[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 81 (Friday, May 16, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E954]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008

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                               speech of

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 15, 2008

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to oppose this most recent war 
funding appropriation brought before the Congress. While I cannot in 
good conscience provide the President with any additional funds that 
would continue this disastrous war well into the next president's 
administration, I do support Amendment #2, which attaches conditions to 
the war funding and would hold the President accountable. I also 
support Amendment #3, which would honor our veterans and provide 
desperately needed humanitarian funds to people both here and abroad.
  As I have said before, the American people sent a clear message to 
the Congress on November 7, 2006: We must end the war in Iraq. In the 
ensuing months, the calls for withdrawal have only increased. A recent 
ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that 57 percent of Americans 
believe that the United States should withdraw its military forces from 
Iraq to avoid further U.S. military casualties, even if it means that 
civil order is not restored there.
  Unfortunately, we stand here today, no closer to responding to the 
demands of the American people. This development frustrates me to no 
end and I know it frustrates the American people. Yet, it also 
strengthens my resolve to press harder for the outcome this country 
needs.
  The ultimate, unequivocal authority of the Congress is the power of 
the purse. We must use it. The only way to truly support our troops is 
take them out of harm's way. The American people understand that 
marching ahead blindly into oblivion is anything but supporting our 
troops.
  The longer this war drags on, the more its effects are felt in our 
communities and homes. Last year, the citizens of Detroit spent $231.3 
million to fund the war in Iraq. With those same funds, the Congress 
could have provided healthcare for 172,984 children. Even when faced 
with historically high food prices, a crumbling infrastructure, and the 
subprime mortgage crisis, the Administration continues to demand that 
the American people continue to pour billions of their taxpayer dollars 
into an unwinnable war. The priorities of this Administration could not 
be any more misplaced.
  Of course, appeals to reason fall on deaf ears with this President. 
In an interview this week, President Bush was asked about the worst 
that could happen if the U.S. were to pull out of Iraq next year. The 
President responded: ``The doomsday scenario of course is that 
extremists throughout the Middle East would be emboldened, which would 
eventually lead to another attack on the United States.''
  The President's overreliance on the tired rhetoric of fear, unchanged 
after five years of bloody occupation, exemplifies how intellectually 
bankrupt the justifications for his war policies have become.

  Mr. Speaker, this lame duck President cannot scare the Congress and 
the American people into continuing his war. We know that it is the 
presence of our troops on the street corners of Basra and Fallujah that 
lures extremists to Iraq. We know that it is the unintentional 
desecration of holy sites, like the Golden Dome of Samarra, that 
inspires outrage in the hearts of young men throughout the Middle East 
and makes America more susceptible to another terrorist attack.
  There is only one sensible way forward in Iraq. If the Congress acts 
this day to cut off funding for the war or to impose a timetable for 
withdrawal, we can begin the immediate phased drawdown of American 
troops and conclude it within 18 months. Such redeployment does not 
constitute ``cutting and running.'' Instead, it offers the only hope 
for a diplomatic solution to the civil war raging inside of Iraq. With 
160,000 troops in Iraq, Washington lacks the leverage on its own to 
push the Maliki government to take meaningful steps to accommodate 
Sunni concerns and thereby empower Sunni moderates. Similarly, the U.S. 
presence in Iraq allows the rest of the world to avoid responsibility 
for stability in and around Iraq, even as everyone realizes the stakes 
involved. Only a plan to draw down U.S. forces, coupled with a robust 
diplomatic surge, will prompt Middle Eastern states, European 
governments, and the United Nations to be more constructive and 
proactive in working to salvage stability in the Persian Gulf.
  I came to Washington 43 years ago on a platform of Jobs, Justice, and 
Peace. Because it is my firm belief that we will never achieve peace in 
Iraq as long as this war continues, I cannot support a supplemental 
funding bill that allows a politically unaccountable President to 
continue an unwinnable conflict. Enough is enough.




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