[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 142 (Tuesday, November 1, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H9452-H9453]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                ERRONEOUS PREDICTIONS ON THE WAR IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, last week, America reached a tragic 
milestone in Iraq, the 2,000th American died. As of today, nearly 2,030 
Americans have been killed in Iraq and a little over 200 in 
Afghanistan. In fact, October was the deadliest month in Iraq since 
January. I say this not to exploit the grief felt by those families who 
have lost loved ones. Rather, I raise this grim milestone because it 
should give us, all of us, pause.
  Two-and-one-half years after President Bush stood on the deck of the 
USS Abraham Lincoln and declared ``mission accomplished,'' the brave 
men and women of our Armed Forces are still fighting and dying in Iraq, 
worse today than during the actual hostilities, and there is no end in 
sight.
  There is not a time to debate how we got into Iraq. There is a place 
for that. What is more important now is resolving the issues and the 
sense of how we have gotten into this quagmire and bring our men and 
women home to their families.
  It is time the administration finally leveled with the American 
people and presented us with a viable strategy towards success and 
victory. It is time that the President finally surrounded himself with 
competent leaders who can get the job done, rather than cronies and 
political operatives interested in advancing a political agenda.
  Before the war, General Shinseki said it would take several hundred 
thousand troops to secure Iraq. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul 
Wolfowitz said his estimate was widely off the mark and General 
Shinseki was let go.
  Lawrence Lindsey predicted the war would cost hundreds of billions of 
dollars. In fact, many ridiculed his estimate and said again he was 
widely off the mark, that oil revenues would pay for the 
reconstruction.

                              {time}  1945

  His predictions were ignored; and $400 billion later, the tab keeps 
rising. Some say it will finally cost nearly $1 trillion, this war.
  Dick Cheney famously predicted that we would be greeted as 
liberators. Let me say, if Iraq treats liberators like this, they have 
a funny way of greeting liberators.
  Weeks after the invasion of Iraq, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld 
fought against increasing the troop levels in Iraq. In fact, months 
before the war, he was still debating whether we needed less than 
100,000 troops, when those in the Armed Forces were saying we needed 
200,000-plus to win that war.
  When the looting broke out in Iraq right after the invasion, 
Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld replied ``stuff happens.'' Later he 
said during the looting, ``freedom is untidy, and free people are free 
to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.'' That was the 
Secretary of Defense. That sense of freedom has led to the situation we 
have today because we did not create order in that society in Iraq and 
a sense of who was in control.
  In fact, the Defense Secretary has been flat wrong on countless 
occasions, both before hostilities and after the hostilities. I have 
lost track of the number of times he has told us that the insurgency 
was in its ``last throes.'' On March 30, 2003, regarding the fabled 
weapons of mass destruction, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld again: ``We 
know where they are. They are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad.''
  He has misled us on the number of Iraqis trained to conduct police 
and military operations. In September of 2003 he said 55,000 Iraqis 
have been trained. Earlier this year, he told us three battalions were 
operational. About a month ago, in front of the Senate, we were told 
that there was only one operational Iraqi battalion. Imagine that: Mr. 
Speaker, $450 billion, a little over 2,000 American lives, over 10,000 
Americans wounded, and one operational Iraqi battalion to show for 
that, and two elections.
  The truth is that the administration's plan for their invasion was 
brilliantly planned, but they have failed to plan for the occupation, 
costing American lives, our treasury, and our reputation, and all 
because of the incompetency of this administration.
  Today we are left with a quagmire that has created terrorists and 
threatens to destabilize the region.
  Let me read you what some of the experts in the Republican national 
security apparatus have said. Retired Army Lieutenant General Odom, 
former head of the National Security Agency, said the invasion of Iraq 
``will turn out to be the greatest strategic disaster in U.S. 
history.''
  Brent Scowcroft, National Security Adviser to the first President 
Bush said: ``You have to know when to stop using force. You encourage 
democracy over time, with assistance, and aid, the traditional way. Not 
how the neocons in this administration do it.''
  Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of 
staff in the State Department, called President Bush's foreign policy 
``ruinous'' and said that ``we have courted disaster in Iraq, in North 
Korea, in Iran.''
  The people I just quoted are not exactly the board of moveon.org or 
the Democratic Party. These are the pillars and the heads of the 
national security apparatus of the Republican Party. These experts are 
saying that it is time for a new direction with new priorities when it 
comes to Iraq.
  We have to get it right in Iraq, but the current path the President 
has us on is not the path to success; and it is not simply, as he says, 
the choice between doing more of the same and getting the same results 
or merely pulling out. Mr. Speaker, $400 billion and one Iraqi 
battalion. Some are estimating, as I said, the cost of this war will 
get closer to $1 trillion.
  It is time for the President to level with the American people and 
show us a path to success. We need a performance-based Iraqi strategy. 
How many police will we be reduced to this quarter? How many police 
will be reduced next quarter? How many Army members will be produced 
this quarter, the next quarter, and for the next 2 years,

[[Page H9453]]

every quarter this administration has to have a performance-based 
policy on police training, on Army training, on civil society 
development, on reconstruction, and on the political front so we can 
finally, in the President's words, stand down. But having given them 
free rein for nearly 2\1/2\ years and we have one battalion 
operationally ready to show for it, they have abused the trust of the 
American people.
  We need to internationalize our operations in Iraq. We need to 
convince the world that a stable Iraq is in everyone's interests, and 
we need to refocus on stopping terrorism. Mr. Speaker after 2\1/2\ 
years and more than 2,000 American lives, it is time we adopted a 
different strategy, a strategy for victory that will reunite American 
families and provide Iraq a stable society. It is time the President 
stopped campaigning and began to lead on the issue of Iraq.

                          ____________________