[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13469-13470]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                SMART SECURITY AND IRAQ WITHDRAWAL PLAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, our Constitution states that Members of 
Congress must be chosen by the people of the United States and Congress 
must represent the people of the United States. That means that we, as 
Members of Congress, need to listen and act when the people speak.

[[Page 13470]]

  Well, the American people have spoken. The latest Gallup poll 
released last week indicates that the American people are ready for our 
military forces in Iraq to begin coming home.
  Nearly 60 percent of Americans believe that the United States should 
bring home some or all of our troops from Iraq. Just as revealing, the 
Gallup poll showed that only 36 percent of Americans support 
maintaining our current troop levels in Iraq. This is the lowest level 
of support for the war since it began in March 2003.
  The American people have stated loud and clear where they stand, and 
their numbers are increasing. They know that the only way to keep our 
sons and daughters from being killed in Iraq and the only way to end 
the death and destruction that occur there every single day is to start 
the process of bringing our troops home. Clearly, the American people 
are way ahead of Congress on this issue.
  Unfortunately, the President of the United States is way behind on 
the issue of Iraq. We have asked the President to come up with a plan 
for ending the war. He has not; so we will.
  Our efforts to come up with a plan began in January when I introduced 
legislation calling for the President to begin bringing our troops 
home. Thirty-five Members of Congress support this legislation.
  We continued our effort on May 25 when I introduced an amendment to 
the defense authorization bill calling for the President to create a 
plan for Iraq; 128 Members of Congress, including five Republicans and 
one Independent, voted in favor of this sensible amendment.
  It is clear that the United States must develop a smarter agenda, an 
agenda for Iraq, an agenda that will go beyond when we bring our troops 
home from Iraq.
  It is more important that we have a plan for the future than a 
continued military occupation, because this 2-year war has left us 
disturbingly weakened, weakened against the true security threats we 
face here at home. Let us not forget that Osama bin Laden is still at 
large, and al Qaeda continues to recruit new members in Iraq and 
elsewhere.
  Once we have a plan in place to end the war in Iraq, we can start the 
long process of securing the United States and Iraq for the future. We 
can accomplish this through SMART Security. SMART Security, which has 
the support of 50 Members of Congress, is a Sensible Multilateral 
American Response to Terrorism for the 21st Century, and it will help 
us address the threats we face as a Nation.
  SMART Security will prevent acts of terrorism in countries like Iraq 
by addressing the root conditions which give rise to terrorism in the 
first place: poverty, despair, resource scarcity, and lack of 
educational opportunities.
  SMART Security encourages the United States to work with other 
nations to address the most pressing global issues. SMART addresses 
global emergencies diplomatically, instead of by resorting to armed 
conflict.
  Instead of maintaining a long-term military occupation of Iraq, our 
future efforts to help the Iraqi people must follow the SMART approach: 
humanitarian assistance, coordinated with our international allies to 
rebuild Iraq's war-torn physical and economic infrastructure.
  That is what I mean when I talk about SMART Security. We can defend 
America by relying on the very best of American values, our commitment 
to peace and freedom, our compassion for the people of the world, and 
our capacity for multilateral leadership.
  Mr. Speaker, we must follow a smarter approach, and we must do this 
as we work to help the Iraqi people. That means implementing a plan to 
end the war in Iraq. I invite the President, all Americans, and all 
Members of Congress to join me in this effort.

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