[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 47 (Monday, March 19, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H2657-H2662]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       MARKING THE END OF THE 4TH YEAR OF THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Altmire). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 18, 2007, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hinchey) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. HINCHEY. Mr. Speaker, the purpose of my coming to the floor this 
evening, along with a number of my friends and colleagues on this side 
of the aisle, is to mark the fact that tomorrow will be the 4th year 
that our military forces instigated by the administration have attacked 
Iraq and engaged in what the administration has called a war in that 
country. Most people now have come to realize that we are not engaged 
in a war in Iraq, but we are engaged now in an occupation, the 
consequences of which are proving to be increasingly disastrous.
  At 10:15 p.m. on March 19, 2003, in a televised address to the 
Nation, President Bush announced the start of what he refers to as 
``the war in Iraq.''

                              {time}  2115

  The way in which the administration attempted to justify that attack 
has been a grave consequence for the United States, both internally and 
around the world. The President, of course, and others in his 
administration contended that there was a connection between Iraq and 
the attack that took place in New York and at the Pentagon on September 
11, 2001, that Iraq was somehow involved in that attack, when all of 
the evidence and information indicated that that was not the case.
  In spite of that, the administration continued to make that 
allegation. They then went on to say that it was important that the 
United States invade Iraq for the safety of our country and for the 
safety of others because Iraq was a country that possessed what they 
referred to as ``weapons of mass destruction,'' alleging that there was 
substantial amounts of chemical and biological weapons in Iraq.
  They then went on to assert that Iraq had a nuclear weapons program, 
and the President of the United States in a 2003 State of the Union 
Address to a joint session of Congress and to the Nation here in this 
House asserted that the British Government had learned that Iraq had 
imported enriched uranium from Niger. When he included that sentence in 
his State of the Union Address, he was very much aware that the 
intelligence agencies in our country had said that there was no proof 
that that was the case. In fact, they had examined the documents upon 
which those assertions were being made, and they found those documents 
which had been stolen from the Nigerian Embassy in Rome were, in fact, 
forged.
  So what we have here is an unnecessary and unjustified and 
consequently illegal attack on another country and a subsequent 
disastrous occupation which has gone on now for 4 years, and we will be 
beginning the fifth year starting tomorrow.
  As a result of this occupation, over 3,200 American servicemen and 
women have been killed in Iraq since our invasion over 4 years ago. 
Over 24,000 troops have been wounded in action in Iraq, and the number 
of Iraqis killed is unknown, but the estimates range as high as 200,000 
Iraqi civilians, mostly women and children, who have been killed in 
that country as a result of the military action.
  We are spending now about $275 million per day in Iraq. More than $8 
billion every month is being spent in that country. And as the Speaker 
of the House noted earlier this evening in her speech on the floor, at 
least $10 billion of that money is completely unaccounted for, and much 
of the rest has been spent in ways that have not been productive, but 
have been extraordinarily wasteful.
  The President in January called for what he referred to as a surge of 
nearly 30,000 additional soldiers into Iraq. So far that has amounted 
to 21,500 additional troops that have gone to Iraq in January, and 
4,400 more just two weekends ago.
  The circumstances there continue to deteriorate as a result of the 
corrupt and incompetent way in which this illegal invasion and 
subsequent occupation have been carried out by this administration.
  Roughly half of all of the ground equipment that the U.S. Army owns 
is now located in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since the invasion, the Army 
has lost nearly 2,000 wheeled vehicles and more than 1,000 armed 
vehicles. To make matters worse, according to the GAO, the Army has not 
been keeping accurate track of what they have and what they need to 
reset the force, and they cannot provide sufficient detail for Congress 
to provide effective oversight.
  Between 75,000 and 100,000 pieces of National Guard equipment worth 
nearly $2 billion are now located in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is 
equipment that is needed by the National Guard here in our country to 
carry out the obligations and responsibilities of the National Guard 
around the United States. And they are now increasingly being deprived 
of their ability to carry out their responsibilities and obligations 
because of the loss of their equipment.
  The Regular Army has lost so much equipment which has not been 
replaced that they are now using the equipment of the National Guard to 
replace the equipment that they have lost and which this administration 
has failed to provide replacements for.
  We have a situation that is confronting us now in Iraq which is 
increasingly damaging, dangerous, and on the verge of being disastrous 
for our country as well as for others in the Middle East.
  We need this Congress to assert its obligations and responsibilities 
to oversee the activities of this administration, and that is clearly 
necessary because all through the 4 years during which this illegal 
invasion took place followed by this occupation, there has not been any 
significant oversight by this Congress, which, of course, was 
controlled by the Republican majority for all of that period of time.
  Now that we have a Democratic majority in Congress, that oversight is 
beginning. Appropriate hearings are being conducted both in this House 
and in the Senate, and more and more information concerning the way in 
which this operation has been carried out is being made available to 
the American people, and as a result of that, more and more people 
across the country are realizing what a disaster this has been. More 
and more Americans are understanding how they were intentionally and 
purposefully misled and deceived by this administration in order to 
carry out this invasion which had absolutely nothing to do with the 
attack of September 11, and which cannot be justified in any way 
whatsoever.
  This action is unlawful, and appropriate oversight and supervision 
based upon detailed and focused hearings by this Congress is now 
absolutely necessary.
  We have with us this evening several of my colleagues who are 
interested in speaking about this issue, and I would now like to 
recognize my very good friend from Ohio, who will address the House at 
this time.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
Hinchey) for his superb remarks and for his organizing this Special 
Order in order to express our opinions on behalf of our troops and for 
a course correction in Iraq and the Middle East in general.
  When you think about it, we are being asked this week to vote an 
additional $100 billion in what is called a supplemental, mainly to 
escalate the war in Iraq, and the money we are voting on will be just 
for today until the end of September of this year. This $100 billion is 
put on top of what has already been appropriated to be spent on

