[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 84 (Wednesday, June 22, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H4964-H4965]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
APOLOGIES NEEDED
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, it is one of the first lessons we are
taught as children, how and when to apologize for doing something
wrong.
Our capacity for saying I am sorry is part of what makes us a
functioning and civilized society. My parents always said I should
apologize for hurting someone. But they never insisted that I apologize
simply for pointing out when someone else was doing something bad or
wrong.
Yet, here in Washington all of the sudden every time a Democrat uses
strong rhetoric to condemn the policies of the Bush administration,
there is a relentless pressure from the Republicans for an apology.
Maybe my memory is failing me, but I just do not recall any apologies
when opponents of the Iraq war had their patriotism questioned. Now
with a new poll showing that 63 percent of the American people want the
troops to come home in the next year, maybe the right wing message
machine owes an apology to nearly two out of three Americans. The fact
is their apology demands on Democratic dissenters is just a convenient
way to change the subject, to avoid any kind of question about the
merits of the Iraq war and the way it has been managed.
And why do they want to avoid that discussion? Because the American
people have completely lost confidence in the administration's Iraq
policy. Instead of apologizing for words, it is time we started
demanding apologies for deeds. Where, for example, is the apology for
the deaths of more than 1,700 Americans? Not only is there no apology;
Secretary Rumsfeld could not be bothered to personally sign condolence
letters to their families.
Where is the apology for sending young men and women to war without
the proper protective armor on their bodies and their vehicles? Where
is the
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apology for pinching pennies on veterans health benefits when these
brave soldiers return home? Where is the apology for the immoral
doctrine of this preemptive war? And where is the apology for the gross
deceptions used to justify it, for the missing weapons of mass
destruction, for the cooked intelligence, for the phony al Qaeda-Saddam
link?
Where is the apology for wasting more than $200 billion of taxpayer
money on this mistake? Where is the apology for the poor leadership
that led to torture and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo?
Where is the apology for committing our troops and our Nation to this
mission without a post-war plan to secure the peace? And where is the
apology for the arrogance that squandered international good will
toward America and damaged our relationships with our closest allies?
There is something wrong with our moral compass if we have to
apologize for speaking bluntly. But our leaders can commit the biggest
foreign policy blunder since Vietnam and get away without apology or
accountability.
Actually, an apology would not be enough for everything they have
done. An apology, after all, is just more words. It is time for action.
It is time for accountability. It is time for a tangible admission that
the Iraq war was immorally conceived and has been incompetently
managed. It is clearly time to end this war and bring our troops home.
Chuck Hagel, the senior Senator from Nebraska, a decorated Vietnam
hero and a member of the President's party, recently had this to say
about the war, ``Things aren't getting better. They are getting worse.
The White House is completely disconnected from reality. It's like
they're just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we are
losing Iraq.''
I ask you, are they going to ask Chuck Hagel for an apology? After
all, he has done the worst possible thing in the eyes of the
administration: he has told the truth.
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