[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 127 (Friday, August 3, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1737]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E1737]]
                  AMERICAN TROOPS AND THE WAR IN IRAQ

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                             HON. TOM UDALL

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, August 3, 2007

  Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Madam Speaker, in a little over a month, 
this body will receive an official status report from General David 
Petraeus, the commander of American forces in Iraq, on whether 
benchmarks of progress set by Congress have been met. A preliminary 
report issued in July indicated that there has been a failure to meet 
more than half of those benchmarks, a woeful assessment that has been 
only further hampered by increased political fracturing in Baghdad. 
Earlier this week, the largest Sunni political bloc resigned from the 
Prime Minister's cabinet. Any hope that the political cohesion so 
desperately needed for real, permanent success in Iraq seems to be lost 
amid the destruction and divisiveness that continues to impede our 
efforts.
  When we return in September, we will consider whether to continue 
granting unchecked and unqualified funding for this war--a war that has 
raged on for 4 long years, a war that has claimed thousands of American 
and Iraqi lives, a war that has cost nearly half a trillion dollars. 
And while we debate funding for Iraq, the day-to-day lives of the men 
and women in uniform deployed are consumed by more violence and 
uncertainty. Recently, we received news in New Mexico that the life of 
another of our soldiers has been lost to combat. Like my colleagues, 
the calls back home to console parents, spouses and children for their 
loss and the occurrence of somber funerals is more familiar than we 
ever thought it would be, and for all of us the end to this war cannot 
come soon enough.
  When I return to New Mexico this month, I have no doubt that the war 
will continue to be the top issue on the minds of my constituents. We 
all hear the same question: What is Congress doing? I will tell them 
that we voted to redeploy our troops. That we voted to bring our 
soldiers home for longer periods of rest. And that we vote to enact key 
provisions and provide critical funding for the soldiers. However, in 
the end, the families in my district will want to know when the end 
will come, when their sons and daughters will be home.
  We must bring our troops home, we must end this misguided and 
mismanaged war, and we must--we must--repair our foreign policy. For if 
we don't, in the decades to come the reverberations of our mistakes in 
Iraq will continue to affect our image and our position in the world. 
Change is needed, and it is needed now.

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