[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13847]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  (Mrs. BLACKBURN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, day after day Members from across the 
aisle have been coming to this floor to tell Americans that in their 
opinion we are losing the war on terror. They say that Iraq is a 
disaster, Gitmo is a gulag, and that our soldiers should have come home 
yesterday.
  Mr. Speaker, they have no shame. If they want policy change, fine. 
But do not undermine our soldiers' efforts by going all out and selling 
this as hopeless in order to try to score political points.
  Did they think winning the war was going to be easy? No one ever told 
them the endeavor would be without cost. Iraq is not a failure. Is it 
tough? For heaven's sake, absolutely, yes, it is tough. We all knew 
that going in. But transforming Iraq, freeing millions of people, 
stamping out terrorism in a nation right in the middle of the Arab 
world will pay huge dividends in the war on terror, period. It gives us 
a democratic ally in the Middle East.
  I hope my colleagues will join us in supporting this effort, rather 
than tearing it and the brilliant men and women in uniform down.

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