[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 24238-24239]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      IRAQ AND CONSTITUENT LEADERS

  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 war in Iraq is like one of those 
bridges in Alaska. You can give it all the money in the world, but in 
the end it goes nowhere.
  People all around the country are waking up to the fact that this war 
is not making the United States safer, like the President promised. It 
is actually jeopardizing our national security.
  It is the very presence of nearly 150,000 American troops on Iraqi 
soil, appearing as occupiers, that galvanizes and unites the 
dissatisfied people in the Arab world.
  The American people get this, people like Cindy Sheehan, whose son 
Casey was killed in Iraq. Cindy has been calling on the President to 
bring the troops home for months now. Her mission is a righteous one, 
that of a grieving mother who simply wants to know what noble cause her 
son was killed for.
  People in groups get it, like the members the northern California 
Ruth Group, who turned out in the hundreds to call for an end of the 
war last weekend. Over 500 people from my district joined me and fellow 
Members of Congress, Ms. Lee and Ms. Waters, and Cindy Sheehan at an 
important Ruth Group event to discuss ending the war. I have to tell 
you, discuss is a bit of an understatement. These folks are through 
discussing. They want our troops home. They want the war to be over.
  Mr. Speaker, there are thousands of individuals like Cindy Sheehan 
and the members of the Ruth Group around the country, all calling on 
their government to quickly end the war in Iraq and bring our 
servicemen and women home. They join with 66 percent of Americans who 
disapprove of the way President Bush has handled Iraq.
  The point is that the American people are speaking out. They are 
speaking loudly about the U.S. role in Iraq. They are sick and tired of 
reading reports of more young soldiers being killed, leaving behind 
grieving widows and children and parents and friends and communities. 
They, like me, believe that more than 2,000 American soldiers killed is 
2,000 too many. They think 2,000 soldiers, just think about it, 2,000 
soldiers is an entire Army division gone. They know that for every 
insurgent killed, three more rise up to take their place.
  They are tired of watching bombs go off in Iraqi cities, killing 
innocent civilians and American soldiers. They want to see the U.S. 
continue to support Iraq nonmilitaristically by assisting the Iraqi 
people build their war-

[[Page 24239]]

torn economic and physical infrastructure. They want the United States 
to help in a nonmilitaristic role.
  Members of Congress are actually joining this debate, too. There are 
no fewer than five Members of this House who have policy proposals to 
end the war, and 127 Members joined me in voting for the amendment I 
offered in May to this year's defense authorization bill expressing the 
sense of Congress that we need to end this war.
  On the other side of the Capitol, Senators Kerry, Kennedy, Feingold 
and others have offered their plans for Iraq as well.
  I held an informal hearing last month to address how the United 
States can achieve military disengagement. Thirty other Members of 
Congress joined me at this hearing, listening to military, academic and 
governmental experts discuss the best way to end this devastating war.
  Clearly the majority of the country has started the conversation 
about these issues. It is necessary that the President join in. Mr. 
Speaker, individuals around the country have given us their plans to 
end the war. It is time for the President to give us his plan, the goal 
of which needs to be bringing the troops home to their families.

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