[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 6 (Thursday, January 11, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H405-H412]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE WAR IN IRAQ
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters)
is recognized for 60 minutes.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to myself as much time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker and Members, I am here on the floor this evening along
with some of my other colleagues who have been working for almost 4
years to bring to the attention of this House the mistakes, the errors,
the misdirection of the President of the United States as relates to
the war in Iraq. We have Members on this floor this evening, many of my
colleagues, who have not only spoken time and time again about what is
going on in Iraq, but they have spoken in their districts and around
the country, helping people to understand that there are some of us
here in the Congress of the United States who do not support this war.
We support our troops. They are there because they have been told by
the President of the United States that they should volunteer to serve
because our country was at risk. But we have been trying to help people
to understand what is happening, what is not happening.
Last night the President addressed the Nation with a new plan that he
called a ``new way forward.'' Now, Mr. Speaker and Members, the
President of the United States has come up with a lot of proposals
since this debacle in Iraq. What he announced last night has been tried
before, and he has failed at almost everything that he has attempted.
Now the President is talking about sending 21,000 troops to Iraq.
Where are they going to come from? Whose family is going to have to
make the sacrifice? Who are these young people who continue to
volunteer and are told that they are going to be serving for a certain
period of time only to be stopped from going home when they thought
they would be going home? Under the President's plan, troops will have
shorter amounts of time between deployments and longer deployments to
Iraq. The length of Army deployments will be increased from 12 months
to 15 months. Marine deployments will be increased to 12 months from 7
months. So where are these troops going to come from?
The President had announced that the Iraqi Government had committed
to a series of benchmarks, including another 8,000 Iraqi troops and
policemen in Baghdad. So what if they have committed to a series of
benchmarks? So what if they don't meet them? Then what? What do we do?
The President did not say if they fail on the first benchmark that we
are going to get out of there.
{time} 1700
No. He just simply one more time said to the American people: Trust
me. And I don't think that many of us are willing to continue to trust
that the President of the United States has a vision for where he is
going with all of this.
The President also said that they were going to force passage of long
delayed legislation to share all revenues among Iraq's sects and ethnic
groups. Now, we have heard this oil story before. If you can recall,
when the President first went into Iraq, they said they were going to
get the revenues from the oil; it would help pay for the cost of the
war, and it would pay for the reconstruction of Iraq after we have torn
it up. And then, of course, the President asked that the American
people support him in getting $10 billion for jobs and reconstruction
in Iraq.
Well, now that the oil revenues are not forthcoming, this is a
President who has spent, spent, spent, created a deficit. This is a
President that refuses to support many of the domestic programs that
many of us would like to see. We would like to see more affordable
housing. We would like to see better schools. We would like to see
comprehensive universal health care. But we cannot get the support of
the President of the United States for these domestic needs. But he
tells us, now that he has messed up, led us into war under false
pretenses, that we are now to pay for it, and there is no oil revenue
there to do it. Well, I think that my friends are going to join me in
helping to unfold what has taken place.
At this time I would like to yield to the gentleman from Michigan.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank and congratulate the
gentlewoman from California, Ms. Waters, and her partner from
California for the great work that they have done here.
Ladies and gentlemen, I call your attention in this discussion
tonight to what happened on Page 1 of the New York Times. And I read
this to you for your consideration:
``Inviting a Battle on Capitol Hill. In making the effort to step up
the American military presence in Iraq, President Bush invites an epic
clash with the Democrats who run Capitol Hill, whose leader promised to
force a vote on his plan. While Congress cannot force a change in the
White House plan, Mr. Bush's initiative shows that he is ignoring the
results of the November elections, rejecting the central thrust of the
bipartisan Iraq Study Group, and flouting some of the advice of his own
generals.
[[Page H406]]
``The move is in essence a calculated gamble that no matter how much
hue and cry his new strategy may provoke, in the end the American
people will give Mr. Bush more time to turn around the war in Iraq.''
Well, ladies and gentlemen, my suggestion is that, after last night's
performance, he is not going to be given more time by the American
people and that, from a popularity rating at an all time low of 26, my
prediction is that he will have fallen even lower as a result of last
night's performance.
So I think that this is quickly turning into the President's war.
There are those on all sides around him, including within the
Republican Party, Members that will not go along any further. We have
run out of steam. We have run out of illogic. We have looked through
the exaggerations. So I conclude my remarks by just letting you hear
about the editorial in the New York Times:
``We have argued that the United States has a moral obligation to
stay in Iraq as long as there is a chance to mitigate the damage that a
quick withdrawal might cause.'' This is the editorial. ``We have called
for an effort to secure Baghdad, but as part of the sort of
comprehensive political solution utterly lacking in Mr. Bush's speech.
This war has reached the point that merely prolonging it could make a
bad ending even worse. Without a real plan to bring it to a close,
there is no point in talking about jobs programs and military offenses.
There is nothing ahead but even greater disaster in Iraq.'' This is the
media talking now.
It is time that the Executive branch recognize that the majority of
the American people, most of the Congress, the media itself are all
telling him that President Bush's private war is not going to go
anywhere, and to deliberately refuse to accept the decision and
determination of the American people on November 7 means that he is now
stepping beyond the democratic process.
Madam leader, Ms. Waters, I thank you so much for yielding.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio,
Representative Kucinich.
Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congresswoman Waters and
all of the members of the Out of Iraq Caucus for keeping the awareness
in this Congress on the need for America to take a new direction in the
world because we are not just speaking about opposition to a war which
should be opposed as illegal, but we are talking about the need for
America to take a new role in the world, one where our country does not
engage in preemption or unilateralism or first strike, one where
America cooperates with the world community on matters of international
security.
