[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13703-13704]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             PLAN FOR IRAQ

  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to speak out of 
order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentlewoman from 
California is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.

[[Page 13704]]


  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, last week, Army General George Casey, the 
top American military commander in Iraq, presented civilians leaders 
here at home with a plan for sharply reducing the number of U.S. troops 
in Iraq for September of this year.
  According to reports, General Casey shared his plan with Secretary of 
Defense Donald Rumsfeld; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Peter 
Pace; and even President Bush himself.
  The idea of an actual plan for how to end the war in Iraq is 
something that many of us in Congress have been calling for over the 
last several months and years. General Casey's plan reportedly suggests 
reducing our troop presence by as much as 60 percent. But, 
unfortunately, without a plan about how best to accomplish bringing our 
troops home, a plan to protect the safety and ensure the safety of 
135,000 American soldiers, this could haphazardly actually endanger the 
remaining 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers and leave them behind as sitting 
ducks.
  Mr. Speaker, I have been calling for the President to present a plan 
for bringing our troops home since December of 2005; and in May of last 
year, when we held the first debate on Iraq on the House floor after 
the beginning of the war itself, 128 Members of the House, more than 
one-third of the Members of the House of Representatives, agreed that 
the President needed to come up with a plan for bringing our troops 
home and share it with the appropriate congressional committees.
  Today, more than a year later and with the majority of the American 
people agreeing that this senseless war needs to end as soon as 
possible, that number would be surely higher.
  The idea that the President invaded a country in the very first place 
without a strategic goal in mind and without a plan for how to win and 
how to leave is absolutely incomprehensible. And no one should confuse 
the Bush administration's tired old line about staying the course for 
an actual plan or a strategy. Lines like ``we will stay in Iraq until 
the job gets done'' are nothing more than trite slogans.
  What most Americans and nearly all Iraqis understand is that open-
ended U.S. military presence in Iraq does not serve either Americans or 
Iraqis. The very perception that we plan to stay in Iraq permanently at 
any level is one of the greatest catalysts spurring the Iraqi 
insurgency. Just yesterday, 11 Sunni insurgent groups publicly stated 
that they would immediately halt all terrorist attacks in Iraq, 
including those against American troops, if the United States would 
publicly commit to leaving within the next 2 years.
  It is clear that the time is long overdue to bring our troops home. 
For goodness sakes, the American people are for this. The Iraqis are 
for this. Why can't Congress be for this? Is it not time we caught up 
with the people we are supposed to be working for?
  Every week, every day, every hour we stay in Iraq is costing us 
dozens of American and Iraqi lives, hundreds of physical and 
psychological wounds, and billions of dollars. Let us send a message to 
our troops, let us send a message to the rest of the world that the 
values of diplomacy, multilateral cooperation, and respect for others' 
freedoms are the paramount American values, the qualities we stand for 
as a Nation, not endless war and certainly not the occupation of a 
sovereign people.

                              {time}  2000

  Since the beginning of the war, President Bush has said we would 
leave Iraq as soon as the military commanders on the ground told him it 
was time to do so. Well, now the highest-ranking military leader in 
Iraq has presented a plan for bringing our troops home. For the sake of 
our soldiers, their families and the people of the United States and 
Iraq, it is time for the President to keep his end of the bargain, but, 
Mr. Speaker, not without a plan, one presented to the Congress. He 
didn't have a plan going into the war, he didn't have a plan to win the 
war, but he must have a plan leaving the war. Otherwise, our troops 
will once again be under great danger.

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