[[Page H2658]]

the war, and it is typical of this administration's mishandling the war 
and its accounting, always underestimating every year what it will 
really cost to carry out the activities.
  If you look at the chart that shows what we are spending in Iraq, it 
is absolutely escalating every single year.
  The best advice we were given on a recent trip to Iraq, Afghanistan 
and the region was from our generals, who said: What does victory mean? 
Victory means one-third military, two-thirds diplomacy and good 
governance. The two-thirds is missing. So, therefore, we are asking our 
soldiers to bear all of the burden of a flawed strategy for Iraq and 
the surrounding regions that is ripening terrorism in every single 
country, and we are losing respect. The coalition of the willing has 
dried up. The neighbors of Iraq have not been convened in a 
constructive way, and we watch other nations in the region border on 
destabilization because of what we are doing in Iraq.

  My deep concern is that the violence could spill over into Jordan, 
Turkey, Bahrain, Kuwait, Pakistan, Lebanon, even Saudi Arabia. And so 
America has to face a strategic challenge much larger than Iraq, and 
the administration is not leading us there.
  This evening I wanted to say a word about the theater in which Iraq 
is operating. She is not alone. So many of our soldiers, our patriotic 
brave soldiers, are in Iraq, and they are the finest military in the 
world, but they exist in a sea of discontent. And I would like to say 
that the face of terrorism that we see springs from a view, fair or 
not, that the United States allies with the rich but not the poor 
across the undemocratic Islamic world. And how can America stand for 
democracy in Iraq, but not in all of the oil kingdoms and theocracies 
to which our Nation has been tethered for most of the last century and 
now into this century?
  Why would I say that? I would say that because recent polls in the 
region show exactly that. It shows that America is viewed as not on the 
side of rising popular expectations for a more democratic way of life. 
Rather, we are seen as tethered to an old power structure where the 
poor remain poor, and the rich, outlandishly rich, and becoming more 
so; and where religion has become the metaphor for political change of 
those excluded economically and politically.
  Unfortunately, the Gallup poll shows how harshly the United States is 
viewed across the region. Right or not, the people there view us as a 
promiscuous culture in moral decay, and Abu Ghraib affirmed their 
views.
  If we look at our closest ally, Turkey, a valued ally of ours for 
over 50 years in NATO, the disapproval rating of our country has risen 
from 48 percent in 2000, and we weren't doing so well back then, to 88 
percent this year. So 88 percent of the citizens of Turkey disagree and 
disapprove of what we are doing.
  The ruling secular party of Turkey has lost control of its 
Parliament, and now at the local level who is winning elections in 
Turkey? Parties that are tending more and more religious. And I am not 
saying that the religious parties of Turkey are like those of Pakistan 
or Saudi Arabia, but we have to recognize what is happening across the 
region as America falls into disrepute.
  In Pakistan, home to tens of thousands of madrassas, schools funded 
by Wahabi donors from Saudi Arabia, young boys are being turned out by 
the thousands to revenge against America.
  America's favorability ratings in Pakistan have fallen to 27 percent. 
When we were visiting Pakistan a few weeks ago, a female 
Parliamentarian was assassinated on the western side of the country, 
people who are trying to relate to the broader world outside of 
Pakistan.
  In Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel three decades ago, 
70 percent of the public unfavorably views the United States. And more 
than 90 members of the anti-American Muslim Brotherhood were elected to 
Parliament recently, and that Parliament has about as many members as 
we do. So 90-plus members is a significant number in the Egyptian 
Parliament.
  I could go down the list. King Abdullah of Jordan was here a couple 
of weeks ago. What did he ask us for? Peace now, time is short; peace 
now, time is short. The U.S. favorability rating in Jordan dropped to 
15 percent. Are we paying attention to what is going on?
  My dear colleague Mr. Hinchey talked about Saudi Arabia, where the 
majority of 9/11 terrorists had come from. The United States is 
disliked by three-quarters of the people in Saudi Arabia. So we look at 
our troops inside of Iraq because the Commander in Chief of this 
country sent them there, but if we look at what is happening in the 
region, America is not winning.
  One of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle just said, just 
measure the body count. Measure the American losses as a sign of how 
well we are doing.
  It is taking us twice as much money every year just to keep the body 
count where it is now. Look at the casualties. Look at the Iraqi 
casualties that no one wants to talk about. Look at what is happening 
in the region. We are not being successful in the war on terrorism, as 
hard as our soldiers try, because they cannot do it alone.