Remember, before 9/11, the felicity that America was held with in so
many parts of the world. Remember, right after 9/11, how the world
community opened its heart to the United States.
But over at the White House, just off the Oval Office, at a meeting
of the National Security Council, Donald Rumsfeld and people in the
administration were plotting the attack on Iraq the day after 9/11.
Yesterday the President mentioned 9/11 again. How many times does he
have to mention 9/11 when he talks about Iraq? Why does he keep
mentioning 9/11 when he talks about Iraq? Iraq had nothing to do with
9/11. This is the big lie. And it is this big lie that the whole policy
is based on. The Bible says, that which is crooked cannot be made
straight. That becomes prophecy when you are talking about Iraq because
everything about what the President is doing in Iraq is crooked.
Let us look at his speech last night. Why did he spend so much time
talking about Iran? Let us think about this. We know that in the last
year, this administration has taken steps to try to move within the
soft circumference of war against Iran. Our Air Force selecting bombing
targets, moving in place 24 bunker busters with nuclear tips into the
region. Last night talking about moving an aircraft carrier into the
region, talking about Patriot missiles into the region, rattling sabers
for war. He appears to be setting the stage for a wider war in the
region. He has blamed Iran for attacks on America. He is saying that he
is going to disrupt Iran. He is going to add this aircraft carrier.
Isn't one war enough for this President? Isn't one misguided war enough
for this President?
You know, it is time that the media and the Congress, as Mr. Conyers
pointed out, started to pay attention to what this President is saying
and to what he does. It is imperative that Congress exercise its
constitutional responsibility. And I think we are finally starting to
see that. I think we are seeing people on both sides of the aisle
realizing that there is a threat to our very democracy here; that our
country is in peril by a Commander in Chief who has run amuck; who is
without control; who stands by while Lebanon is basically annihilated
south of the Litani River and actually, we found out later, was
encouraging it; who is letting a civil war grow and fester in Iraq
because he is going to send more troops and pour them into it. Or,
Members of Congress, is the talk about a 21,000 troop increase in Iraq
for the purposes of dealing with problems in Baghdad? Is that just a
pretext? Since very few things are on the level with this
administration, will some of those troops instead be sent to the border
with Iran to provoke a conflict?
These are questions we have to be asking because nothing this
administration has said has been the truth. They don't have the
capacity to tell a straight story to the American people, and they have
spun the people of this country so much that people have become
disoriented, but they are finally waking up, and they woke up in
November. You want to talk about a surge? There was a surge in
November. There was a surge to the voting booth, and that surge
accomplished a new Congress. And the issue was Iraq, and our leadership
told us that before the election. Three issues, they said, will guide
this election: Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. And so was created a new Congress. And
so it is imperative that Congress step up to its obligation.
We have to say that we are not going to give this President any more
money for the war, but we have to use the money that is in the pipeline
right now to bring the troops home and, Mr. Speaker, to set in motion a
process, because we understand; we don't want to abandon the people of
Iraq. But we know that the only way that we can get our troops out is
to establish an international process, and we are not going to
establish an international process until such time that we give up the
occupation, that we remove our troops and close our bases because that
is what is fueling the insurgency. So we can turn this around.
But this President and administration, which has such a talent for
war, is determined to wreak chaos throughout the region. That is what
they want. More chaos, more war, more control, as America moves towards
fascism. Let's call it what it is. We are losing our democracy here.
What do we stand for? What are those troops out there for? They believe
in this country. They love this country. And if we love this country
and the troops, we have to bring them home. But, instead, we have got
an administration that is prepared to do something else because, in
Iraq, his new plan is a plan for more door-to-door fighting. It is a
plan for more war, more civilian casualties, more troop deaths, more
wasted money, more destabilization in the region and more separation
from the world community. This President wants to send more troops to
Baghdad in the middle of a civil war. This President wants to continue
a war that everyone knows in Iraq the situation cannot be won
militarily.
Does anyone in this administration have any sense at all? Does anyone
in this administration have any heart, that we can send our troops into
this miasma and cause not only their deaths but the deaths of innocent
civilians when the President talks about taking the restrictions off
our troops? What does that mean? Is that licensing wholesale slaughter
of civilians and then a counter reaction which results in our troops
getting slaughtered? This whole thing is wrong. This is not what
America should be about. And everyone knows that.
And yet the President last night had the nerve to talk about the
Iraqi oil again. He can never talk about Iraq without talking about
oil. They want to privatize Iraq's oil. Big surprise. Our troops were
sent into Iraq. What was the first thing the administration had them
do? Go to the oil ministry. They didn't have them go to protect
antiquity, protect children. No. Protect oil.
[[Page H407]]
Do you know the Baker Report pointed out that 500,000 barrels of oil
are being stolen every day? With 140,000 to 150,000 American troops
there, how in the world can we have all that oil being stolen? How can
that happen?
{time} 1715
Do you know what the market value of that oil is? If you run the
numbers, about $62.25 a barrel. That is over $11 billion worth of oil a
year stolen. The patrimony of Iraq is just being stolen.
How are we going to have peace if the U.S. is sitting on top of oil,
talking about privatizing the oil for the President and all of his
buddies in the oil industry? We are going to have peace in that region?
Those people are going to step back and let that happen? No way.
That is why we have to get out of Iraq, end the occupation, bring our
troops home, close the bases and give the Iraqi people control of their
oil once again and begin a process of reconciliation.
We need to create a new context where the international community
helps us, because we are on our way out of there. The international
community is not going to help the United States as long as we are
occupiers.
You know, Mr. Speaker, this President wants to expand the war and the
American people should be very concerned because it is not just the
sons and daughters who are over there, but it is more who will be sent
through an expansion of the war. It is the jeopardy of an escalation.
