[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 70 (Tuesday, May 1, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H4263]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        MISSION NOT ACCOMPLISHED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, tonight I rise to commemorate an important 
event in the ongoing occupation of Iraq. On May 1, 2003, 4 years ago 
today, President Bush, the Commander in Chief, strode across the deck 
of the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared that the United States mission 
in Iraq was accomplished.
  Mission accomplished. Mission accomplished? I don't think so. Let's 
review what has and what has not happened in Iraq since May 1, 2003.
  American troops were not met in the streets with flowers as welcoming 
liberators. Instead, they've met with sniper attacks and IEDs. 3,351 
American servicemen and women have given their lives, and nearly 
25,000, probably more, have returned home seriously wounded.
  This administration has hidden the caskets of those who have 
perished, and forced the wounded to rehabilitate in mold-infested, 
rotting facilities. Are those actions of a grateful Nation? Does this 
mean mission accomplished?
  What about the weapons of mass destruction? Where are they? Nobody 
knows. Even former head of the CIA, George Tenet, is now backing away 
from his ``slam dunk'' comment.
  Yellow cake? Aluminum tubes? Al Qaeda ties to Saddam? An ousted CIA 
agent and a jail term for a senior administration official? It is as if 
this administration has been living in Alice's world of Wonderland.
  The mission is yet to be accomplished. An accomplished mission would 
have brought peace and democracy to the Iraqi people. Neighborhoods 
would be free, not walled off, and a bomb would not have been set in 
the Iraqi Parliament building.
  Estimates range upward from 50,000 Iraqis killed and tens of 
thousands of refugees fleeing to neighboring countries like Syria. This 
is not how to promote peace and democracy.
  Let's see. Thousands, tens of thousands of refugees, and the United 
States allowed 7 or 8 Iraqi refugees into our country last month. We've 
made all those refugees happen, and we are doing nothing to help them.
  It takes a small protection force to go to the market in Baghdad, and 
the Secretaries of State and Defense must make surprise visits to Iraq 
because their security might not be insured otherwise.
  So I have to ask, Mr. Speaker, what mission was accomplished? The 
destruction of the Iraqi infrastructure? The mass exodus of the 
educated and wealthy from Iraq? The mission of alienating the United 
States on the global stage? The rise of hatred in countries who might 
have been our ally?
  This is unacceptable, and the American people know it. They sent that 
message loud. They sent it clear last November, and it echoes unheard 
in the White House.
  What is clear, Mr. Speaker, is that this mission is not accomplished. 
The ultimate mission to be accomplished is to bring our troops home. 
Then we can say, ``Mission Accomplished.''

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