[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 8553]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             MISMANAGED WAR

  (Mr. BLUMENAUER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I have been listening to my colleagues 
on the other side of the aisle. The issue has never been whether or not 
our troops could win a war. They are the finest fighting men and women 
in the world, and they can win a war.
  The issue is the mismanagement of this administration, their 
inability to win the peace. The mismanagement of our war is not the 
fault of our troops. It starts with the Secretary of Defense who is out 
of the loop. It is a failure of candor with people in this Congress who 
have to rely on the The New Yorker magazine to find out things that the 
Administration should have provided to our committees. It is a failure 
of our committees to move forward to deal with the investigations of 
problems of supply, of inappropriate activities on the part of 
contractors, of why there has been a failure of command that has 
produced the horrific pictures that put not just our troops at risk but 
put at risk any American traveling in the Middle East.
  I think it is time for my colleagues to get a grip and get back to 
the business that we should, as Members of Congress, fulfill our 
responsibilities, not try to play politics.

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