Have we not learned anything from the experience in Vietnam? Have we
not learned that this march of folly we are on has been duplicated in
the past? Have we not learned that the attempt to use raw military
power is doomed to failure in a world that is interdependent and
interconnected? Don't we know that we have a capacity to evolve? Isn't
the American Revolution really a series of evolutions of our upward
march into something better than we are? Aren't we prepared to take
that? I think we are.
I think the American people know it is time for us to take this new
direction, to reconnect and reunite with the world community. And we
will begin that when this Congress takes a stand and says no more money
for war; when this Congress takes a stand and says use the money that
is there to bring the troops home; when this Congress takes a stand and
says close those bases, don't privatize the oil. When we become
actually a co-equal branch of government, which was the intention of
our Founders in drawing up the Constitution and in ratifying the
Constitution of the United States.
That is what America was always supposed to be about, not about an
imperial Presidency. We rejected kings. We rejected autocracy when this
country was founded. We didn't come through this long constitutional
experience to the administration of George Bush just to turn our back
on everything America is about, turn our back on what our real purpose
as a Nation is. It is about taking care of our people.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I would like to thank
the gentleman for all of the hours he has put into this issue.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur).
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlelady for yielding. I thank
Congresswoman Maxine Waters from California for bringing us together
here and for her great leadership in the Out of Iraq Caucus. And I also
thank Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio for his great intellect and
great passion. It is a joy to serve with all of you.
I made more formal remarks earlier this evening on the subject of the
President's proposal to escalate the number of troops in Iraq. But I
wanted to spend a couple of minutes this evening reemphasizing the
broader region and how U.S. policy is really impacting a growing anti-
Americanism not just inside Iraq, but in many other countries, and how
the United States is serving to create destabilization inside nations
that is very, very dangerous for those countries, yet we play an
immense role in that.
We see what has happened in Iraq. That is kind of the prism that we
are looking through now, and we see the Sunni and Shia pitted against
each other, and Christians fleeing across the border by the hundreds of
thousands, thinking they have no more home inside Iraq. We have done a
lot of damage in that country.
And then we look at what is happening inside nations like Bahrain. In
recent parliamentary elections, we saw that almost a dozen, 20
parliamentarians were elected from very, very anti-American postures.
And, of course, our Fifth Fleet is ported in Bahrain. Were it not
ported there, I doubt that the Government of Bahrain would hold.
We look at what is happening in Pakistan and in the provinces of
Pakistan. And in every single one of those provinces, the most anti-
American candidates are being elected to and rising within the
political structure of those countries.
We think about what just happened at the Horn of Africa, and we look
at Ethiopia and the arms that the United States is providing and the
soldiers that have entered into Somalia and our gunships shelling off
of the coast into Somalia itself and the conflict that is brewing
between Ethiopia and Somalia.
And you begin looking at what is happening in the general region. It
isn't just Iraq. That is kind of a place where we need to keep our eye,
but we need to open our eyes to what is happening across the region.
Inside of Lebanon, a country that I remain very close to because of
the constituency that I represent, and the struggles we have had during
our tenure here in the Congress to try to help Lebanon to be a leader
in terms of signing the peace agreement with Israel and remaining a
major center for education, for trade, for business, for diplomacy in
that part of the world, and the United States standing back and
allowing Lebanon to be shelled around its entire perimeter, and a most
unfortunate war between Lebanon and Israel, and we saw the Bush
administration sit back.
And then we watch these demonstrations in the streets of Beirut. I
mean, a million people from Hezbollah demonstrating against the United
States. And then of course the Government of Lebanon, Prime Minister
Siniora's government trying to hold on, trying to maintain a posture
where all sects are able to participate.
But if you look at what is happening across the region in almost
every single country, there is this destabilization.
In the Palestinian Authority where we thought during the Clinton
administration we were making some progress, of course difficult, of
course painstaking. Yet we see Hamas clashing in so many countries.
What we have is destabilization rather than a movement toward
reconciliation.
The policies of the Bush administration almost seem to result in
destabilization in many, many countries in that region of the world.
In Afghanistan, we know that our work is cut out for us. Afghanistan
in many ways is a capital without a country, and we are seeing the loss
of more life from soldiers from the international community that are
attempting to assist us to try to bring some functioning nation-state
in place in Afghanistan.
I mention these issues because the President of the United States
doesn't. He acts like they are not there. And the rising anti-
Americanism that we see across the broader region is very, very
dangerous. It is dangerous not perhaps so much for my generation, but
for our children and grandchildren that will follow us. There are 1
billion people who subscribe to Islam in this world, and we have to not
alienate every single one of them. We have to help them reconcile their
internal differences, their tribal tendencies, their tendencies to talk
across one another rather than with one another.
I would like to thank my colleague for allowing me a few minutes this
evening. I could speak about the oil imperative and my deep, deep
concerns about what is happening not just inside Iraq but with the
powerful, powerful involvement of global oil companies in letting their
power be felt in what happens in this capital and with the likely
placements of pipelines across the regions that I am talking about and
who are likely to be winners and losers in those efforts. There isn't
time to do that tonight.
Without question, the United States, when people ask what can we do
at home, what we should be doing here at home is becoming energy
independent within a decade. No question. No
[[Page H408]]
blinks, no hesitation, no doubts. Not by 2025, within one decade,
because that would help free America from the bondage that we are held
to from all of the dictatorships from whom we are importing oil. And
those dictatorships are extremely important for the American to
understand.
If you really look at where terrorism sprouts from, where did the
majority of the 9/11 terrorists come from: Saudi Arabia. Why would they
hit the United States? What might that have to do with? Where did they
come from in Saudi Arabia, and what were they trying to do?
They were trying to get us out of Saudi Arabia. And you know what,
they succeeded in doing that. We moved our forces out.
