[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13341-13342]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          WHAT IS THE EXIT STRATEGY FROM IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.

[[Page 13342]]


  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, just a few hours ago, this 
House engaged in a debate, one I believe that is one of the more 
important debates that we have in this House, and that is, the 
appropriations for the defense of this Nation. Clearly, there were so 
many themes and so many issues that go yet unanswered. I think it is 
important to elaborate for the American people some of the concerns 
that needed to be addressed but were not addressed in the fullness of 
the debate that took place.
  I acknowledged when I was on the floor that I respected and 
appreciated the hard work of the chairman of the full committee, the 
ranking member of the full committee, as well as the ranking member of 
the subcommittee and certainly the chairman of the subcommittee.
  I also have noted in the past my full commitment for our troops on 
the frontline and have had the pleasure of interacting with them in my 
visits to them in Afghanistan, more than once, in Iraq and other places 
in the Mideast, and will continue to interact with them as my other 
colleagues do; and I continue to indicate that my door remains open to 
their concerns and their family members.
  That is why I rise today, because when the administration announced a 
$25 billion supplemental that is necessary for Afghanistan and Iraq, I 
made the point that I would like to see some strategy, some long-term 
exit strategy, some way and means of bringing our troops home, some 
understanding of how many troops we will need, do we have enough 
troops; and yet in the course of the designing of this appropriations 
bill, outside of the process of those committees, there has been no 
known process that I have or known statement to the actual road map 
that we are going to take out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
  There is a due date of June 30 for the transition of power. I frankly 
believe in al Qaeda assessing the situation that we actually need to 
have, if you will, a greater understanding as to whether that 
transition of power will truly work. We do not have that, but yet we 
have been asked to give $25 billion, $25 billion in order for those 
dollars to go to Iraq and Afghanistan.
  I stand here in full support of increased military personnel pay, of 
support for families and children of the military personnel, of 
veterans, in support of an increase in their salaries; and, in fact, 
Mr. Speaker, I had an amendment that would offer $100 million taken 
from the missile defense dollars that cost $20 billion to train, equip 
and provide related assistance to the military security forces.
  Had that amendment been accepted, I might have voted for this 
appropriation; but the reason why I think this point was extremely 
important, and again, this may have been something that was discussed 
in the midst of the committee process, but it was not brought to this 
body, not in a full debate, and that is, in my visits I spoke to 
Reservists and National Guard who indicated, I was trained as a cook, 
trained as a carpenter, trained as a driver, and yet I was being 
utilized as an MP; I have been utilized as a prison guard for Abu 
Ghraib, for example. In many instances, because of the shortchanging of 
personnel, we have seen those ill-equipped to be in the midst of combat 
or to be used or be involved or engaged in combat action, not defense 
action, not meaning I am doing something else and I am being attacked, 
but to go out offensively and be part of combat.
  We are seeing those individuals untrained doing those duties. We have 
seen tragedies occur. Certainly, we saw the tragedies of soldiers being 
kidnapped on convoys. We see the tragedies of MPs not really being 
trained as MPs; and certainly, there is no greater tragedy for the 
American personnel and for the Iraqis of Abu Ghraib.
  So this amendment was to be offered, and unfortunately, because of 
the unfortunate restraints, or the restraints that we have, that 
amendment was not accepted.
  I would have also offered an amendment to deal specifically with 
contracting companies because we realize that we had a problem with 
outside contractors, though many have done very able work; but I 
believe that if you are a contractor wearing the flag of the United 
States of America, engaged with the United States military, you must 
have an impeccable record; and if by chance you have been charged with 
human rights violations in the last 5 years or beyond, then I would 
argue that you have no place in having a contract in the United States 
Government, but particularly in areas of conflict; and I would have 
offered that amendment had it been received and accepted.
  Let me also say that there are two other crises that I think are 
extremely important. The first one goes back to military personnel. 
That has to do, Mr. Speaker, with mental health; and I would have 
offered an amendment on mental health as well as additional resources 
for the Sudan.
  Let me close by saying that all of this would have warranted a better 
bill, and maybe we would have had a chance to address the needs of 
women in America, which I would have spoken about or will endeavor to 
speak about at some other time. In any event, I will submit many of my 
comments for the Record.

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