr. INSLEE. Reclaiming my time, I just wanted to note, following the 
horrendous situations in our prison camps, a lot of folks thought the 
only reason people were calling for the Secretary of Defense's 
replacement was that problem. But that was only the straw that broke 
the camel's back. We had all these other 10 problems which I alluded 
to, all of which he was involved with. That is why many Members here 
believe that this Nation deserves better to serve our troops.
  I would like to yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Hoeffel), the originator of this, who shows great leadership on being 
able to tackle these very great problems in Iraq.
  Mr. HOEFFEL. Mr. Speaker, I compliment the gentleman on his 10 
opinions that opened the Iraq Watch tonight. I think the gentleman is 
right on the money, and I appreciate his summarizing the problems that 
we face.
  I want to thank the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Delahunt), the 
new Chair of Iraq Watch, for his leadership and his stalwart support 
for what we are trying to do here.
  The point that the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Delahunt) makes 
is a very good one. There has been no criticism of the military in any 
of the comments that I have heard or read about in the papers. We are 
not criticizing the military. That is the one good thing about what is 
happening in Iraq, is the performance of our young men and women in 
uniform.
  We are criticizing the civilian directors of the Defense Department. 
We are criticizing the administration, the policymakers, the 
politicians.
  I think we should criticize not just Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Wolfowitz 
and Mr. Feith at the Department of Defense, but I would throw in George 
Tenet as well at the CIA. I do not think any President has ever 
received more bad information in our Nation's history than George Bush 
has received from George Tenet and Don Rumsfeld.
  The information was wrong about weapons of mass destruction. I am 
summarizing what the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) has already 
summarized. They were wrong about weapons of mass destruction. They 
were wrong that we could do this on the cheap. We did not send enough 
troops in to Iraq to stabilize the country, and General Shinseki was 
right and he was run out of the Army for telling the truth, that we 
needed several hundred thousand troops, not the 120,000 that Mr. 
Rumsfeld thought he could do this with.
  If you will recall, in the spring of 2003 Mr. Rumsfeld said by August 
of 2003 we would only need 40,000 troops. There would be only 40,000 
troops left four or five months after the invasion. Of course, in 
August of 2003 there were 120,000 troops. We are up to 135,000 troops 
now, and we still have not stabilized Iraq.
  Look what that means. You cannot have reconstruction without 
security. You cannot have a transfer of government without security. 
You certainly cannot have elections without security. And we do not 
have security in Iraq. After all this time, we do not have stabilized 
conditions in Iraq.
  Mr. DELAHUNT. If the gentleman will yield further, the much-heralded 
efforts to train Iraqis as far as police and a new Iraqi Army, you only 
have to go back two or three weeks to remember that headline that 
screamed out the new Iraq battalion would not accompany the U.S. 
Marines into combat in the City of Fallujah. So while the Secretary of 
Defense speaks about the training of some 70,000 personnel for security 
service, the truth is those that are adequately trained amount to only 
several thousand.
  What we have here, what we have here is a failure of leadership, is a 
demonstration of incompetence unequaled in terms of my public life, and 
I have held elected office for some 30 years.
  If you could bear with me for just one more moment, again, I want to 
come back to the military's perspective of the civilian leadership and 
what they are saying.
  There was an editorial that appeared in the Army Times, the Marine 
Times, the Air Force Times and the Navy Times, and it was regarding the 
situation in the Iraqi prison. It is entitled ``A Failure of Leadership 
At the Highest Levels.''
  I would remind those that are viewing our conversation this evening, 
this is not a partisan publication. This is a publication that covers 
the military that in many respects represents the majority view of the 
military in this country.
  ``Around the halls of the Pentagon, a term of caustic derision has 
emerged for the enlisted soldiers at the height of the furor over the 
prison scandal, `the six morons who lost the war.' Indeed, the damage 
done to the U.S. military and the Nation as a whole by the horrifying 
photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees at the notorious 
prison is incalculable.
  ``But the folks in the Pentagon are talking about the wrong morons. 
There is no excuse for the behavior displayed by soldiers in the now 
infamous pictures, and an even more damning reported by Major General 
Anthony Taguba. Every soldier should be ashamed. But while 
responsibility begins with the six soldiers facing criminal charges, it 
extends all the way up the chain of command to the highest reaches of 
the military hierarchy and its civilian leadership.
  ``The entire affair is a failure of leadership, from start to finish. 
From the moment they are captured, prisoners are hooded, shackled and 
isolated. The message to the troops, anything goes. In addition to the 
scores of prisoners who were humiliated and demeaned, at least 14 have 
died in custody in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army has ruled at least 
two of these are homicides. This is not the way a free people keeps its 
captives or wins the hearts and minds of a suspicious world.

