[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 6 (Thursday, January 11, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H398-H399]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      CONFRONTING REALITY IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, yesterday's decision by President Bush to 
escalate the U.S. troop commitment in Iraq will not bring stability to 
Baghdad. It will not ameliorate the growing civil war in Iraq. A troop 
increase will not result in a more rapid exit for the more than 130,000 
American troops serving there, many of them on their third or fourth 
tour in Iraq. And worst of all, it makes apparent that the President 
has paid little heed to the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, a multitude of 
experts, both civilian and military, the Congress and, most 
importantly, an overwhelming majority of the American people.
  For a long time, many of us have been calling for a new way forward 
in Iraq, and the White House billed last night's speech as a dramatic 
departure from current policy. But while the rhetoric may have been 
different, the plan outlined by the President was more of the same, and 
he clearly intends to stay the course. This is a position that I 
believe is unwise and that I strongly oppose.
  I will support a resolution of disapproval, and I am willing to 
explore other options to force the President to truly change policy in 
Iraq.
  In his remarks, the President told us that failure in Iraq is 
unacceptable, but his prosecution of the war has made success in Iraq 
recede further and further from our reach. The latest escalation is 
another in a long series of poor decisions by the administration that 
have cost the lives of so many brave and dedicated troops, cost 
American taxpayers more than $350 billion and left Iraq in chaos. 
Shiites and Sunnis who once lived in integrated neighborhoods in 
Baghdad are slaughtering each other now at a terrifying

[[Page H399]]

pace. Iraqis spend 16 of every 24 hours without electricity.
  Rather than sending additional troops to combat the insurgency, we 
should begin to responsibly redeploy our forces in Iraq while 
redoubling our efforts to train and equip Iraqi forces to provide their 
own security, an effort which is at the very heart of the Iraq Study 
Group recommendations for bolstering security in Iraq.
  President Bush rightly characterized the most recent pushes to 
stabilize Baghdad, Operation Together Forward and Operation Together 
Forward II, as unsuccessful, because there were not enough Iraqi forces 
to hold areas cleared by American troops. But the President's assertion 
that we will now be able to rely on 18 Iraqi army and police brigades 
to shoulder much of the burden in a new offensive in Baghdad is clearly 
at odds with reality.

                              {time}  1600

  The Iraqi Army has not distinguished itself in combat. And four of 
the six battalions that were deployed to the capital last summer failed 
to show up at all.
  The Iraqi police, which are under the control of the Ministry of the 
Interior, have been heavily infiltrated by Shiite militias and death 
squads and cannot be expected to take on Shiite extremists as Prime 
Minister Malaki has pledged. There is little support for an escalated 
American military presence in Iraq. American military commanders do not 
see an increase as improving the security situation on the ground, and 
the strain of multiple deployments has seriously eroded our capacity to 
respond to other contingencies should the need arise.
  The American people, Democrats and Republicans alike, do not support 
an increase in the troop strength in Iraq. Perhaps most important of 
all, the Iraqis do not want more American troops in Iraq. In fact, if 
there is one thing that unites Iraqis, it is the desire that American 
forces should not remain indefinitely.
  Furthermore, by continuing to bear the brunt of the fighting against 
insurgents, foreign fighters, and militias, the United States has 
fostered a dangerous dependence that has slowed efforts to have Iraqis 
shoulder the burden of defending their own country and government.
  Even as we focus our military efforts on training Iraqi security 
forces, we need to push the Sunnis and Shiites to make the political 
compromises that are the necessary precondition to any reconciliation 
process. I have been arguing for more than 2 years that the struggle in 
Iraq is primarily a political one. The Iraq Study Group and numerous 
outside experts have also pressed the administration to force the Iraqi 
Government to make the hard decisions on power sharing, minority 
rights, and the equitable distribution of oil revenues that could help 
quell the Sunni insurgency and undermine support for Shiite maximalists 
like Muktada al Sadr.
  I also believe the United States must work to convene a regional 
conference to support Iraq's bringing together its neighborhoods to 
find ways to stem the flow of weapons and foreign fighters into Iraq 
and to pursue common strategies in support of reconstruction and 
political reconciliation efforts.
  There is hard evidence that Iran is facilitating the flow of weapons, 
trainers, and intelligence to Shiite militias in a bid to assert 
greater control over its neighbor. At the same time, the long and 
porous Syrian border has continued to be a transit point for foreign 
jihadis who have carried out some of the spectacular and devastating 
attacks on U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians.
  Finally, our efforts in Iraq cannot be pursued in a vacuum. We need 
to do more to engage the Arab and Muslim world, and there must be a 
renewed effort to start peace negotiations between Israel and the 
Palestinians. This week's passage of the 9/11 implementation bill 
included excellent proposals for buttressing our leadership by 
improving our communication of ideas and communication in the Muslim 
world and by expanding U.S. scholarship exchange and other programs in 
Muslim countries.
  Mr. Speaker, failure is unacceptable, but so is staying the course. I 
hope and expect that the debate we are going to have, the first real 
debate we have had in years, will convince the President to listen to 
those who are calling for a new way forward and not more of the same.

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