[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 88 (Wednesday, June 23, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H4768]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NO MORE JUDGMENT CALLS
(Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz
testified before Congress yesterday that he did not plan or expect an
insurgency in Iraq. This observation, from one of the war's architects,
whose record includes ridiculing former General of the Army, General
Shinseki, by saying his troop estimate was ``way off the mark.'' Now
there are 150,000 Americans in the Iraqi theater.
He said that Iraqi oil would pay for reconstruction. U.S. taxpayers
have been tabbed $20 billion to rebuild Iraq.
Secretary Wolfowitz could not remember how many troops had been
killed in Iraq. At that point he guessed about 500. In fact, there had
been 734 at the time. He was off by 30 percent.
Now he says he could not comprehend and did not plan for an Iraqi
insurgency.
How many times do you have to be wrong in this administration and
still have your job? Maybe Ahmed Chalabi did not tell him to plan for
insurgency. Now he is telling us that our stay in Iraq could last
years.
With a record like that, Mr. Wolfowitz, do not give us any more of
your judgment calls.
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