                              {time}  2350

  General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, also shares in 
the shame. Myers asked ``60 Minutes'' to hold off reporting news of the 
scandal because it could put U.S. troops at risk. But when the report 
was aired a week later, Myers still had not read Taguba's report which 
was completed in March. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had also 
failed to read the report until the scandal broke in the media; but by 
then, of course, it was too late. The Army Times, the Marine Times, the 
Navy Times, and the Air Force Times are correct: it is a failure of 
leadership at the highest level.
  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield for just a 
moment, and then I want to yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Hoeffel). One of the unfortunate reasons there has been a failure 
here is that there is a persistent practice or habit in this 
administration to ignore a principle of leadership, which is to reward 
competence and to sanction incompetence, to reward those who are right 
and sanction those who are wrong, to reward those who tell the truth 
and sanction those who do less than that. And look what happens in this 
situation.
  Let us compare those who were wrong to those who were right. Those 
who were right, General Shinseki, right about needing new troops, 
canned. General Zinni, who was right

[[Page H2915]]

about needing more armor and troops, canned. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, 
by the way, stood up personally to Saddam Hussein and saved hundreds of 
American lives to get them out of Iraq before the first Persian Gulf 
War, this guy has guts; he told the truth and pointed out that what the 
President told the American people about buying uranium from Niger was 
a falsehood, he told the truth, and they tried to destroy his wife's 
career in the CIA.
  So we have three truth-tellers, all of them who were punished by the 
executive branch of the United States.
  Now, look at the other three people. George Tenet, CIA, who, if there 
was a more massive failure of information in American history next to 
calling Benedict Arnold a good American, I do not know what it was; 
still on the job, has not been sanctioned. He has not lost an hour of 
vacation time. He does not have a pink slip, does not have a slap on 
the wrist, said by the President to be doing a great job, when we 
started a war based on false information.
  Donald Rumsfeld, the man who ignored General Shinseki, ignored 
General Zinni, ignored the intelligence from Ambassador Joe Wilson, 
involved in a war where we have incompetent planning, failure of 
planning, and we are now in a deep morass in Iraq, called by the Vice 
President, and I want to quote here almost, the greatest Secretary of 
Defense America has ever seen.
  Mr. DELAHUNT. That is just an unbelievable statement.
  Mr. INSLEE. We have a different opinion. This gentleman has not been 
sanctioned. This gentleman has not lost an hour of overtime.
  Mr. DELAHUNT. And that is leadership.
  Mr. INSLEE. And if I can remember who the third one is, if I can read 
my notes here that I wanted to talk about. Help me out, gentlemen. Who 
is the third one I was thinking about here? The list goes on and on.
  Mr. DELAHUNT. What the gentleman is basically saying is that loyalty 
is prized above competence.
  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to make sure that we include this 
gentleman in this discussion: Assistant Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told 
this Chamber on repeated occasions he was dead right sure, not only 
that we would be greeted as the great liberators of the Mideast, 
spreading democracy through the Mideast, not only that that would 
happen but, bonus time, I say to my colleagues, the Iraq oil fields 
would pay for this whole thing. American taxpayers would not have to 
put out a dime for this. He came and told us he knew this was going to 
happen, we would not have to do anything with taxes, taxpayers would 
not have to pay a dime. If there has been a greater failure of 
analysis, I do not know what it could possibly be.
  Now, what has the President done to the man who totally misled the 
United States Congress? On both sides of the aisle, by the way, he told 
this to Republicans and Democrats. Nothing. So we have the three people 
who have gotten us into a war based on false information with lousy 
planning, with incompetent preparation for our troops, people losing 
their lives in Iraq who are greeted as the greatest civil servants in 
human history, and the three guys who told us the truth were fired, 
lost their jobs.
  I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. HOEFFEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. If we just focus on 
the prison scandal for a minute and see the failures of leadership 
there, as the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Delahunt) has been 
talking about, there are not enough prison guards assigned to Abu 
Ghraib or I am sure to the other prisons that were running as a result 
of the Iraq war. There simply are not enough guards assigned. Those 
guards are not properly trained. That is abundantly clear. They are not 
properly supervised, and there is no accountability up the chain of 
command.

