[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 120 (Wednesday, September 29, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H7819-H7820]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        SMART SECURITY AND IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, the Bush administration loves to tout 
George W. Bush's willingness to stay the course as the source of his 
strength as a President. Day after day, the President and his 
surrogates use this ``resolve'' to demonstrate why he should be 
reelected.
  The sad truth is that President Bush's resolve amounts to little more 
than a campaign tool to disguise the fact that his administration's 
policies have increasingly made Americans far less safe in the world. 
The President's resolve is actually nothing more than his attempt to 
lead our Nation while wearing blinders.
  President Bush failed to demonstrate resolve in fighting terrorism in 
the days before the September 11 terrorist attack. In fact, he 
vacationed at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, for the entire month of 
August in the year 2001, neglecting to act on his daily intelligence 
briefings which specifically warned against terrorists crashing planes 
into large city buildings.
  Since September 11, President Bush has continued to fail in his 
resolve to fight international terrorism. Despite a promise to 
apprehend Osama bin Laden, dead or alive, President Bush actually 
pulled troops out of Afghanistan in the year 2002. This grave error

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allowed the al Qaeda leader to flee to the shadowy hinterlands between 
Afghanistan and Pakistan.
  Early in 2002, with bin Laden still on the loose, President Bush 
turned his attention to Iraq. Citing the threat of Iraq's nuclear 
weapons program and Saddam Hussein's links to al Qaeda, Bush marshaled 
a war resolution through Congress.
  Resolve, however, was not enough to win the support of the United 
Nations; so our President, determined to stop Iraq's supposed nuclear 
threat, went to Iraq with the support of only a loose and fragmented 
coalition of other countries.
  Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, no weapons of mass 
destruction have been found and no evidence has ever linked Saddam 
Hussein to al Qaeda. Still, the President's handlers point to his 
resolve as a source of strength. Strength for whom? The terrorists who 
have escaped from America's grasp as we shamefully turned our attention 
to Iraq? The leaders of Iran and North Korea who continue to develop 
the deadliest weapons known to man? Resolve, as thousands of insurgents 
savagely attack our soldiers and Iraqi civilians? Resolve, as more than 
1,000 American soldiers and at least 13,000 innocent Iraqi civilians 
are killed in Iraq? And let us not forget about the more than 7,000 
U.S. soldiers who have been gravely wounded. Where is the resolve to 
protect our troops?
  I, for one, am sick and tired of the White House calling it resolve 
when President Bush continues to focus on Iraq at the expense of other, 
more important issues.
  Today the House voted to reallocate $3.4 billion of last year's $18.4 
billion supplemental, using it for military purposes instead of for 
Iraq's reconstruction. So now we are forced to pilfer money that is 
supposed to pay for infrastructure needs for the Iraqi people.
  This, after spending less than $2 billion of the $18.4 billion 
allocated for Iraq's reconstruction in the first place. I do not 
consider that resolve; I consider it malignant neglect of an entire 
country's needs.
  There has to be a better way to handle the quagmire in Iraq. That is 
why I have introduced H. Con. Res. 392, a SMART security platform for 
the 21st century. SMART stands for Sensible Multilateral American 
Response to Terrorism.
  SMART security treats war as an absolute last resort. It fights 
terrorism with stronger intelligence and multilateral partnerships, and 
it controls the spread of weapons of mass destruction with aggressive 
diplomacy, strong regional security arrangements, and vigorous 
inspection regimes.
  If we had pursued a SMART security strategy in the first place, 
America would not be embroiled in this violent situation in Iraq. Let 
us not forget that Saddam Hussein did not have a nuclear weapons 
program and Iraq did not have ties to al Qaeda. Instead of blindly 
focusing our country's resources on a conflict that has nothing to do 
with American security, President Bush should take off his blinders and 
focus on the real threats to our country.
  How can we be secure if our public schools are failing our children 
and 40 million Americans lack health insurance? How can we be secure 
when our President's shameful tax cuts force our children to repay 
America's debt for the next several decades?

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