[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 5 (Tuesday, January 25, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H172-H173]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              SMART SECURITY AND THE CASE FOR LEAVING 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 time has come for the United States 
military to leave Iraq. Even though I was not a supporter of our role 
in Iraq in the first place, this is not a statement that I make 
lightly, nor is it a decision that I arrived at easily. But now, more 
than ever, I am convinced that it is the right decision.
  Not all Members of Congress supported the war in Iraq, but we all 
have to live with its consequences. The global havoc wreaked by this 
war will affect the world in ways that we can only imagine. And as I 
said, as someone who did not support the invasion of Iraq from the 
outset, I still believed at first, once we had invaded them, that the 
United States had a moral responsibility to assist the Iraqi people as 
they struggled to rebuild their war-torn country.
  But it has become all too clear now that the presence of the nearly 
150,000 American soldiers in Iraq, rather than helping to bring about 
stability and political independence, is actually stifling the 
country's ability to develop into a flourishing democracy. That is why 
tomorrow I will introduce legislation calling for a withdrawal of U.S. 
military forces from Iraq.
  I believe that it is the presence in Iraq of our military that has 
engendered so much hatred of the United States throughout the Muslim 
world. We talk of holding free elections in Iraq, but we cannot hold 
free elections when the very country yearning to be free is under the 
thumb of more than 150,000 foreign troops. Democracy cannot be forced 
from the barrel of a gun.
  Instead of issuing an arbitrary date for holding elections, why not 
let the Iraqi people themselves determine when they are ready to knock 
on democracy's door? That way, at least we

[[Page H173]]

would adhere to the very democratic principles we are trying to export 
to the Middle East.
  There are some that say we need to remain in Iraq until we are sure 
we have destroyed every last remnant of Iraqi's growing insurgency. The 
United States has faced this kind of elusive enemy before, in places 
like Vietnam in the 1970s and the Philippines in the early 1900s. We 
learned then and we should know now that this is a battle that we 
cannot win, because it is a battle that is not fought on a traditional 
battlefield.
  Bullets will not win this war, because for every insurgent killed, 
three more sign up to fill his shoes. The suicide bombers of tomorrow 
are born from the bombed-out homes of Iraq's war zones of today. We 
have to be smarter than the insurgents if we wish to see a free and 
democratic Iraq.
  In the end, withdrawing our forces is the smarter option. This is not 
a suggestion that our troops have failed. It is an acknowledgment that 
the military option itself has failed us. It is a recognition that we 
need to address the root causes of the Iraq insurgency instead of 
watching America become further bogged down in an unwinnable war.
  In the 108th Congress I introduced a SMART Security Resolution for 
the 21st Century which called for a Sensible, Multilateral, American 
Response to Terrorism. Adopting this type of foreign policy will help 
us avoid the many mistakes that have been characterized in the war in 
Iraq.
  SMART security calls for the United States to address the root causes 
of terrorism by engaging our international partners and the 
humanitarian community in international reconstruction and political 
transition processes.
  SMART security calls for increased developmental aid programs, 
integrated with peace-building and conflict-resolution measures. By 
withdrawing U.S. military forces from Iraq, we can spend some of the 
billions of dollars which formerly paid for military operations on 
humanitarian projects for the Iraqi people, such as new schools for 
Iraq's children, water desalination plants and improved economic and 
civil infrastructure.
  Mr. Speaker, the United States must stop engaging in a reckless 
national security strategy, because our current path only encourages 
further terrorist activities. It costs Americans in our taxes, in our 
loss of our loved ones. It costs our international reputation, and it 
makes our troops sitting ducks.
  It is time we pursue the SMART security strategy for America. That is 
the best way to secure Iraq, and it is the best way to keep America 
safe and secure for the future. If we do not, all we will be left with 
is the consequences of our current failed policies.

                          ____________________