[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 30 (Monday, March 14, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H1408]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                SMART SECURITY AND IRAQI SECURITY FORCES

  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, yesterday General Richard Myers, Chairman 
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced that 142,000 members of the 
Iraqi security forces have been fully trained. That statement leads me 
to wonder, if the number of trained Iraqi security personnel equals the 
number of United States troops in Iraq, why have we not begun to bring 
our troops home?
  If the Iraqi people are trained to protect their country, as General 
Myers claims, then why has the Bush administration left our troops to 
be sitting ducks in Iraq for the foreseeable future? Why are not the 
Iraqis relying on these 142,000 security personnel for the heavy burden 
of keeping Iraq secure?
  Sadly, the Bush administration wants the American people to ignore 
the fact that together 150,000 American troops and 142,000 Iraqi troops 
have not been able to secure the country.
  That is because by invading Iraq the Bush administration has created 
a whole new generation of terrorist recruits whose common tie is their 
hatred for the United States occupation.
  This immoral, ill-conceived and unjust war against a country that 
never provoked us and never posed a threat to the United States has 
made Americans, and Iraqis alike, much less safe.
  Most of the 1,500 U.S. troops who have been killed in Iraq died after 
President Bush made those now infamous remarks about the end of major 
combat operations in May of 2003, with the banner Mission Accomplished 
prominently displayed in the background. Mr. Speaker, the way to honor 
our brave troops is by preventing further lives from being lost. In 
addition to the 1,500 troops killed, more than 11,000 Americans have 
been severely wounded and a staggering tens of thousands of innocent 
Iraqi civilians have died in this war.
  The tremendous cost of the war is no less dangerous to our security 
here at home because thousands of Iraqi insurgents have been created 
since we attacked Iraq. Congress has charged U.S. taxpayers over $200 
billion in less than 2 years to pay for the ongoing occupation of that 
country.
  Imagine what we could do with $200 billion. We could fund our 
Nation's homeland security efforts for an entire year or shore up the 
budget shortfalls of every single State in the country and still have 
billions of dollars left over to help reconstruct Iraq's decimated 
infrastructure.
  Mr. Speaker, we need to pursue a new national security plan, one 
which defends America by relying on the very best of American values, 
our commitment to peace, our commitment to freedom, our compassion for 
the people of the world, and our capacity for multilateral leadership.
  With the help of Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Friends 
Committee on National Legislation and Women's Action For New Direction, 
I have created a SMART security strategy for the 21st century. SMART 
stands for Sensible, Multilateral, American Response to Terrorism.
  A SMART security strategy for Iraq means providing the developmental 
aid that can help create a robust civil society; building schools for 
Iraqi children so that they can learn about peace and freedom; water 
processing plants so all Iraqis will have clean drinking water; and 
ensuring that Iraq's economic infrastructure becomes fully viable in 
order to avoid a fiscal collapse.
  Instead of troops, let us send scientists, educators, urban planners 
and constitutional experts to help rebuild Iraq's flagging economic and 
physical infrastructure and establish a robust and democratic civil 
society.
  It is time for the Bush administration to pay attention to its own 
claims. If 142,000 Iraqi security forces have been trained, as General 
Myers told us yesterday, then the President should agree with me that 
it is time for the United States to cease playing a militaristic role 
in Iraq and begin playing a humanitarian role.
  SMART security is the right approach for America in Iraq. The SMART 
approach would prevent any more American soldiers and Iraqi civilians 
from being needlessly killed. It would save the United States billions 
of dollars in military appropriations, and just as importantly, it 
would keep America safe. It is time for America to adopt a SMART 
security policy.

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