[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 40 (Tuesday, March 19, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H1574]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF IRAQ WAR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. LEE of California. Today is a solemn anniversary, a tragedy that 
began 10 years ago when President George W. Bush launched a war of 
choice in Iraq, driving our country into a costly, bitter conflict 
based on falsehoods and hyperbole. It took President Obama's fulfilling 
his campaign promise to end the Iraq war, and we are grateful that he 
brought the war to an end, but we must not forget how we got into the 
war in the first place so that these mistakes are not repeated.
  We were told there were weapons of mass destruction. We were warned 
about mushroom clouds. Now, I offered an amendment at the time that 
would have taken us down a different path. It would have required the 
United States to work through the United Nations, using inspectors and 
maximizing diplomacy and inspections to determine whether or not Iraq 
was developing weapons of mass destruction. Unfortunately, my amendment 
failed by a vote of 72-355.
  What happened from there? We all know the tragic consequences: 
President Bush dragged this country into an unnecessary war. No weapons 
of mass destruction were ever found. The costs of the Iraq war soared 
far beyond what was projected, and we lost 4,400 American troops in 
Iraq, and over 32,000 were wounded, not to mention Iraqis.
  Once the war started, many of us in Congress quickly organized. Led 
by Congresswoman Maxine Waters and my good friend former Congresswoman 
Lynn Woolsey and myself, we founded the Out of Iraq Caucus. Over 80 
Members joined. Thankfully, on May 25, 2005, Congresswoman Woolsey 
introduced the first amendment to bring our troops home. From what I 
remember, there were about 132 votes that that amendment received, but 
that was not enough to stop the war. It was our way, though, to join 
the hundreds of thousands of people who marched and protested against 
what they knew was a war based on misleading information by the Bush 
administration. Many in this House supported my amendment every year to 
cut the funding for combat operations and to only appropriate funding 
for the safe and orderly withdrawal of our troops and our contractors.
  Now, we would have saved hundreds of lives had this body used the 
power of the purse strings to stop this war. Shame on us. Ten years 
later, today, the full consequences and costs of the Iraq war remain to 
be seen.
  According to a new study by the Watson Institute at Brown University, 
the war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion, with an additional $490 billion 
in benefits owed to our veterans. Most importantly, we paid for this 
war most tragically in loss of life and injury, and we poured billions 
of dollars into nation-building in Iraq with little oversight or 
accountability. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction 
issued his final report to Congress last month, detailing the billions 
of United States tax dollars lost to waste, fraud, and abuse.
  Speaking with an Iraqi official, Special Inspector Stuart Bowen was 
told: You can fly in a helicopter around Baghdad and other cities, but 
you cannot point a finger to a single project that was built and 
completed by the United States.
  Unfortunately, these lost opportunities and tragic mistakes are not 
behind us. As the daughter of a 25-year veteran of the Armed Forces, I 
recognize the sacrifices our young men and women have made in Iraq and 
continue to make in Afghanistan. I am deeply concerned with the 
widespread incidences of PTSD and the alarming suicide rates among our 
returning veterans. We need to honor our troops who served and show our 
support by giving our men and women who served the best health care, 
the best educational opportunities and the best jobs available. They 
deserve nothing less.
  It is my hope that this reckless and shortsighted decision will mark 
a turning point in American history and that we will never again wage 
an unnecessary war. We must use all the tools of American power in 
resolving disputes, including diplomacy, and we must have sufficient 
congressional debate. We only debated this go-to-war resolution for 
probably a couple of hours. We need more debate and oversight before 
ever putting another U.S. soldier in harm's way.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, just like in Iraq, there is no military 
solution in Afghanistan. We need to bring the war in Afghanistan to an 
accelerated end and bring our troops home now. Dr. Martin Luther King, 
Jr., in expressing his sentiment during a different war, said: The 
bombs in Vietnam explode at home--they destroy the hopes and 
possibilities of a decent America.
  So let us put this decade of perpetual warfare behind us, invest in 
our veterans, our children, and get about the business of nation-
building here at home.

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