[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 21, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1237-E1238]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  DECLARING THAT THE UNITED STATES WILL PREVAIL IN THE GLOBAL WAR ON 
                                 TERROR

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. ANTHONY D. WEINER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 15, 2006

  Mr. WEINER. Mr. Speaker, as we stand here today, there is no way to 
argue that this war in Iraq was not badly undermined by bad planning 
based on bad intelligence and an abject failure to organize the 
international community in a meaningful way.
  In short, the American people and Congress would clearly answer this 
question in the same way. If we knew then what we know today would we 
have done everything the same? Certainly not.
  This is a common sense message despite the fact that the 
Administration is reluctant to see it. I would suggest that there is 
another thing that we all agree upon: the extraordinary work of the men 
and women who are over there fighting on our behalf, and the remarkable 
heroism they've shown in the face of a mission that seems to constantly 
change and the hostility of many Iraqis.
  Yesterday, we mourned the 2,500th fatality. There have been 18,000 
injuries and those of us in New York have lost 118 of our neighbors.
  I believe the military mission in Iraq has been completed and our 
troops should be redeployed in a way to preserve the accomplishments 
that they've achieved and to further our objectives of defeating 
terrorism and stabilizing the region.
  At the outset of the war the President articulated and many of us 
agreed that Saddam Hussein had to be removed. Our military achieved 
that. And there have been elections in Iraq that our military helped 
make happen.
  Standing up of the infrastructure has been painfully slow. A 
Brookings Institution study that came out today showed that we still 
have not reached pre-war levels of oil production or available electric 
power.
  Yet to the extent that roads and bridges and infrastructure have been 
created or restored in Iraq, it was through the good work of the men 
and women of the United States Armed Forces. There have been reports of 
over 30,000 Iraqi civilian deaths, clean water is scarce, and 
unemployment hovers above 50 percent.
  The question we have today as inartfully and politically posited as 
my friends on the other side articulate it, is how do we honor the work 
that has been done so far and how do we adapt to the situation that 
we've found?
  This notion of barreling ahead while our troops become the target of 
so many attacks is misguided. The number of daily attacks by insurgents 
in May of 2003 was 5; in May of 2006 it was 90. The total number of 
insurgents has increased from 3,000 to 20,000 during the same time 
period. And Iraq has become a training ground for jihadists, with an 
increase in the number of foreign fighters from 100 in May 2003 to 
1,500 in May 2006.
  I support the position of Congressman Jack Murtha and General Anthony 
Zinni, and agree with General George Casey, who said in September 2005 
that, ``the perception of occupation in Iraq is a driving force behind 
the insurgency.'' Now the burden lies with the Iraqi people, and our 
troops standing in the middle of this battlefield have become targets 
rather than a force for stability and peace.
  As Mr. Murtha has observed, 100,000 Shi'as fighting 20,000 Sunnis 
amounts to civil war, even if we choose to call it ``sectarian 
violence.'' Incidents between warring Iraqi factions are up from 20 in 
May of last year to 250 in May of this year.
  We should redeploy our troops to the horizon of the battle, out of 
harm's way, but close

[[Page E1238]]

enough to ensure that in the future the insurgents and terrorists do 
not take hold in Iraq.
  It is time for our military presence in the Middle East to be 
converted to a powerful quick-reaction force outside of Iraq. 80 
percent of Iraqis want us out of their country and 47 percent say 
killing Americans is justified.
  Then, we should reallocate the funds being spent in Iraq, which 
dwarfs the combined budgets of all other programs in place to fight 
terrorism, and re-engage with the countries around the world that 
rallied behind us in the wake of 9/11 but were alienated by our conduct 
in Iraq.
  Some have suggested that taking the target off the backs of our 
troops by removing them from the center of this conflict would lead to 
chaos. Implicit in that critique is the suggestion that we don't have 
chaos today. Our troops' presence there, I believe, is allowing Iraq's 
citizens a convenient excuse for failing to take responsibility for 
their destiny.
  The Iraqi people clearly would like us to leave and permit them to 
govern. Our troops have expressed the same sentiment. And it is clear 
that if we are to reclaim our place on the world stage as a unifying 
force for democratic values and the ideals of our country, the way to 
start is to redeploy so we can be ready for future challenges.

                          ____________________