[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 115 (Wednesday, September 14, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H7925]
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, a friend of mine has sent me a short and 
moving poem; and I want to share it tonight.
  She writes, ``I weep for my country. We seem to have completely lost 
our way. I want the government to be as generous as private people are. 
I want my government to do as well as WalMart is doing. I weep for my 
country. I want black faces to count as much as mine. I need hope, not 
statistics, platitudes and phony, staged play-acting. I weep for my 
country. We need a Marshall Plan. We need a New Deal. We need leaders 
in Congress to start talking about conservation, pulling together, car 
pooling, not opening the Alaskan oil fields. Oh, God, how I weep for my 
country.''
  I was moved by my friend's words, and I am committed to turning her 
words into action. Tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock I will be convening a 
hearing to discuss concrete strategies for ending the war in Iraq. We 
will hear from Middle East experts, military leaders, and others as 
they offer their ideas for how we can bring our troops home and move 
toward a peaceful but constructive role in the rebuilding of Iraqi 
society.
  This morning brought news of a deadly series of bombings in Iraq, 
killing American soldiers and Iraqi civilians, more than 150 people in 
all, making it one of the deadliest days of this horrific war.
  Is this what the march of freedom looks like? Is this what Vice 
President Cheney meant when he said the insurgency was in its last 
throes?
  It is more clear than ever that the American military presence is 
inspiring terrorist insurgents rather than defeating them. Al Qaeda has 
taken credit for this wave of violence and al Qaeda was not even a 
factor in Iraq before the U.S.-led occupation began.
  The American people understand this. Nearly two-thirds of them give 
the President poor marks on his handling of Iraq. They are desperate to 
hear alternatives to the administration's disastrous policy. That is 
why I have organized this hearing tomorrow, to give voice to a widely 
held conviction, to spark a national debate, to demonstrate that many 
of us do not want to just speak out against the war. We want to discuss 
pragmatic, nuts-and-bolts solutions, in fact, a road map to our very 
disengagement.
  That discussion should eventually go beyond Iraq to include a 
complete reassessment of our national security priorities. It is time 
to end the reflexive impulse of using military force to solve our 
international conflict. It has, by the way, the appearance of strength, 
but, as Iraq has shown us, it often undermines our national security, 
rather than enhancing it.
  I have proposed a new approach. It is called SMART Security. It 
stands for Sensible, Multi-lateral American Response to Terrorism. 
SMART is based on the belief that war should be an absolute last 
resort, to be undertaken only under the most extreme circumstances. But 
that does not mean SMART is not serious and smart about protecting 
America. It is vigilant about fighting terrorism and weapons of mass 
destruction, but it does so with stronger multi-lateral alliance, 
improved intelligence capabilities, vigorous inspection regimes, and 
aggressive diplomacy.
  SMART would shuffle our national security budget. No more billions 
thrown at outdated Cold War weapons programs. That money would instead 
be invested in energy independence and other efforts that truly are 
relevant to the modern security threats that we face.
  SMART also includes an ambitious international development agenda to 
help address the root causes of terrorism, democracy building, 
education for women and girls, addressing resources scarcity. These are 
key ingredients to building stable societies in Iraq and elsewhere.
  It is my hope and belief that the grievous mistakes we made in Iraq 
will lead us to this new, smarter national security policy. SMART 
Security protects America by relying on the very best of American 
values: our capacity for global leadership, our dedication to peace and 
freedom, and our compassion for the people of the world.

                          ____________________