                              {time}  2130

  Why are we asking the military to bear the full burden when the 
diplomatic channels of this government have crashed?
  Can you believe that the neighbors of Iraq have not been assembled by 
our Secretary of State in any constructive way now going on 4 years? 
Unbelievable.
  Can you believe that we have allowed nations with which we have been 
friends for 50 years just to fester at the end of a failed diplomatic 
pipeline?
  The President's job is not just to be Commander in Chief. It is to be 
Diplomat in Chief for this country, and yet across that region we see 
ties that have been forged by this country for generations just ripped 
into shreds. What a tragedy.
  I was thinking yesterday, I grew up in an era when John Kennedy 
talked about the Peace Corps and the great alliance for progress across 
Latin America. Look at the Latin Americans demonstrating against the 
United States.
  We cannot ask our soldiers to fill a gap, a failed diplomacy and 
failed politics across the region. The world wants change. The world is 
begging us for change. The world is demonstrating for change. It just 
is not America that is demonstrating for change.
  So this evening, Mr. Speaker, I would thank my colleague so very much 
for allowing me some time to talk about regaining America's standing in 
the world by correcting what has gone wrong in Iraq.
  I just might end by saying today in USA Today there was a major story 
of Poland, people risking their lives going to Iraq, asking the Iraqi 
people what they think. What it shows is compared to 2005, just a 
couple years ago, when 71 percent of people in Iraq said their life was 
fairly good, today it has dropped to 39 percent.
  In Baghdad, where so many of our soldiers are being sent, what 
percentage of the people rate their basic household needs as being 
served by the current regime? You know what the number is? Zero. Zero. 
Fallen in the last 2 years from 78 percent of their basic household 
needs. That is like food, water, down to zero.
  Electricity, you know what percent of the people in Baghdad say their 
service is good? Zero. Zero, down from only half in 2005.
  What about clean water? In 2005, 68 percent said they could get clean 
water. You know what the number is? Zero.
  How can this be good? How can America win this? How can we ask our 
soldiers to fill a failed policy? Our soldiers will do anything we ask 
them to do. We have the best military in the world. We have the most 
committed generals, the most committed soldiers. We love every single 
one of them, but we do not want to give them a mission impossible in a 
sea of discontent where the Diplomat in Chief has abdicated his 
responsibility to them and to the kind of strategy that can win America 
friends again.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding to me, and it is a real privilege 
to be able to participate in this Special Order this evening.
  Mr. HINCHEY. Thank you very much. I very much appreciate the 
statement that was just made by our colleague from Ohio, Marcy Kaptur, 
the respect that she has given to our military, appropriately so, and 
her examination of the consequences that we

[[Page H2659]]