They are about the task of cleansing, in their view, their part of
the world from those who control those important oil resources. The
United States shouldn't be joined at the hip to oil dictatorships. The
American people are beginning to understand who really controls rising
oil and gasoline prices in this country, and the importance of us
becoming energy independent here at home.
We need to focus the American people on what is happening across a
broad region of the world that is extremely dangerous to us long term
as the Bush policies are so narrowly focused and really
counterproductive long term.
Ms. WATERS. I thank the gentlewoman for all of the good work she
does.
I now yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern).
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Ms. Waters for her
leadership on the Out of Iraq Caucus and for her words here today. I
want to thank all of my colleagues for participating in this Special
Order this evening.
We are all here because we love this country, and we are all here
because we are outraged by the Bush policy in Iraq. We believe our
country is much better than what is on display in Iraq today. We want
to change the policies of this country to make our country better, to
make it reflect what this country really is all about, the finest and
the best traditions of the United States of America.
Mr. Speaker, on November 7, George Bush lost the election. The
American people made it very clear that they wanted a change in
direction in Iraq. That election was about Iraq, and the American
people all across this country made it clear that they want a change in
direction.
Last night the President of the United States gave a speech, and he
made it clear that he doesn't care what the people of this country
believe. He is ignoring the message and the statement of the mid-term
elections.
You know, I had hoped, notwithstanding all of the media hype leading
up to the President's speech last night, I was hoping maybe, just maybe
he was going to do the right thing. That instead of announcing tens of
thousands of more American troops in Iraq, that he was going to
announce that he was going to withdraw tens of thousands of American
troops from Iraq and begin the U.S. withdrawal and begin the end of the
U.S. occupation of Iraq. He did not do that.
So what do you do, Mr. Speaker? What do you do when you have a
President of the United States who ignores the advice of his generals
and military leaders who all told him that an escalation of U.S. forces
was a bad idea? What do you do, Mr. Speaker, when you have a President
of the United States who ignores the work of the bipartisan Iraq Study
Group?
The group's report by all accounts says our policy in Iraq has been a
failure, and it suggested that we find a way out. What do you do when
you have a President of the United States who ignores that? What do you
do when you have a President of the United States who ignores the will
of the American people, who ignores the election last November 7? What
do you, Mr. Speaker?
Well, all of us here have expressed our concern and our outrage over
this policy, most of us since before the war again. But what do you do
now? We can give more speeches, which we have been doing. We are
sending more letters and issuing more press releases.
But, Mr. Speaker, when you have a President of the United States who
is behaving as arrogantly as this President is with regard to this war,
then Congress must take action. Congress must condition funding.
Congress must withhold funding. Congress must cut funding if that is
what it takes to end this war.
Now, there are those who say if you do that, you are going to
shortchange our troops. I hear that from the Bush administration and
from some colleagues here in this Congress. Let me tell you what
shortchanges our troops is when we keep them in harm's way in a war
that makes no sense, when we have them serve as referees in a civil
war, when we put more and more of our troops, when we escalate our
involvement in this war. That shortchanges our troops.
The fact of the matter is this administration has been shortchanging
our troops for a long, long time, Mr. Speaker. When wounded veterans
come back, when people come back from this war with post-traumatic
stress syndrome and they can't get the care that they need, that
shortchanges our troops.
I don't think it shortchanges our troops to reunite our soldiers with
their families and their loved ones back in the safety of this country.
That doesn't shortchange our troops. That actually is what our troops
deserve.
I think we need to understand that all this rhetoric, the constant
invocation of 9/11, the constant admonitions that somehow we are not
being true to our troops if we talk about cutting aid, withholding
funds, stopping funding for this war because this President won't deal
with us, we need to put that rhetoric aside.
{time} 1730
This President will not listen to the American people. Put the
rhetoric aside. We have to do what is right.
Let me tell you one final thing, Mr. Speaker. All of us who serve in
this Congress do not have to wake up in harm's way. We are not on the
front lines in Iraq. I would like to have an amendment introduced some
day to a bill that says all these people who want to go to war all the
time, they should be the ones who lead the charge. Let those who are up
here constantly calling for ``stay the course'' and ``let's continue
the current policy,'' let them go and fight.
The time has come to end this war. That is what the American people
want, and this Congress has the guts to do it. I thank the gentlewoman.
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Welch of Vermont). The Chair would
remind Members that remarks in debate must avoid personalities toward
the President.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California
(Ms. Lee).
Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, first let me thank the gentlelady from
California (Ms. Waters), for organizing this special order tonight, but
also for her leadership in the Out of Iraq Caucus, which is growing
each and every day.
I think most Members now, whether they supported or opposed the
authorization to use force, understand now that we must get out of
Iraq. So I want to thank Congresswoman Waters and all of the members
for continuing to beat the drum on behalf of the American people.
Last night, President Bush went on prime time television to present
to the Nation the results really of what I call his ``listening tour''
on what to do about Iraq. Four years into this war, the President has
suddenly taken an interest in listening, but he is certainly not
hearing the American people.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted after the President made
his case for escalation found that 61 percent of Americans oppose
sending more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq, with 52 percent
saying that they strongly oppose the plan. Just 36 percent said that
they backed the President's new proposal, and a majority of Americans
said Bush's plan for our troops will make no difference whether the war
can be won or lost.
The American people oppose this escalation. Members of Congress
oppose this escalation. The President's own military advisers oppose
this escalation. But in spite of this opposition, in spite of his
claims to have been listening, the President went before the American
people last night and basically just asked us to trust him, and
[[Page H409]]
said, who cares about what the American people think or believe?
