[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 132 (Friday, September 7, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H10248]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AMERICA WANTS A NEW DIRECTION ON IRAQ
(Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute.)
Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, the previous days have offered a series of
reports on conditions in Iraq. These reports have been consistent: Iraq
remains dangerous, unstable, and political progress is virtually
nonexistent.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. The President's escalation was
supposed to give the Iraqi Government and the ethnic groups the room
they needed to make political progress. That progress simply has not
happened.
So now, after 4\1/2\ years, billions of dollars, thousands of lives,
and countless new slogans, the Bush administration is just giving us
the status quo. Instead of a new strategy for Iraq, the Bush
administration is cherry-picking the data to support the political
objectives and preparing a report that will offer yet another defense
of the President's strategy.
We don't need a report that wins a Nobel Prize for creative
statistics or the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Americans are demanding
the facts, an end to this open-ended commitment, a surge on the
political and diplomatic front. In short, the American people want a
new direction in Iraq.
____________________