[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2048-2049]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            SMART SECURITY AND $80 BILLION IRAQ SUPPLEMENTAL

  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, President Bush has recently indicated that 
he will ask Congress to approve another supplemental appropriations 
bill to fund the ongoing military operations in Iraq. The number is 
rumored to be somewhere in the $80 billion range; $80 billion.
  If this request for emergency funds is anything like the last three 
passed in the Congress, we can expect two things: one, the President 
will once again refuse to explain precisely where this money will be 
spent; and, two, congressional Republicans will meekly accede to the 
President's demands without asking for even the slightest degree of 
accountability from the White House in return.
  We in Congress must do more than just rubber stamp the President's 
every last wish. We hold the power of the purse; and, accordingly, we 
must exercise our constitutional authority to hold the executive branch 
accountable. Up to now, the Congress has failed to hold the Bush 
administration accountable for the many mishaps and mistakes in Iraq; 
and, as a result, the Members of Congress, all 535 of us, are 
responsible for the nearly 1,500 American troops who have been 
needlessly killed in Iraq, not to mention the 11,000 Americans who have 
been forever wounded and the untold thousands of Iraqi civilians who 
have died in this war.
  Before appropriating a single dollar for the Iraq war, more than we 
have already appropriated, Congress must demand that President Bush and 
Secretary Rumsfeld tell Congress exactly what they plan to do to 
address the growing crisis in Iraq. Demanding accountability from the 
Bush administration crosses over political lines because it is about 
more than just politics. It is about taking care of our men and women 
who are serving in Iraq, and it is about advancing policies that will 
secure America for the future.
  Together, with 27 of my House colleagues, I have introduced House 
Concurrent Resolution 35, an Iraq withdrawal plan, that has four 
components. President Bush needs to address, at the very least, each of 
these important components before Congress provides him any further 
funds for Iraq.
  First, the President needs to begin the process of bringing our 
troops home. How can we possibly ask these brave men and women, who 
have selflessly answered the call of duty for their country, to 
continue to die for an unjust, unfair, and poorly planned military 
failure halfway across the world? These are the troops the 
administration assured us would be embraced as liberators, but who 
continue to be the focal point of anti-American extremism, leaving them 
like sitting ducks.
  In fact, I believe the insurgency in Iraq is fueled primarily by our 
military presence. Ceasing the military operations will not be 
sufficient to defeat the insurgency, no way, but staying will continue 
to intensify it, and that is for certain.
  Second, President Bush needs to develop and implement a plan for 
Iraq's civil and economic infrastructure. The U.S. has a moral 
responsibility to clean

[[Page 2049]]

up the mess we made in Iraq, but that responsibility needs to be 
fulfilled not by our military but by humanitarian groups and companies 
that will help rebuild Iraq's infrastructure; and all future 
investments must be made with the needs of Iraqis being paramount, not 
the United States Government contractors and other war profiteers.
  Third, the President must convene an emergency meeting of Iraq's 
leadership, Iraq's neighbors, and the United Nations to create an 
international peacekeeping force in Iraq and to replace U.S. military 
forces with Iraqi police and national guard forces to ensure Iraq's 
security. With Iraq's security problems the most serious cause for 
concern in the country at the moment, an international peacekeeping 
force in place of the U.S. military would better serve Iraq's needs.
  An international peacekeeping force, supported by Iraq's neighbors 
and the United Nations, would provide real legitimacy to a conflict 
that has flown in the face of international law from the very 
beginning.
  Finally, the President must take all steps to provide the Iraqi 
people the opportunity to control their internal affairs. The Iraqi 
people cannot truly control their own affairs until the U.S. military 
has ceded back authority to the Iraqi people. That is why it is 
essential for Iraq's police and national guard forces to manage Iraq's 
security, not the American military.

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