[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 71 (Wednesday, June 7, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H3484]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        A TURNING POINT IN 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, a few days ago, President Bush said that we 
had reached a turning point in Iraq. Given that he declared ``Mission 
Accomplished'' and the end of major combat operations more than 3 years 
ago, I would say it is about time we reached a turning point.
  But as the Washington Post pointed out, this kind of turning point 
language is pretty commonplace for the President. There have been many 
milestones. There have been many turning points from this White House, 
even a turning point in the history of freedom over the last several 
years. The President should ask the people who risk their lives, their 
bodies, and their minds every day, just walking down the streets of 
Baghdad, if they see a turning point. We should ask the Iraqi citizens 
how they see it.
  The day after the President's last attempt at spin, more than 30 
Iraqis were murdered in violent attacks. They joined tens of thousands 
of other innocent civilians, many of them children, who have died for 
the cause of their so-called ``liberation.'' There are some rumblings 
now about drawing down our troop levels, but we have heard that before, 
and I will believe it when I see it, and I will believe it to be real 
when the President puts forward a plan on how he is going to end this 
war.
  Mr. Speaker, I have yet to hear the President disavow his statement 
that the decision to bring our troops home will be for future 
Presidents to decide. I have yet to hear a clear denial from the 
administration that we have plans to build permanent military bases in 
Iraq. If there is some kind of reduction in U.S. forces, my fear is 
that it will be a cosmetic change only, driven more by the political 
calendar than any kind of strategic consideration, ultimately making 
the troops left in Iraq even more vulnerable than they are now.
  The answer is not to get down to 100,000 troops by the end of the 
year, because incremental steps are not enough. There must be a plan to 
immediately end this occupation and bring every last one of our 
soldiers home. The longer they stay, the longer suicide bombings will 
persist, because our very presence is one of the principal causes of 
the violence.
  That is not our soldiers' fault. Of course, it isn't. They have 
performed their services faithfully and courageously. It is their 
civilian supervisors who have miscalculated at every turn. It is the 
President, the Vice President, and the Secretary of Defense who refuse 
to see that our military presence is fueling the rage of the 
insurgency, intensifying hatred for America, and stoking the fires of 
civil war.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for an entirely new approach to Iraq. It is 
time for the United States to show real global leadership by helping 
assemble a multinational security force to help keep Iraq stable in the 
short term. It is time to help establish an international peace 
commission under the auspices of the U.N. to begin the Iraq postwar 
reconciliation process. It is time to turn Iraq over to the Iraqi 
people. It is time to stop being Iraq's military occupier and start 
being Iraq's reconstruction partner. It is time to rebuild the country 
we have torn apart and to do it with an emphasis on transparency and 
accountability and not on padding Halliburton's profit margins.
  But before we take these steps, before we do anything, we must end 
the war and bring our troops home to their families, where they belong. 
That is the turning point that will make a real difference in the Iraq 
situation.

                          ____________________