Well, I have a question for the President: Why, after the weapons of
mass destruction that never existed; after the connections with al
Qaeda that proved to be made up, with Iraq; after declaring ``mission
accomplished'' and turning so many corners that made us, quite frankly,
totally dizzy; why, given his track record, would we trust his judgment
now?
Last night, the President said, ``Where mistakes have been made, the
responsibility lies with me.'' Let me tell you, twisting the
intelligence to rush this Nation into an unnecessary war was a mistake
whose cost we have not yet begun to measure, not only in terms of lives
and treasure but also in terms of our Nation's security.
I agree with the President that the responsibility does indeed lie
with him, so he needs to rectify this mistake and bring our troops home
and bring them home now.
It is clear that the President, quite frankly, has lost touch with
reality. Iraq has become the defining issue of his presidency, and he
is more interested in trying to save what remains of this horrible
legacy than he is in proposing anything that resembles a solution to
the mess that his administration has made in Iraq.
The President has proposed an escalation of the war in Iraq at
precisely the time, the exact time, when the American people are
calling for us to bring this war to an end. He is like the man who
finds himself stuck in a hole and decides the best way out is to keep
digging.
The question the Congress and the American people must now ask is,
how many people should die so that the President can avoid admitting he
has staked his Presidency and legacy on an unnecessary war whose
implementation his administration has really botched at every single
turn? How many have to die so that the President can save face?
The President talked about increasing funds for job creation in Iraq,
which would be a wonderful idea, quite frankly, since we bombed the
heck out of that country. However, his administration has a miserable
track record. Just look at it on reconstruction and the former
Republican Congress's unwillingness to conduct oversight over the
waste, fraud and abuse and war profiteering, $10 billion-plus so far
that is just being discussed, and we know it is more than $10 billion
that has been stolen in the name of rebuilding Iraq.
So without a fix to this broken system, the President's proposed
reconstruction funds are really just throwing more good money after
bad, and the taxpayers certainly don't deserve this. This is, quite
frankly, a cynical idea, with his policies the way they are now.
The President says that pursuing his failed policies in Iraq is
critical to fighting global terrorism. But let me ask you, is spending
$2 billion a week to referee a civil war in Iraq the best way we can
spend our money in fighting global terrorism? Let's not forget, the 9/
11 Commission pointed out there was no connection, I mean no
connection, between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda prior to this war.
Today, Iraq is a terrorist recruiting ground as a direct result, mind
you, a direct result of this unnecessary war, and the longer we stay
there, the worse it gets.
How much money should be spent propping up a failed policy in Iraq so
that the President can kick the can and hand off responsibilities for
his failed policy, quite frankly, this is what I think he is trying to
do, to the next occupant of the Oval Office?
Finally, let me just say, in October, the President was asked if he
would rule out military bases, permanent military bases, and his
refusal to say yes, which he refused to say, really did fuel the
mistrust of the Iraqi public and strengthen the insurgency.
So, Madam Chairman, I want to thank you again for your voice and for
maintaining the 70-plus members of the Out of Iraq Caucus. This is a
civil war. It is an occupation which should end, and the best way that
we support our troops is to bring our troops home.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentlelady for all
of the hard work she does on this issue.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott).
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlelady from
California for her leadership.
Mr. Speaker, before we can even consider sending more of our young
men and women into harm's way, we must first determine what our mission
is in Iraq. Only then will it be possible to intelligently discuss the
number of troops necessary to meet that mission. But 4 years after
going to war in Iraq, the administration has yet to clearly articulate
a mission. Without a mission and a strategy with a credible chance of
success, we should not even be discussing an increase in troop levels.
Mr. Speaker, before we respond to the President's call for an
escalation of the war in Iraq, we must first put his speech in the
context of the history of the war in Iraq. We need to begin with a
discussion of what the current 130,000 troops are doing in Iraq now
before we can discuss what 20,000 additional troops might do.
The original reasons which were provided as the rationale for going
to war, Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, Iraqi leaders were
connected with the 9/11 attacks, and that Iraq posed an imminent threat
to the United States, all turned out not to be true.
We have found no weapons of mass destruction, and we know that Iraqi
leaders were not connected with the 9/11 attacks. And we were told
before the invasion into Iraq that, in the opinion of the CIA, Iraq
posed no imminent terrorist threat to the United States. In fact, a
letter from the Director of the CIA to the Chair of the Senate
Intelligence Committee, dated October 7, 2002, specifically stated that
the CIA believed that Iraq and Saddam Hussein did not pose a terrorist
threat to the United States and would not be expected to pose such a
threat unless we attacked Iraq.
Last night, the President once again attempted to associate our
presence in Iraq with the so-called war on terrorism. The truth is that
our presence in Iraq has actually increased our risk to terrorism.
Furthermore, the term ``war on terrorism'' is a rhetorical term without
any relationship to reality. ``Terrorism'' is not an enemy; it is a
tactic. The enemy is al Qaeda. We attacked Afghanistan because al Qaeda
was there.
But after the initial reasons turned out to be false, we have been
subjected to a series of excuses for being in Iraq, such as the need to
capture Saddam Hussein, the need to capture al-Zarqawi and the need to
establish a democracy.
Well, Saddam Hussein was in jail for almost 2 years before he was
recently hanged. Al-Zarqawi was killed over 6 months ago, and Iraq held
Democratic elections over a year ago. Yet we remain in Iraq, with no
apparent end in sight. And here we are talking about increasing, not
decreasing, troop levels.
So what are we doing in Iraq? Why did we go in? What do we expect to
accomplish? And what will our strategy be for getting out? After we
receive truthful answers to these questions, we can intelligently
discuss appropriate troop levels.
Last night, the President said he was laying out a new mission for
Iraq, thereby clearly acknowledging that whatever the old mission was,
it wasn't working. But there is still no clearly defined end goal and
clearly defined explanation of how failure or success can be measured.
