[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 120 (Thursday, September 22, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H8327]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           TIME TO LEAVE 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, since the United States went to war in Iraq 
over 2 years ago, Congress has approved spending bill after spending 
bill to pay for military operations in Iraq. But one thing Congress has 
never done is provide any meaningful oversight over the war and the 
spending on the war.
  Think about it. Congress will spend money on Iraq to the point of 
busting our already fragile budget, but when it comes to truly managing 
the war, Congress is nowhere to be found. Every single Member of 
Congress and the people that elected them should be utterly ashamed of 
this absence of Congress on this crucial issue.
  With nearly 2,000 United States troops killed, another 15,000 
wounded, and countless thousands of Iraqis killed, the U.S. Congress 
must, must exercise its oversight responsibilities to determine why 
things are going so drastically wrong in Iraq.
  I have repeatedly asked the House Armed Services Committee and the 
House International Relations Committee to hold hearings on Iraq. 
Unfortunately, no committee has undertaken a serious and thoughtful 
examination of the war.
  Since Congress has continually failed in that duty, I have decided to 
take matters into my own hands. Last Thursday I held a hearing to 
assess how to end the war in Iraq and start bringing our troops home.
  Such luminaries as former Senator Max Cleland, four-star Marine Corps 
General Joseph Hoar, and former U.S. Ambassador David Mack testified at 
this hearing.
  Thirty Members of Congress, bipartisan Members at that, all of whom 
are frustrated by the same tired policies when it comes to Iraq, joined 
me at this hearing. The purpose of this hearing was to address not the 
when of ending the war, but how to end the war. After all, we should 
all be able to agree that the United States cannot continue to fight in 
Iraq indefinitely.
  Given that fact, we need to start thinking about how the United 
States can responsibly leave Iraq without making a bad situation worse. 
As Senator Cleland so eloquently stated, ``When we talk about an exit 
strategy, we need to put the focus on strategy.''
  If the hearing demonstrated anything, it is that we need to start 
bringing our troops home because it is our very presence in Iraq that 
is encouraging and uniting Iraq's insurgency. But the sad truth is that 
the Bush administration is doing nothing to help end the war. They have 
no plan for how to conduct the war, they had no plan for securing the 
country once Saddam Hussein was deposed, and now they have no plan for 
ending the war.
  Well, if they do not, we will. That is what our hearing was about 
last week. We are trying to jump-start a debate in Congress that should 
have begun long ago.
  The hearing was not about endorsing any one exit strategy, it was 
about putting all of them on the table and getting the discussions 
started. It was about encouraging the rest of the Congress to take a 
strong stand against permanent U.S. military bases on Iraq's soil and 
Iraqi control of Iraqi oil.
  The American people have known for many months that the rationale for 
going to war in Iraq was based on fraud and lies. They have known that 
the war will continue to drain our resources and kill our young men and 
women in the military.
  Now, two-thirds of Americans support a partial or complete military 
withdrawal from Iraq. It is time for Congress to start getting that 
message. And it is time for Congress to catch up with the American 
people and to catch up with the witnesses at Thursday's hearing.

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