are confronting now in Iraq as a result of the incompetent way in which 
this administration has dealt with the political and economic 
circumstances there in that country.
  I would like now to yield time to my friend and colleague from New 
York, John Hall.
  Mr. HALL of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank very much Congressman 
Hinchey and thank Congresswoman Kaptur for her remarks.
  Today marks the start of the 5th year of the war in Iraq; and as I 
begin my statement, I want to recognize the honorable service of the 
men and women who have served our country in Iraq. I want to honor the 
memories of the 3,188 servicemembers who have given their lives in 
Iraq, including five men from my district and over 50 officers of the 
United States Army who graduated from the United States Military 
Academy at West Point, which I am proud is in my district. While I 
believe the war in Iraq has been a mistake, I deeply respect the honor 
and integrity of those who have given their lives following the orders 
of their Commander in Chief.
  In light of the sacrifices of so many of our men and women in 
uniform, it saddens me that I have to come to the floor of the House of 
Representatives and say I believe this war has been a strategic blunder 
in our efforts to fight terrorism.
  On September 11, our Nation was attacked and many people from my 
district, including police and firefighters, died at the World Trade 
Center. The United States correctly responded by pursuing those 
responsible for 9/11 in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, this administration 
decided to change its focus and start a war of choice with Iraq, a 
country which had not attacked us and was not an imminent threat to the 
United States.
  Now our military is trapped in the middle of a civil war instead of 
pursuing Osama bin Laden, Mullah Mohammed Omar, and other al Qaeda 
affiliates throughout the world responsible for 9/11 and other similar 
attacks and groups planning to attack the United States again.
  Because we are focused in Iraq, the progress made in Afghanistan is 
slipping. The Karzai government does not control the territory outside 
its own capital. We see an increase in the drug trade that funds 
regional warlords. The Taliban emerges at night to terrorize the local 
population, and our military expects increasing attacks throughout this 
spring. However, because of our continuing overcommitment in Iraq, the 
United States has little ability to increase its troop numbers in 
Afghanistan and respond to that deteriorating situation.
  While the administration and its allies say we are battling the 
terrorists in Iraq, the United States intelligence agencies say 
otherwise. The National Intelligence Estimate released in April 2006 
stated: ``The Iraq conflict has become a `cause celebre' for jihadists, 
breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and 
cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement.'' Iraq is not 
the central front in the war on terror as the President likes to say. 
Instead, it is a rallying point, a recruiting poster that Osama bin 
Laden uses to recruit more terrorists.
  The war in Iraq has seriously weakened our military. A recent report 
found that 90 percent of our National Guard youths are rated ``not 
ready'' to respond to a national disaster or terrorist attack in the 
United States. Further, in order to meet their recruitment goals, the 
military has lowered the minimum standards for being accepted into the 
service, and our military faces a crippling loss of mid-level officers 
as larger and larger numbers decide not to reenlist and face multiple 
deployments.
  It is time for a new direction. Our intelligence agencies know it, 
our military commanders know it, and the American people demanded it 
last November. General Petraeus, commanding general in Iraq, stated on 
March 8: ``There is no military solution to a problem like that in 
Iraq, to the insurgency of Iraq.'' And just last week, Pentagon 
analysts admitted that the war in Iraq is a civil war.
  Unfortunately, our President refuses to face reality and the will of 
the American people. He wants to put more troops in the middle of a 
civil war. He wants an open-ended commitment to keep combat troops in 
Iraq indefinitely. He wants to leave the problem of Iraq to the next 
President. And, once again, he has returned to Congress and asked for 
another blank check to continue this misguided war. Unlike the 
President, this Congress will face reality and realize that we must 
change direction in Iraq.
  Some of our colleagues speaking earlier from the other side of the 
floor criticized us for trying to, as they say, micromanage the war. 
There cannot be 435 or 535 Commanders in Chief. We would not need to 
take this kind of action to manage or, if you will, micromanage the war 
if the President and Commander in Chief were doing his job, if the 
leadership were coming from the top, as our structure of government 
ordinarily calls for it to come.
  But because there is a vacuum in the top, because the President has 
continued to disregard or turn a blind eye to the reality of what is 
happening, not only around the world, as our Congresswoman just 
mentioned, in terms of the reputation of the United States, which 
ultimately in the long term is what will determine our security, our 
reputation, the approval of the United States and its policies by other 
peoples and other countries around the world will ultimately determine 
in the long run how secure we are, we do not have enough money to spend 
our way into security if we continue to make more enemies and lose our 
friends.
  General Petraeus is correct. We need a political solution to the war 
in Iraq instead of a military escalation. It is time for a diplomatic 
surge. The United States must push the Iraqi Government to meet its 
commitments that it made to its partners in Iraq. It is time the United 
States reached out to our allies in the region and throughout the 
world.
  By requiring the Iraqi Government to achieve a list of objectives and 
establishing a timetable for U.S. involvement in Iraq, we can end the 
culture of dependency developing in Iraq. We can make the Iraqi 
Government stand up and take control of its own fate. If they do that, 
we will stick by them. We will help them train police and military 
forces and rebuild their country. If they are unwilling or unable to 
take that responsibility, we will know that the United States does not 
have a serious partner in Iraq.
  If we are to defeat the people who did attack our country on 
September 11, those who continue to seek to destroy us, we must pivot 
away from Iraq and back to Afghanistan and al Qaeda, the people who 
actually attacked us. We must draw down in Iraq and let our military 
redeploy, rebuild, and refocus.
  The United States faces a gravely serious threat, and we must be 
prepared to defeat it. Our 4-year involvement in Iraq has seriously 
endangered our ability to do that. At home, our National Guard has been 
undermined. It is unprepared to respond to a terrorist attack or a 
natural disaster. Abroad, our military forces are stretched thin and 
unable to shift quickly.
  If we really want to defeat Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and the other 
terrorist groups that seek to kill us, we must return our attention to 
that war and leave the civil war we currently face in Iraq to the 
Iraqis. If we rebuild our forces and refocus on the threats in 
Afghanistan, Pakistan and throughout southeast Asia, we will be able to 
truly defeat our enemies and truly protect the United States of 
America.
  Mr. HINCHEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend John Hall 
from New York for his strong presentation and for joining us this 
evening in this discussion about this critical issue.
  I would now like to recognize my friend and colleague from 
California, Barbara Lee.
  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for calling this 
Special Order tonight and for your leadership.
  Today marks the fourth anniversary of the invasion and bombing of 
Iraq. It is a solemn occasion that reminds me with a very heavy heart 
of our brave troops who we want to protect and who we want to bring 
home.
  As the occupation now enters its 5th year, it is really an 
appropriate time to review some of the history. It is also an 
appropriate time to recall that the case for this war was false.
  All the talk about aluminum tubes and yellowcake, remember that? 
Right.