So we remain where we were before the speech, which is on an unclear,
undefined path, while continuing to put more troops in harm's way.
If our mission is to stabilize Baghdad, military experts have already
said that an additional 20,000 troops is woefully insufficient, so
sending these troops will not accomplish that goal. And what happens if
Iraq fails to meet its responsibilities, or Baghdad remains unstable
and the price is more American deaths? Will we send even more troops?
Or will we just cut and run?
And how will we know the new initiative will work? Before our
invasion into Iraq, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld predicted that the war
would last, and I quote, ``six days, six weeks. I doubt 6 months.'' It
has been almost 4 years, and we are still in Iraq with no end in sight.
At the outset of the war, the administration advised the House Budget
Committee that it expected the cost of
[[Page H410]]
the war to be so minuscule that it advised the committee not to include
the cost of the war in the Federal budget, and the administration
official who suggested that the cost of the war might exceed $100
billion was fired.
To date, the cost of the war to the United States is over $375
billion, with no end in sight. Over 3,000 courageous Americans have
already lost their lives. How many more will die if this new strategy
falls as far from the predicted result as the original time and cost
estimates? We need to be honest in clearly stating the likelihood that
this initiative might fail.
Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, as far as developing a new mission and
strategy, it is imperative that we ask where these additional troops
will come from. Many will have to come from the National Guard and
Reserve, and the escalation will mean longer and multiple deployments.
But our troops already in Iraq have served for above-average
deployments, and many have already completed multiple tours. Other
troops may be redeployed from other assignments. So we must ask what
moving these troops will mean to our global national security. We
cannot assess the wisdom of an escalation without first answering these
critical questions.
We need to develop a coherent plan for Iraq, and that can only begin
with truthfully acknowledging our situation there. Unfortunately, all
we have gotten from this administration is essentially ``Don't worry,
be happy. Success is around the corner. And if you don't believe that,
then you are not patriotic.''
Last November, the American people sent a powerful message that they
wanted a real change in Iraq, not more of the same. This Congress needs
to hold substantive hearings on why we entered Iraq in the first place,
what the present situation is, what we can now expect to accomplish and
what the strategy is to accomplish it, and only then can we
intelligently discuss the troop levels necessary to accomplish that
goal.
It is absurd to discuss troop levels first before we have answers to
these critical questions. The American people and our courageous men
and women on the front lines deserve a clear, articulated and sensible
approach to ending the war in Iraq. Starting with an escalation of
military forces is a step in the wrong direction.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California
(Ms. Watson).
{time} 1745
Ms. WATSON. Thank you so much, Representative Waters, for allowing us
this opportunity to express our feelings towards the escalation of the
war, the war of choice, in Iraq.
I am adamantly against this expansion. I see it as another
provocation. I see Iraq now being the spawning ground that attracts all
those who hate America to come and kill Americans.
The President is asking for 21,500 more troops to go on the killing
fields. We don't even know who the enemy is. We use the name
insurgents. We don't even know the President's definition for victory.
How do you measure victory?
I remember the day that a great many Members stood up saluting the
fact that Iraq had a democratic election. Apparently, there is no faith
in those that were elected to administer the country of Iraq because
they are talking about America losing the war.
We were told by Rumsfeld that 368,000 Iraqis had been trained. Where
are they? Do they run away in the heat of battle? There is a lot of
mystery surrounding this whole debacle called the ``war against
terrorism'' in Iraq.
I thought we were looking for Osama bin Laden. All of a sudden we
switched over to a nation of 28 million people, to Saddam Hussein, who
didn't like Osama bin Laden.
I really feel that we were misdirected, misguided and, really, bottom
line, lied to. And I don't know if you knew this, but while the
President was making his presentation last night on a new direction
forward, U.S. forces entered the Iranian consulate in Iraq's Kurdish-
dominated north and seized computers, documents, and other items. It
was also reported that five staff members were taken into custody. This
is during the time that the President was making his speech.
Now, what I fear is that when the President said the axis of evil,
Iran and North Korea, one down, the second one to come, and the third
one very soon.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to end with giving you this piece of information.
What does that state? I understand right now that the United States has
worked with the Iraqi Government to have a law where they will contract
out their oil for the next 30 years and 75 percent of the proceeds will
go to the contractors. Seventy-five percent. It is the major rip-off of
all time.
Was that the real reason why we invaded without provocation into
Iraq?
Ms. WATERS. I thank the gentlewoman from California, and I now yield
to the gentlewoman from Ohio, Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones.
Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I want to compliment the gentlewoman
from California for her leadership in overseeing this Out of Iraq task
force. Clearly, the work that this task force has done had an impact on
the elections of 2006 and continues to have an impact as we go down the
line.
I want to be very brief. Last night, I went home and I turned on the
President's speech; and as a good American, I wanted him to convince me
that there was reason to send 21,000 young men and women back into
Iraq. See, as a young Congresswoman, this is my 8th year, I have
attended five funerals: a young man 19, another young man 28, another
young man 28, another one 40-something, and another one in his 30s.
And I sat there and I looked into the faces of those mothers,
fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, spouses and children; and it
was hard for me to come up with words to explain to them why their
family members had died.
We can talk about how they paid the ultimate price; but I wanted to
say to them, ladies and gentlemen, I am not going to let their deaths
be just another number in this 2,000, 3,000 young men and women we have
lost. So I waited last night for President Bush to tell me something,
give me an indication, say, Stephanie, this is why we need to send
21,000 more people; and I never got it. I never, ever got it. So it is
hard for me to explain to my constituency that we ought to send 21,000
more people.
So I come to the floor once again this evening to say to Ms. Waters
and all the rest of my colleagues in the Out of Iraq conference, it is
the same old song with a different meaning. Same beat, same old song
over and over again. It is time to come out of Iraq.
