[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 93 (Tuesday, July 12, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H5712-H5713]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             SMART SECURITY

  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, back in my district this past weekend, I 
had an extraordinary meeting with a group of veterans, many of them 
from Alpha Company 579th Engineering Battalion who have recently 
returned from a tour in Iraq.
  During their deployment, this National Guard unit of 88 mostly 
California soldiers lost 3 comrades; 23 were wounded in action. And 
they also received 26 Purple Hearts, eight Bronze Stars and one 
Meritorious Service Medal.
  Saturday's town meeting was not about my position on the war or 
anybody else's. We were there to provide information about the services 
and benefits available to returning soldiers. We had the VA regional 
director as well as a local vice chairman from a group called 
Employment Support for the Guard and Reserve. One of our speakers was 
the National Managing Director of Helmet to Hardhats, an organization 
that helps place veterans in construction jobs. The administrator from 
the largest veterans home in the country in Yountville, California, was 
there. And we heard from a man who started a nonprofit called Welcome 
Home Heroes devoted simply to treating an Iraq or Afghanistan veteran 
to a night out with his or her family at a nice restaurant.
  For so many soldiers, the return from the battlefield is just the 
beginning of their ordeal. There are those who have been wounded or 
mentally traumatized or both and must learn to cope with a life-
altering condition. But even if you come home unscathed, the transition 
back to civilian life can be rough going. There are jobs to find, 
educations to complete and loans to pay off. There are cases in which 
service to the Nation has cost veterans their homes or their small 
businesses. Some may need family counseling to readjust to domestic 
life.
  We cannot let them down. I was profoundly disappointed a few weeks 
ago when we learned that the Department of Veterans Affairs found 
itself a billion dollars short of what was necessary to cover veterans 
health expenses for the year 2005. But this body did the right thing by 
quickly passing a supplemental to help fill the gap before we left for 
the Fourth of July holiday, although the appropriations I believe could 
have been more generous.
  How could we go home to celebrate the birth of American freedom if we 
were not doing our part to support our troops in the field today?
  Every Member of the House who voted that day voted aye, voted for the 
bill which just goes to show, Mr. Speaker, that there is and there 
should be little partisanship when it comes to support for our 
veterans.

                              {time}  1915

  I do not know anyone on either side of the aisle in this Chamber who 
does not feel the utmost pride in the brave men and women who are on 
the front

[[Page H5713]]

line in Iraq. I do not know anyone who is not filled with gratitude for 
their sacrifice. Where I part with many of my colleagues is in my 
belief that the best way to support the troops is to bring them home as 
soon as possible, a position shared by a majority of the American 
people, by the way.
  Helping war veterans is a top priority for me. But ironically, one 
that in an ideal world would hardly be necessary if the United States 
adopted what I call a SMART Security plan. War would be an absolute 
last resort, something we turn to reluctantly, only after every 
diplomatic channel has been pursued. The smart in SMART Security stands 
for Sensible Multilateral American Response to Terrorism.
  As the tragedy in London demonstrates, our belligerence has not made 
America or the world safer; and it is time, I believe, that we had a 
new approach, one that relies on multilateral alliances and improved 
intelligence to track and detain terrorists, one that renews our 
commitment to nuclear nonproliferation, one that invests aggressively 
in international development to attack the poverty and hopelessness 
that breed terrorism in the first place.
  SMART is tough, pragmatic, and patriotic. It protects America by 
relying on the very best of American values: our commitment to freedom, 
our compassion for the people of the world, and our capacity for global 
leadership.
  Criticism of our Iraq policy must never be misinterpreted as 
criticism of those on the ground carrying it out. We must stand with 
our veterans, the fearless Americans literally wearing the scars of a 
war that they did not choose. Just because a policy may be flawed, and 
I believe it is, does not detract from the remarkable job they do. We 
must show the same selflessness toward them that they have showed 
toward our Nation.

                          ____________________