[[Page H2660]]

Colin Powell's dramatic presentation to the United Nations? I still 
wonder why such a distinguished Secretary of State would do that.
  The fact is there was no connection to al Qaeda. There were no 
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and there was no connection 
between the horrific events of 9/11 and Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
  Some of us opposed the war from the beginning. In fact, if my 
amendment to the authorization to use force had been used 4 years ago, 
the United Nations inspectors would have had the opportunity to finish 
their job and confirm what we believed and some of us knew at that 
time, what the world now knows, namely, that Iraq had no weapons of 
mass destruction.

                              {time}  2145

  It is an appropriate time now to review the disaster that has taken 
place in Iraq, so that the administration does not rewrite this tragic 
history, and also to put the administration on notice and in check from 
starting a preemptive war against Iran, which many see as looming. It's 
appropriate tonight to review this history because the administration 
who brought us this debacle would now like us to accept an open-ended 
commitment to it.
  Why is it appropriate for us to remind the country of all of this 
tonight? Because the same people, the same administration who brought 
us this disaster are now asking us to trust them again. They are saying 
that we should give the President another chance. They are saying, in 
effect, that our commitment to supporting their failed policies should 
be open-ended.
  Think about that for a minute. The people in this administration who 
have been wrong about every single major decision about this war are 
now trying to make it seem unreasonable to suggest that we should not 
continue to write blank checks to support this debacle.
  Well, it is not unreasonable. That is where the American people are 
on this issue. They know better. It is time for this unfortunate 
chapter of our history to close. It is time to end the occupation of 
Iraq and bring our troops home.
  At various points the administration has told us that the mission has 
been accomplished, that we were turning the corner, or that the 
insurgency was in its last throes. As we now know, those pronouncements 
were all false.
  The truth is that the administration's conduct of this war has been 
nothing short of shameful. We may never know how many of the roadside 
bombs that kill our troops every day are made from explosives looted 
from weapons depots that were left unguarded because the administration 
chose to ignore the advice of our military commanders on how many 
troops would be needed. Whatever the number is, it is too many.
  It is an appropriate time tonight to review the cost of the 
administration's failed policy in Iraq. The human cost of this 
occupation has been terrible. More than 3,200 United States servicemen 
and women have died, and more than 32,000 have been wounded. That is an 
average of 67 deaths and 500 wounded every month, not to mention the 
death and injuries of countless Iraqis.
  The financial cost is unsustainable. Already we have spent more than 
$400 billion on this invasion and occupation. We are averaging more 
than $8 billion per month. That is staggering.
  The cost of our security has been devastating. The Bush 
administration's military and foreign policy doctrine of preemptive 
war, like you can start a war based on perceived future threats, this 
was supposed to solve the problem posed by the so-called axis of evil.
  Four years after putting the doctrine to test in Iraq, the results 
are in, and it is a total failure. Iraq posed no imminent threat to our 
security, but today the vast majority of our security resources are 
bogged down in Iraq. North Korea has obtained nuclear weapons, 
something the doctrine was to prevent, and Iran is empowered and 
emboldened. The occupation is undermining our efforts to fight 
international terrorism.
  According to the National Intelligence Estimate of April 2006, and 
this is in their words, they said the Iraq conflict has been the cause 
celebre for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of the United States 
involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the 
global jihadist movement. Now, this is what the National Intelligence 
Estimate said.
  Furthermore, the toll that the occupation is taking on our Armed 
Forces is stretching the military beyond the breaking point. The 
Washington Post reported today that Army and Marine officials are 
referring to a readiness death spiral in which the ever more rapid pace 
of war zone rotations has consumed 40 percent of the total gear, 
wearied troops, and left no time to train to fight anything other than 
insurgents now at hand.
  The administration likes to talk about the situation in Iraq in terms 
of winning and losing, because it is convenient to portray critics of 
their policies as opposed to victory or supportive of defeat. The fact 
is you cannot win an occupation, just as there is no way for the United 
States to win an Iraqi civil war.
  The Bush administration understands this just as they understand that 
there are no pretty or clean options for bringing a responsible end to 
our policy there. They are content to mouth the words of victory while 
they try to run out the clock, playing a cynical game of political 
chicken, where whoever acts to bring a responsible end to their failed 
policy will be accused of having lost Iraq.
  The trouble is, though, that an average of 67 troops die in Iraq each 
month, and 500 are wounded, and we can't forget that. As General 
Petraeus and the Iraq Study Group both pointed out, there is no 
military solution to this civil war and occupation. For me, the cost of 
going along with the President's escalation charade and risking our 
brave young men and women's lives is way too high. It's time to bring 
this war and occupation to an end. It's time for military measures to 
be replaced with diplomacy and engagement with Iraq's neighbors. It's 
time to take the target off our troops' back and to bring them home.
  Thank you, Mr. Hinchey, for this Special Order tonight, and let's 
hope the American people raise their voices loudly and clearly with 
regard to what is taking place with this war and bring it to an end 
very soon.
  Mr. HINCHEY. I thank you for your very articulate expression of all 
of those facts, your leadership here and for joining us this evening.
  Mr. Speaker, I would now like to recognize my friend from California 
(Ms. Woolsey).
  Ms. WOOLSEY. First of all, I would like to thank the gentleman from 
New York for this Special Order and for including me and allowing me to 
speak once again on this House floor about this war and this occupation 
of Iraq.
  On the evening of March 19, 2003, speaking from the Oval Office, the 
President of the United States started his address to the Nation with 
these very words, and I quote him.
  ``My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are 
in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its 
people and to defend the world from grave danger.'' Here we are, 4 
years later, and it's fair to ask, indeed, it's incumbent upon us to 
ask, have we disarmed Iraq?
  Well, first off, as we all know, there are no weapons of mass 
destruction to disarm, so that whole entire premise was flawed.
  The question we have to ask is have we made Iraq safer? We may have 
deposed Saddam Hussein, but with insurgents, militias and vigilantes 
terrorizing Iraqi neighborhoods, some of them with the tacit support of 
the Iraqi Government, it's impossible to say we have disarmed Iraq or 
made its people and communities more secure.
  Have we freed Iraq's people? Well, I can think of at least 60,000 
Iraqis for starters who haven't been freed. That's the most 
conservative estimate of Iraqi civilian deaths over the last 4 years, 
at least 60,000 killed for the cause of their so-called liberation.
  Many of those who have escaped death live in fear of it, afraid to go 
to the market or send their children to school, if there is still a 
school for them to attend. Too many Iraqis live in communities without 
electricity, without sewage or basic services. Have we freed them?