Ms. WATERS. Thank you very, very much.
I now yield to one of our new Members of Congress, a gentleman who
comes with a great background and who has hit the floor running,
Representative Keith Ellison from Minnesota.
Mr. ELLISON. I thank the gentlewoman from California for allowing me
to participate in the Out of Iraq Caucus. I do formally request
membership in such caucus at this moment and anxiously await being a
full-fledged member of the Out of Iraq Caucus.
Mr. Speaker and Members, I rise today really in the mindset of this
coming weekend, which is Martin Luther King's birthday celebration.
Martin Luther King, we all know, was a valiant defender of civil and
human rights, also stood up strongly for the poor, but in this day and
time must be recognized as one of the clearest voices for peace that
this country has ever known.
As I stand before you asking this country to join this Out of Iraq
Caucus of the Congress, the whole United States should rise up, one and
all, and join the caucus. And I just want to mention that it is
important now to remember that those voices of peace, of which Martin
Luther King was a key voice, need to be listened to, need our
attention.
Today, it is important to point out, as we walk toward the Martin
Luther King holiday, that it was he who spoke up for peace, and he
didn't do it in a way that was easy. Martin Luther King was arrested
over 30 times as he was talking about peace. In 1967, and it is
important to remember this, in 1967 he gave a speech in which he said
that silence could continue no more. And then on April 4 of 1967, 1
year before his death, he said that we have got to get out of Vietnam.
And he didn't just say that Vietnam was the issue. He said Vietnam
was critical, and Vietnam was what he was talking about at that time,
but he actually projected a greater vision than
[[Page H411]]
just Vietnam. He talked about a worldwide fellowship that lifts
neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation. In
fact, what he talked about was a generosity of spirit, a politics of
spirit in which we all could live in peace with each other.
We need to say, no escalation, get out of Iraq now, but America needs
to adopt as its guiding principle, America needs to say the thing that
guides us the most is peace. It is not living in superiority to the
nations of the world, but living in brotherhood and sisterhood with the
nations of the world. We need to talk about a peace of generosity, a
peace of inclusion, and a peace that will allow us to look our
constituents in the face and say we will not send your brothers, your
sisters, your children, your parents into a war zone to be one of
20,000 more targets.
We are going to stand up with courage, just like Martin Luther King
did. We will withstand the criticism of those detractors who just don't
get it. We will stand with the people who need peace, which is our
constituents, and with the soldiers. Today, my colleagues, we are
actually protecting our soldiers, as they protect us, by calling for no
escalation. Withdraw from Iraq. Peace now.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. I thank you very much. I know this is a
Special Order that has drawn the interest of Members from vast regions
around America.
The important thing is we are Americans, that we want what is best
for America, and that is why the Congress created the Baker Commission,
not for it to be partisan but for it to be bipartisan, for it to have
experts from around the Nation. To my great disappointment, the
President stood up, ignored the Congress, the people, the experts, the
military experts, and the wisdom that would indicate that it is time
now to redeploy our troops.
This is a Martin Luther King moment. His birthday will be celebrated
this coming Monday. Martin Luther King was courageous enough, as my
colleague from Minnesota just said, to have the courage to go against
the Vietnam War, realizing it was better to have peace over war and
life over death.
The President laid out last night an Iraqi-dependent policy for
America. They have, in essence, called upon the American people to
depend upon this failed government to be the source of our strategy in
Baghdad. We now will send some 20,000-plus troops to engage in a nine-
district process of dragging people out of their homes on the premise
of utilizing Iraqi soldiers and security forces. My question to the
President is: Why did we not do this before?
Let me say in closing that I want a peaceful solution. I did not vote
for the war, but I believe in our military. I believe in America and
democracy. Bring the allies to the table in the region, have a
political diplomacy, and have our troops backup the Iraqis. We cannot
have a foreign policy dependent upon Iraq.
Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor today to speak on the most critical
issue facing our country, the war in Iraq. This misguided, mismanaged,
and costly debacle was preemptively launched by President Bush in March
2003 despite the opposition of me and 125 other members of the House.
To date, the war in Iraq has lasted longer than America's involvement
in World War II, the greatest conflict in all of human history.
The Second World War ended in complete and total victory for the
United States and its allies. But then again, in that conflict America
was led by a great Commander-in-Chief who had a plan to win the war and
secure the peace, listened to his generals, and sent troops in
sufficient numbers and sufficiently trained and equipped to do the job.
Mr. Speaker, I say with sadness that we have not that same quality of
leadership throughout the conduct of the Iraq War. The results, not
surprisingly, have been disastrous. To date, the war in Iraq has
claimed the lives of 3,015 brave servicemen and women (115 in December
and 13 in the first 9 days of this month). More than 22,000 Americans
have been wounded, many suffering the most horrific injuries. American
taxpayers have paid nearly $400 billion to sustain this misadventure.
Based on media reports, tonight President Bush will not be offering
any new strategy for success in Iraq, just an increase in force levels
of 20,000 American troops. This reported plan will not provide lasting
security for Iraqis. It is not what the American people have asked for,
nor what the American military needs. It will impose excessive and
unwarranted burdens on military personnel and their families.
Mr. Speaker, the architects of the fiasco in Iraq would have us
believe that ``surging'' at least 20,000 more soldiers into Baghdad and
nearby Anbar province is a change in military strategy that America
must embrace or face future terrorist attacks on American soil. Nothing
could be further from the truth, as we learned last year when the
``surge'' idea first surfaced among neoconservatives.
