[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 34 (Thursday, March 16, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E392]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT FOR DEFENSE, THE GLOBAL WAR 
                ON TERROR, AND HURRICANE RECOVERY, 2006

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                               speech of

                          HON. MAJOR R. OWENS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 15, 2006

  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Chairman, we should be cutting off funds for the War 
In Iraq, not adding more dollars. The billions of dollars already 
appropriated are enough to sustain our troops until the kind of orderly 
withdrawal proposed by Representative John Murtha is implemented. It is 
long past time to withdraw from a war that is sucking us deeper 
everyday into a bottomless quicksand pit of filth. To wage this war 
this administration is trampling on vital political rights and 
abandoning basic moral values. To pay for this war we are cutting aid 
to public housing; aid to Medicaid and Medicare; Pell grants; aid to 
public education; and numerous other programs which support the general 
welfare of all Americans.
  Deeply destructive public policies and practices have become routine 
in this administration as every conceivable trick is used to 
rationalize the war. To save the nation we must withdraw from Iraq and 
John Murtha has offered the most practical scenario for achieving this 
goal. At the heart of the Murtha proposal is the recommendation of an 
orderly withdrawal over a six-month period. Murtha offers an honorable 
way out of a quicksand pit of filth. John Murtha speaks with the voice 
of a soldier. He thinks with the mind of a patriot. And John Murtha 
feels with the heart of a grieving mother.
  Very definitive polls now communicate to all leaders the American 
people's overwhelming disapproval of the President and his War In Iraq. 
Our constituents endorse and support the position of John Murtha. 
History will certainly illuminate and validate the courage and wisdom 
of John Murtha. But Members of Congress should not wait for history. We 
Members of Congress have a duty to make history, to guide the nation 
out of this peril and back to the path of progress and prosperity. 
There are two classes of leaders who support this administration's War 
In Iraq: Those who consistently vote for the war and the endless 
appropriations. And those leaders whose levels of concern are so low 
that they refuse, despite the objections of their constituents, to even 
take the very moderate action of becoming a co-sponsor of Murtha's 
well-reasoned proposal for withdrawal. Censure or impeachment 
proceedings may be necessary in the future. But at this immediate 
moment the opportunity to salvage this deteriorating situation is 
clearly present in the Murtha proposal. Members should co-sponsor 
Murtha now and let their constituents know that their voices have been 
heard.
  Vote first against this wasteful, destructive, appropriation for 
Iraq. And then sign on as a Murtha co-sponsor.




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