  What about those who are so flush with freedom that they have chosen 
to flee their own country? I am talking about the 1.5 million-plus 
Iraqi refugees. Why don't we ask them if they feel free?

[[Page H2661]]

  Have we defended the world from grave danger? Indeed not. One study 
by the Center for Security Studies at New York University Law School 
concludes that the rate of fatal Muslim terror attacks worldwide has 
increased by a factor of seven since the Iraq war began. I repeat, that 
is seven times as much terrorism since we started this occupation, more 
people call it a war, but it is really an occupation, because this 
occupation that they keep telling us is the central front in the war on 
terror is not getting rid of terror.
  It's clear our Iraq policy has had a major impact in the war on 
terrorism. Unfortunately, it appears to be helping the wrong side.
  So to go back to the President's statement of exactly 4 years ago, it 
would appear he has accomplished none of these three tasks, tasks he 
claimed to have begun that night 4 years ago. Iraq is not disarmed, its 
people are not free, and the world is more dangerous. It was never 
supposed to get to this point. You remember this was going to be quick, 
it was going to be painless. We are going to finish these guys off 
without breaking a sweat, remember.
  On the very same day that President Bush spoke in front of the 
Mission Accomplished banner, prominent neoconservative Richard Perle 
actually published an op ed in a major national newspaper entitled 
``Relax, Celebrate Victory.'' The cost? Don't worry, they told us, Iraq 
oil revenues will cover the entire thing.
  They fired the top White House economic adviser for daring to suggest 
that the war had cost as much as $200 billion. What would they have 
done to him if they had known he was underestimating it by a few 
hundred billion dollars?
  We have to ask our colleagues who authorized the President to launch 
the preemptive strike on Iraq, is this what you voted for, to invade a 
country that had no weapons of mass destruction, no link to 9/11; to 
occupy that country for 4 years, helping foster a vicious insurgency 
and fan the flames of civil war?
  If you had known these things, and if you had known that it would 
cost us over 3,200 lives to date, and upwards of $400 billion, 
uncounted civilian deaths, and between 35,000, as the Pentagon tells 
us, or over 200,000, as reported by the Veterans Administration, 
wounded, we have to ask, can you look the American people in the eye 
and say you would have done the same thing all over again knowing what 
you know now?
  If your answer is no, if you believe the war has been a mistake, then 
it makes absolutely no sense to let it continue any longer, and it 
makes even less sense to hand the President an additional $100 billion 
with which to pursue the same disastrous policy.
  Our troops have done their job. They and their families have 
sacrificed more than enough. They have been forced to dig for scrap 
metal in order to armor their vehicles. They have endured substandard 
care, bureaucratic delays and squalid conditions at Walter Reed 
Hospital. They have been betrayed by the grievous mistakes of their 
civilian supervisors and superiors.
  Support our troops. Bring them home.
  I have four grandchildren who weren't born 4 years ago. They have 
never lived in a world unclouded by this shameful, destructive and 
unnecessary occupation. I fear that if this Congress doesn't act, they 
will be living with these consequences well into their adult lives. It 
is for them, for the America they will inherit, that I want this war to 
end.
  It's time to act boldly. Americans are crying out for leadership, for 
their elected representatives to hear their frustrations about Iraq and 
to move decisively in response.
  This is a gut-check moment. Do you want it said about the 110th 
Congress that it failed the test of history, that it continued to send 
young Americans to kill and be killed on a mission that did nothing to 
enhance our national security or promote U.S. foreign interests? Do you 
want it said that we made a tragic mistake; even worse, that we blindly 
rubber-stamped a failed policy that has ignited a civil war and 
inspired a new generation of terrorists?
  The Iraq policy of the last 4 years has proven ruinous and misguided 
at every turn by any objective measure. As a matter of humanitarian 
obligation and political accountability, it's time to change course.
  In the name of national security, fiscal responsibility and basic 
human decency, we must get our troops out of Iraq and bring them home 
by the end of this year. Bring them home for the holidays.
  I thank you again, Mr. Hinchey.
  Mr. HINCHEY. I thank you, Lynn Woolsey, for your leadership and the 
way you have directed your attention to this issue over and over again 
on the floor of this House so many times, and done it so well.
  Mr. Speaker, now I would like to yield time to my dear friend and 
colleague from California (Ms. Waters).