Mr. Speaker, the troop surge the President will announce tonight is
not new and, judging from history, will not work. It will only succeed
in putting more American troops in harm's way for no good reason and
without any strategic advantage. The armed forces of the United States
are not to be used to respond to 911 calls from governments like Iraq's
that have done all they can to take responsibility for the security of
their country and safety of their own people. The United States cannot
do for Iraq what Iraqis are not willing to do for themselves.
Troop surges have been tried several times in the past. The success
of these surges has, to put it charitably, been underwhelming. Let's
briefly review the record:
1. Operation Together Forward, (June-October 2006):
In June the Bush administration announced a new plan for securing
Baghdad by increasing the presence of Iraqi Security Forces. That plan
failed, so in July the White House announced that additional American
troops would be sent into Baghdad. By October, a U.S. military
spokesman, Gen. William Caldwell, acknowledged that the operation and
troop increase was a failure and had ``not met our overall expectations
of sustaining a reduction in the levels of violence.'' [CNN, 12/19/06.
Washington Post, 7/26/06. Brookings Institution, 12/21/06.]
2. Elections and Constitutional Referendum (September-December 2005):
In the fall of 2005 the Bush administration increased troop levels by
22,000, making a total of 160,000 American troops in Iraq around the
constitutional referendum and parliamentary elections. While the
elections went off without major violence these escalations had little
long-term impact on quelling sectarian violence or attacks on American
troops. [Brookings Institution, 12/21/06. www.icasualties.org]
3. Constitutional Elections and Fallujah (November 2004-March 2005):
As part of an effort to improve counterinsurgency operations after
the Fallujah offensive in November 2004 and to increase security before
the January 2005 constitutional elections U.S. forces were increased by
12,000 to 150,000. Again there was no long-term security impact.
[Brookings Institution, 12/21/06. New York Times, 12/2/04.]
4. Massive Troop Rotations (December 2003-April 2004):
As part of a massive rotation of 250,000 troops in the winter and
spring of 2004, troop levels in Iraq were raised from 122,000 to
137,000.
Yet, the increase did nothing to prevent Muqtada al-Sadr's Najaf
uprising and April of 2004 was the second deadliest month for American
forces.[Brookings Institution, 12/21/06. www.icasualties.org. USA
Today, 3/4/04]
Mr. Speaker, stemming the chaos in Iraq, however, requires more than
opposition to military escalation. It requires us to make hard choices.
Our domestic national security, in fact, rests on redeploying our
military forces from Iraq in order to build a more secure Middle East
and continue to fight against global terrorist networks elsewhere in
the world. Strategic redeployment of our armed forces in order to
rebuild our nation's fighting capabilities and renew our critical fight
in Afghanistan against the Taliban and al-Qaeda is not just an
alternative strategy. It's a strategic imperative.
Mr. Speaker, it is past time for a new direction that can lead to
success in Iraq. We cannot wait any longer. Too many Americans and
Iraqis are dying who could otherwise be saved.
I believe the time has come to debate, adopt, and implement the
Murtha Plan for strategic redeployment. I am not talking about
``immediate withdrawal,'' ``cutting and running,'' or surrendering to
terrorists, as the architects of the failed Administration Iraq policy
like to claim. And I certainly am not talking about staying in Iraq
forever or the foreseeable future.
I am talking about a strategic redeployment of troops that: Reduces
U.S. troops in Iraq to 60,000 within six months, and to zero by the end
of 2007, while redeploying troops to Afghanistan, Kuwait, and the
Persian Gulf. Engages in diplomacy to resolve the conflict within Iraq
by convening a Geneva Peace Conference modeled on the Dayton Accords.
Establishes a Gulf Security initiative to deal with
[[Page H412]]
the aftermath of U.S. redeployment from Iraq and the growing nuclear
capabilities of Iran. Puts Iraq's reconstruction back on track with
targeted international funds. Counters extremist Islamic ideology
around the globe through long-term efforts to support the creation of
democratic institutions and press freedoms.
As the Center for American Progress documents in its last quarterly
report (October 24, 2006), the benefits of strategic redeployment are
significant: Restore the strength of U.S. ground troops. Exercise a
strategic shift to meet global threats from Islamic extremists. Prevent
U.S. troops from being caught in the middle of a civil war in Iraq.
Avert mass sectarian and ethnic cleansing in Iraq. Provide time for
Iraq's elected leaders to strike a power-sharing agreement. Empower
Iraq's security forces to take control. Get Iraqis fighting to end the
occupation to lay down their arms. Motivate the U.N., global, and
regional powers to become more involved in Iraq. Give the U.S. the
moral, political, and military power to deal with Iran's attempt to
develop nuclear weapons. Prevent an outbreak of isolationism in the
United States.
Mr. Speaker, rather than surging militarily for the third time in a
year, the president should surge diplomatically. A further military
escalation would simply mean repeating a failed strategy. A diplomatic
surge would involve appointing an individual with the stature of a
former secretary of state, such as Colin Powell or Madeleine Albright,
as a special envoy. This person would be charged with getting all six
of Iraq's neighbors--Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and
Kuwait--involved more constructively in stabilizing Iraq. These
countries are already involved in a bilateral, self-interested and
disorganized way.
While their interests and ours are not identical, none of these
countries wants to live with an Iraq that, after our redeployment,
becomes a failed state or a humanitarian catastrophe that could become
a haven for terrorists or a hemorrhage of millions more refugees
streaming into their countries.
The high-profile envoy would also address the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, the role of Hezbollah and Syria in Lebanon, and Iran's rising
influence in the region. The aim would not be necessarily to solve
these problems, but to prevent them from getting worse and to show the
Arab and Muslim world that we share their concerns about the problems
in this region.
Mr. Speaker, the President's plan has not worked. Doing the same
thing over and over and expecting a different result is, as we all
know, a definition of insanity. It is time to try something new. It is
time for change. It is time for a new direction.
____________________