  So we start off with a disaster waiting to happen. Then what does 
Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld do? Well, he ignores the Red Cross, who, 
apparently, for over a year, has been complaining about conditions and 
abusive activities in our prisons. He fails to respond. He does not 
read the report in a timely fashion that is finally done by his 
subordinate, and he does not tell his President what is at stake. He 
even hangs his own President out to dry who is embarrassed by the 
disclosure of this information to the media, rather than in the normal 
chain of communication between cabinet Secretary and President.
  One more failure. I think we ought to stop talking about resignation. 
I do not think Donald Rumsfeld should be allowed to resign. He should 
be fired for his failures to inform and properly advise the President. 
And the reality is, we cannot stay the course in Iraq. We have to 
change the course in Iraq. We cannot keep doing what we are doing, 
because we are failing, and we cannot achieve our goals of creating a 
stable and a peaceful country with a representative form of self-
government. We cannot do that with the level of insecurity and 
instability in Iraq today. We have to get more troops in there. There 
ought to be international troops, NATO, Arab nations, Western European 
nations. They have a bigger stake in a stable Iraq than we do. But 
right now, 90 percent of the troops, 90 percent of the money is 
American; and it is not working. We have to change our course.
  Mr. DELAHUNT. Mr. Speaker, it is really time to be honest with the 
American people. As David Kay said, who was sent and appointed by this 
administration to conduct a search for the weapons of mass destruction, 
came back, said there are none, and implored the President, it is time 
to come clean with the American people. Otherwise, he had grave 
concerns about our credibility all over the world.
  It is like this administration is incapable, incapable of dealing 
with the truth. I do not think they intend to lie; I just do not think 
they can grasp reality. It is like again going back to the morale 
issue. In ``Stars and Stripes,'' a magazine that is funded by the 
Pentagon, reported better than a year ago on the issue of morale of 
U.S. troops in Iraq: high-ranking visitors to the country, including 
Department of Defense and congressional officials, have said it is 
outstanding, but the ``Stars and Stripes'' itself, the magazine did a 
survey and concluded that some troops on the ground would beg to differ 
about what they call low morale on their part and on the part of their 
units.
  So as a result, the Pentagon went and conducted a survey of troops, 
and it was reported again about a month ago in The Washington Post 
before the scandal broke out, and it concluded that a slim majority of 
Army soldiers in Iraq, 52 percent reported that their morale was low, 
and three-fourths of them said that they felt poorly led by their 
officers, according to a survey taken at the end of the summer and 
released yesterday by the Army.
  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, we have about 30 seconds, and I just wanted 
to wrap up and thank the gentleman for his work tonight. I just want to 
say one thing. One of the worst possible things that can happen to our 
soldiers is base the war on wishful thinking. And the failures we have 
been talking about tonight have largely occurred because of civilian 
decisionmakers who have based decisions on wishful thinking that are 
not in touch with the reality and the difficult situation in Iraq. We 
are very hopeful that this administration will start to recognize the 
challenges we have in Iraq and start listening to military advisers, 
rather than basing their decisions on the fantasy that they have that 
this can be done on the cheap. We have paid too dearly in blood for 
that misassessment, we have paid too dearly in treasure for that 
misassessment; and it is time for a fresh, new strategy in Iraq. Just 
sticking with the same old same old is a recipe for disaster.

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