[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 22887]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    IRAQ AND THE ``BOLDER APPROACH''

  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, the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, 
appeared on ``Meet the Press'' yesterday morning and made this 
assertion, and I quote Dr. Rice: `` . . . when we were attacked on 
September 11, we had a choice to make. We could decide that the 
proximate cause was al Qaeda and the people who flew those planes into 
the buildings and, therefore, we would go after al Qaeda and perhaps 
after the Taliban and then our work would be done . . .
  ``Or we could take a bolder approach, which was to say that we had to 
go after the root causes of the kind of terrorism that was produced 
there, and that meant a different kind of Middle East. And there is no 
one who could have imagined a different kind of Middle East with Saddam 
Hussein still in power.''
  Mr. Speaker, what happened to the weapons of mass destruction? In the 
run up to the war, no one said anything about a bolder approach.
  We were told about uranium purchases from Niger. We were told about 
the world's most dangerous weapons falling into the hands of the wrong 
people. We were told by Dr. Rice herself about the specter of mushroom 
clouds over American cities. We were treated to a campaign of fear and 
deception about weapons of mass destruction because the Bush 
administration knew that was the only way to convince the Nation and 
the Congress to commit to this war.
  They knew that this bolder approach, this ideological pipe dream, was 
an absolute nonstarter.
  So what are we supposed to tell Cindy Sheehan and the thousands of 
other mothers, fathers, spouses, siblings, and friends of dead soldiers 
and soldiers who were wounded? That their children died or were wounded 
not to protect America but for some ``bolder approach,'' because the 
Middle East is the personal chess board of a gang of neoconservatives 
who have not had to sacrifice a thing for this war?
  Mr. Speaker, I traveled to Iraq a few weeks ago to meet the troops to 
learn more about their mission. I cannot tell the Members how impressed 
I was with the courage, the loyalty, and intelligence of our soldiers 
from the officers down to the citizen soldiers of the National Guard. 
They are, indeed, the best America has to offer.
  My question is: Why can we not have political leaders with the same 
honor and integrity as the men and women who wear the uniform, who take 
the risks, who make the sacrifices? It is nothing short of tragic the 
way the Pentagon and the White House have let down and even exploited 
the men and women in their charge. They sent them to Iraq on false 
pretenses, on a poorly defined mission, without all the tools they 
needed and without a plan to bring them home.
  I have been calling for our troops to come home this entire year. I 
have called for hearings. I have introduced resolutions. I have forced 
a vote in this Chamber. But, Mr. Speaker, I am not just speaking for 
myself. A majority of Americans clearly share this anxiety and 
skepticism about the war.
  I have tried to jumpstart the conversation about how to go about 
ending the occupation. At the hearing I convened last month, some very 
sound ideas were laid out about how to end this debacle and how the 
United States can play a constructive role in the rebuilding of Iraqi 
society.
  But the President will not engage on this level. He will not engage 
in this conversation. He offers nothing but platitudes and vague 
assertions. Terrorism is bad and freedom is good, he tells us. We need 
to stay the course, he tells us. We will be there as long as we need to 
be there, he tells us.
  This is not enough. The American people and our soldiers deserve 
better. They deserve a plan, an endgame, a clear strategy to return 
Iraq to the Iraqi people and the troops to their families back home.

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