                              {time}  2200

  Ms. WATERS. I would like to thank my friend from New York for taking 
this time out this evening and sharing it with those of us who feel a 
real need to come to the floor of this fourth anniversary of the war in 
Iraq and share with the people of America how we really feel about what 
is going on.
  First, I think it is important for the people of America to know that 
some of us are listening. We hear what they are telling us. We know 
what their expectations are. The polls today are very, very clear about 
the overwhelming number of Americans who want us out of Iraq.
  This war has truly taken a toll on this country: over 3,200 dead; 
24,000 injured. And I don't mean just minor injuries. Serious injuries. 
It has been documented what is happening at Walter Reed, brain 
injuries, eyes gouged out, limbs lost. Serious injuries. And the 
information that was just shared with us, about 20 percent of the 
returning troops with mental illness.
  Not only is it taking a toll on these young men and women who are 
sacrificing in this war; it is taking a toll on our domestic agenda, 
over $400 billion spent on this war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 
President now has a supplemental appropriation before this House asking 
for $100 billion more. The President recently came to us and told us he 
was going to increase the troops there by another 21,000, and a few 
days ago he added to that another 8,500. The requests keep coming: more 
troops, more money. And there is no end in sight.
  The President has said we should listen to the generals on the 
ground. Whenever we try and share our feelings and give some advice, he 
rejects it out of hand. Well, he just got information from General 
Petraeus on the ground, and he said to the world there will be and can 
be no military solution. But this President continues to persist in 
increasing the military and misrepresenting to the American people what 
is going on.
  With this request that he has made, the supplemental request, there 
are those who truly believe that we can ask him for progress reports 
and he will give us good information. I listened very carefully early 
this morning to what the President and all of those in his 
administration would say on this 4th-year anniversary. They simply are 
spinning the information about this war the way they have always spun 
the information about this war.
  First of all, as it has been said over and over again, they told us 
we would be welcomed with open arms. They told us there were weapons of 
mass destruction. They told us we were making progress with the 
training of soldiers, Iraqi soldiers, and they were just around the 
corner, they would be prepared and willing to take over the security of 
that country.
  Well, I listened as they did their spin this morning. In the middle 
of all of this carnage, in the middle of the fact that we wake up to 
more suicide bombings, more loss of American soldiers, and the 
expansion of the bombings in putting chlorine into the bombing and into 
the materials, they were spinning it again this morning saying we are 
making progress. And that is what I expect them to say if we give them 
the opportunity to tell us what progress is, come July, as it is 
indicated in the legislation that some would like to go forth from the 
floor.
  We cannot depend on them to tell us the truth. We cannot depend on 
them to follow and honor benchmarks that a lot of people are alluding 
to. We cannot depend on this President to get out of Iraq as long as we 
are giving him the money. We said that we didn't support the surge, but 
there are those who could suggest that we turn around and

[[Page H2662]]

