[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 19890]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  ADMINISTRATION UNHINGED FROM REALITY

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, today we see an administration in denial, a 
denial of problems here at home and abroad.
  Today's Washington Post says an increasing number of career 
professionals within our own national security agencies believe that 
the situation in Iraq is much worse than is being expressed in public 
by top administration officials. It says, ``The rebellion is deeper and 
more widespread than is being publicly acknowledged.''
  These are not the words of ``pessimists and naysayers,'' as the 
President's spokesperson so glibly put it. These are not, as President 
Bush said last week, ``guesses.'' These are the findings of those 
fighting the Iraqi insurgency and studying at CIA, the State 
Department, and within the Army officer corps.
  Yet the administration insists that, ``Freedom is on the march in 
Iraq.'' This comes on the heels of a New York Times piece that found 
120,000 hours of terrorism-related recordings that have not even been 
translated by the FBI, this after this administration and the majority 
have repeatedly refused to appropriate the funds to hire the necessary 
translators.
  We are seeing an administration unhinged from reality, with 
incompetence at the highest levels, incapable of prosecuting this war 
successfully. Their mistakes have put the lives of our valiant soldiers 
already serving in harm's way at even greater risk.

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