[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 27633]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       AMERICA'S PRESENCE IN IRAQ

  (Mr. MORAN of Virginia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, the President has been touring 
the country giving speeches to justify his Iraq war policy to a series 
of controlled audiences. But as the American public nevertheless lends 
an eager ear, it hears a muddled message.
  Today it is the economy. But the fact is that in Iraq, the 
unemployment rate is over 50 percent. Oil, water, electricity is worse 
than pre-war levels.
  Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha) has offered 
an alternative vision, immediate redeployment as soon as practicable, 
but with a military force over the horizon. The fact is, Mr. Speaker, 
that our bottom line needs to be, what policy is going to enable our 
once inexhaustible military to regain its strength and to make this 
country, in fact, more secure?
  And the reality is that our unjustified invasion and occupation of 
Iraq has, in fact, destabilized that country and has weakened our 
military and caused our country to be far less safe from terrorism.

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