support the surge, $90 billion to support the expansion of this war. 
Why should he get out as long as we are giving him the money?
  What are we supposed to accomplish? What are we trying to do? The 
President would tell you that somehow we are supposed to provide the 
security and we are supposed to train so that the Iraqis will be able 
to provide security. We are supposed to make the Shiites get along with 
the Sunnis and the Sunnis get along with the Kurds. I don't think so. I 
think that we don't understand the history. And I don't think that we 
understand, no matter who we think we are, we cannot forge the kinds of 
relationships that somehow we are going to stay there until we make 
people love and like each other and work together.
  Who wants us in Iraq? They call us the occupiers. As a matter of 
fact, we find that legislators that are supposedly in this new 
democratic government, one was revealed this morning to have all kinds 
of weapons found at his house. All kinds of weapons. And they found 
traces of chemicals in his four automobiles. This is one of the so-
called elected members of the parliament. They do not want us there. 
The Shiites don't want us there, the Sunnis don't want us there, the 
Kurds don't want us there. And we have our young people at risk. They 
are at risk. They are being attacked by the militias, and they are 
being attacked by the very police forces that are supposed to be on the 
ground helping to provide security.
  Well, in the final analysis, our only response must be to have an 
exit strategy. The Out of Iraq Caucus that was organized 1\1/2\ years 
ago did not say when we should get out; it did not tell the President 
exactly what the strategy should be. We simply created a platform for 
discussion and debate so that the Members of Congress would keep their 
eyes on the ball so that they would understand what was going on and 
not have information swept under the rug. We invited in speakers. We 
had generals to come in; we had writers to come in. We had many people 
come in and talk with us about what is going on there. But this 
President doesn't get it. He is intending to stay there until he does 
something called ``win,'' with young people losing their lives, the 
children of families all over America, not just from inner cities but 
most of them now we are finding coming from rural America. They will 
continue to die.
  In another year we are going to have thousands that will be dead. In 
another year there will be thousands that will be injured. And the 
shame of it all is that they won't find the kind of medical care. They 
had a big article today and information about the homeless veterans 
returning from Iraq. They are homeless, they are not being cared for, 
they are not getting the benefits. But we are going to continue this 
war. I would submit to you it is time for a change. Bring our soldiers 
home.
  Mr. HINCHEY. Ms. Waters, I thank you very much for your dynamic 
leadership and for joining us this evening and for those remarks.
  I yield to my good friend and colleague from New Jersey (Mr. Payne).
  Mr. PAYNE. Let me begin by thanking the gentleman from New York for 
this Special Order and bringing to the American people the very 
important issue that stands before us. And I would like to commend the 
Out of Iraq Caucus, but primarily the three women from California, 
Congresswoman Woolsey, Congresswoman Lee, and Congresswoman Waters, who 
have kept this particular issue alive, have continued to work with us 
to shape a policy or keep the conscience of America focused on this 
situation, a situation that we gave preemptive strike authority to the 
President of United States, which all of us opposed, when they said 
there were weapons of mass destruction; and when none were found, said, 
well, it was regime change was the final one.

  But today, we mark the fourth anniversary of the occupation in Iraq. 
Ironically, it was almost 4 years ago on May 1, 2003, that President 
Bush deemed the operation in Iraq as ``mission accomplished,'' 
affirming an end to the major combat in Iraq. As you may recall, he 
flew in a military plane on an aircraft carrier with a big sign and a 
brilliant smile on his face, ``Mission Accomplished.''
  By that time, approximately 175 Americans had lost their lives in 
combat. Too many, but 175. Yet 3,197 lives later, American lives later, 
the war continues; 3,197 more from the pronouncement of ``mission 
accomplished.'' Included in this number are 50 fatalities from my home 
State of New Jersey.
  This weekend, thousands of protesters took to the streets to demand 
an end to the war in Iraq. As an early and staunch opponent to this 
war, I have watched every single prediction made by this 
administration. They have boldly said what they predicted, and every 
time the prediction was wrong: from the duration of the war, wrong; the 
reception we would receive, wrong; the costs, wrong; the number of 
casualties, wrong; the existence of weapons of mass destruction, wrong. 
This administration has proven itself wrong, wrong, wrong. The 
countless number of Americans and Iraqis who have lost their lives is 
sad.
  The administration should listen to the Baker-Hamilton Commission, 
which has offered a stinging assessment of virtually every aspect of 
the U.S. venture in Iraq and calls for a reshaping of the American 
presence and a new Middle East democracy initiative to prevent the 
country from slipping into anarchy.
  There is a great sense of sadness among those of us who foresaw over 
4 years ago the tragedy that is now unfolding in Iraq. The war that 
many assumed would be swift and certain now continues to rage, but I 
urge my fellow colleagues to take this day and all of the days forward 
to push for a change, beginning with an orderly withdrawal of American 
forces from Iraq. This approach will send a message to Iraqis that they 
must take more responsibility for their own security and would reduce 
the strain on our military forces. For that, we will not need a surge 
to the war to continue and continue surge after surge.
  I thank you very much for the time.
  Mr. HINCHEY. I thank my friend Donald Payne from New Jersey for his 
leadership and for joining us this evening.
  Mr. Speaker, the point that we have made here tonight is that perhaps 
at no time in the history of this country, except for perhaps our own 
Civil War, have we faced the kind of circumstances that we are 
presently being confronted with as a result of the way in which this 
administration incompetently and corruptly has led us into this illegal 
occupation in Iraq.
  We need to correct these circumstances. It is the responsibility of 
this Congress to do so. We need to hold this administration 
accountable. It is the responsibility of this Congress to do so. We 
need to remove our military forces from Iraq in an appropriate and 
timely way. And it is the responsibility of this Congress to take that 
kind of leadership.
  I thank my friends and colleagues for joining us here on this very 
important 4-year anniversary of the illegal attack and subsequent 
occupation of Iraq. We need now to change these circumstances.

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