[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 29 (Thursday, February 15, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1984-S1985]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise this morning to speak to the Senate 
regarding the fact that we are contemplating adjournment for a recess 
of approximately 12 days without having taken any votes on the question 
of Iraq. The Senator from Nebraska and I sent a letter to both leaders 
yesterday, expressing our deepest disappointment and disapproval about 
the failure of this institution to address the most consequential issue 
of our time. We are at a critical crossroads with this preeminent 
issue. Yet the Senate, in keeping with its historical traditions and 
practices, has failed to grapple with this monumental question.
  Therefore, the Senator from Nebraska and I have said we should have a 
vote on the motion to adjourn for this particular recess because we 
object to recessing without the Senate having any agreement, any 
understanding, any debate, any votes on this most profound question. It 
does no honor to the Senate or to this country. As I said earlier in 
the week when I expressed my disappointment that we have yet to 
construct an agreement on how to even move forward procedurally to 
debate a nonbinding resolution, irrespective of where my colleagues may 
stand on this question, whether you are in the majority or in the 
minority, various viewpoints ought to be able to be expressed, and we 
ought to be able to have votes in the Senate. Unfortunately and 
regrettably, that has not occurred, at a time in which the President 
has already indicated his plan for the troop surge and which is already 
underway. There is a majority in the Senate who are in opposition to 
the troop surge and to that specific mission. Others have different 
viewpoints on the question. But irrespective, we know there are a 
majority in the United States who are in opposition to the troop surge.
  The Senator from Nebraska and I, in fact, moved across the political 
aisle and joined the Senator from Delaware and the Senator from 
Michigan on the Biden-Levin-Hagel-Snowe resolution on January 17, when 
it was introduced in the Senate. Here we are today, a month later, and 
there has been no consequential action on the question of Iraq.
  The House of Representatives is debating and will be voting. As I 
said on Monday, when our troops are on the frontlines, the Senate is on 
the sidelines. While the House of Representatives is debating and 
voting, the Senate is dithering. That is regrettable because we have 
some serious questions about the President's troop surge. We ought to 
be able to express our views on the floor of the Senate and to have 
those votes. This is a critical moment in our Nation. The Senate has 
lost its sense of the place it now occupies--or should occupy--in 
history.
  If we look back at major moments of the Senate historically, the 
Senate has risen to the occasion, but we haven't on this question. So 
we are going to adjourn for the recess without having a plan on how we 
are going to proceed on this question, without any votes, on the major 
issue of our time.
  So what has changed in the last 3 days? There have been no 
negotiations. There has been no consensus. There has been no agreement. 
There has been no understanding of how we are going to proceed and how 
we are going to debate this question. And we are going to recess. Well, 
the troop surge isn't taking a recess. The men and women in uniform on 
the frontlines in Iraq are not taking a recess, the Iraq war is not 
taking a recess, but the U.S. Senate is taking a recess.
  My primary objection to the troop surge has been rooted in the fact 
that I examined the track record and concluded we should not commit any 
more troops to instilling a peace that the Iraqis are not willing to 
instill for themselves and to seek for their own nation. They are 
fighting amongst themselves rather than for themselves.
  Yesterday, I spoke with the father of a soldier who died last Friday 
while supporting our Operation Iraqi Freedom.
  SSG Eric Ross of Maine, stationed in Texas, and two of his brothers 
in arms were killed as they entered a booby-trapped building in Baquba. 
What was even more tragic is the Iraqi squad that was accompanying 
them, who were supposed to go in with them, refused to go in. What did 
they know? Why did they refuse to go in? Where were their allegiances? 
Who were they fighting for? Those are the kinds of circumstances and 
situations to which

[[Page S1985]]

our troops have been subjected. There will be infinitely more of those 
examples, given the mission the President has proposed in Baghdad.
  The father of the soldier told me: My son's first interpreter was a 
spy. Those are the kinds of precarious and dangerous circumstances 
under which our soldiers are facing extraordinary challenges. Now they 
are being requested to go door-to-door in Baghdad, as this soldier was 
doing in Baquba. His father said they were going door to door, clearing 
them out, only to find they were coming back in. That is the 
circumstance our troops will face in this very dangerous mission in 
Baghdad.
  While we are on recess, all of this will be underway. Yet we have no 
plan to debate and to vote on our respective views and positions on 
this question.
  This is not in keeping and consistent with the traditions and 
practices of the Senate. I have served in both the House of 
Representatives and the Senate for 29 years. I have witnessed and been 
part of debates that range from Lebanon to the Persian Gulf to Somalia 
to Bosnia to Panama. We were able to exercise our views, whether we 
were in the House of Representatives or in the Senate. I am deeply 
disappointed that we are at this juncture, that we are planning to 
adjourn for a previously scheduled recess without having established a 
record on behalf of the Senate for the people of this country. We are 
their voice. We reflect their will. We should have the opportunity to 
debate and to vote on the various questions.
  The fact is, we have allowed the gears of this deliberative process 
to become jammed with the monkey wrenches of timidity and partisanship. 
I reject that because at a time in which the American people are deeply 
concerned about the direction of our mission in Iraq, the Senate is 
deadlocked and stalemated.
  That is why I object to the motion to adjourn. I hope my colleagues 
will express their objections, likewise, irrespective of where Members 
stand on the question. I hope Members express disappointment and 
disapproval that we will recess without having taken a stand on this 
monumental issue.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized.

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