[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 23970]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
                            IRAQ MILESTONES

  (Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. EMANUEL. Madam Speaker, this week we passed two milestones in 
Iraq: The constitution was ratified, and, tragically, the 2,000th 
American died. These milestones, one positive, one clearly negative, 
provide us with an opportunity to review our progress in Iraq. This is 
not a time to debate how we got into Iraq. What is important is 
resolving the mess.
  Hear what the experts are saying: Retired Army Lieutenant General 
William Odom, former head of the National Security Agency, said that 
the invasion of Iraq ``will turn out to be the greatest strategic 
disaster in U.S. history.''
  Brent Scowcroft, National Security Adviser under the first President 
George Bush, said, ``You have to know when to stop using force. You can 
encourage democracy over time, with assistance, and aid, the 
traditional way. Not how the neoconservatives'' are trying to do it in 
Iraq.
  And Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired lieutenant colonel and former 
Secretary of State Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff at the State 
Department, said President Bush's foreign policy was ``ruinous'' and 
said that ``we have courted disaster in Iraq, in North Korea, in 
Iran.''
  These are not the words of partisans or the board members of 
MoveOn.org. As these experts and the American people know, it is time 
for a new direction and new priorities. We can do better. The current 
path is not a path to success. It is time for the President to level 
with the American people and produce a plan forward.

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