[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14069]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            IRAQ OCCUPATION

  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to claim Mr. 
Brown's time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from 
Washington is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, the bodies of 20 kidnapped and murdered 
bus drivers were found in Iraq today. That occurred just before a 
suicide bomber walked into a Baghdad restaurant and blew himself up, 
killing seven people.
  Then Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld arrived on an unannounced 
visit and said: ``Each time I come to Iraq, I see progress.'' That is a 
direct quote from the UPI.
  Iraq is convulsed by sectarian violence. It is a nation 
disintegrating into homicidal chaos. It is a killing zone where Iraqi 
citizens purchase fake documents in hopes of staying alive if 
confronted by militias. It is a place where the killing has moved from 
the streets to inside the homes of Iraqi citizens. It is a country 
whose leaders acknowledge it is on the brink of all-out civil war, and 
the President's secretary of war, the man controlling the fate of 
129,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq stands up and flat out misleads the 
troops who don't get to go home to the United States at the end of the 
day like Mr. Rumsfeld does.
  America's independent government watchdog agency, the Government 
Accountability Office, just released a report that confirmed what 
everyone except the President and his political appointees already 
know: There is no adequate plan to stabilize Iraq, and the occupation 
by U.S. forces is fueling the sectarian violence.
  Rumsfeld can claim things are getting better to reporters while 
standing inside a fortified U.S. base, but that flies in the face of 
the facts. U.S. troop strength in Baghdad has been increased from 
40,000 to 55,000 people. The Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday about 
rampant corruption inside the Iraqi security forces, including direct 
ties to the insurgents.
  Our soldiers are becoming surrounded by a growing insurgency, and the 
civilian leader says things are getting better.
  Secretary Rumsfeld was going to meet with Iraqi government leaders to 
tell them how to deal with the crisis. He told reporters he was going 
to tell the Iraqi leaders to do this: ``They are going to have to 
persuade as many people as possible that it is in their interest to 
support the government and participate in the political process.'' He 
went on to say, ``And anyone who doesn't want to, they're going to have 
to go find and do something about.''
  He neglected to say that plan was tried and failed last month. It was 
called Operation Forward Together, and it didn't work. How could it?
  The presence of an occupying force is fueling the violence. And 
despite the fact there are 267,000 Iraqi security forces, the American 
people are told repeatedly that they cannot defend Iraq on their own.
  Three years later, the only plan the President and the secretary of 
war can articulate is to ``stay indefinitely.'' Our military generals 
know full well this so-called plan guarantees more needless U.S. 
casualties, and Iraqi leaders know it guarantees more sectarian 
violence.
  In the past, I and others have called for the resignation of the 
Defense Secretary, Mr. Rumsfeld. Today, I offer a better plan. The 
President should keep his political appointee. In fact, the President 
should transfer Secretary Rumsfeld to Iraq. He should be stationed 
there until every last U.S. soldier leaves the Nation we are now 
occupying.

                              {time}  1545

  The Secretary says he sees progress every time he visits. Imagine 
what he might see by actually living and working there.
  There is no higher priority for the President, the U.S. military and 
America these days than Iraq. It stands to reason that the President's 
military appointee should be directly able to report for duty in 
Baghdad. Rumsfeld could personally work with the leaders of the Iraq 
government and show them how to implement his plan. By working in Iraq, 
the Secretary could accept direct responsibility for generating more of 
what he calls progress every time he visits Iraq. He could show America 
and the rest of the world the progress that only he and the President 
pretend to see.
  The only true thing we can say about Iraq today is that it is on the 
brink of dissolving into unspeakable violence.
  We cannot pretend our way out of Iraq, and we cannot pretend that the 
Iraqi people believe that our presence is stabilizing the country.
  Iraq needs a plan that does not include the occupation of that 
country by foreign soldiers, including U.S. soldiers. Until this 
administration admits that it cannot shoot its way to victory, Iraq 
will grow more and more violent.
  If Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was stationed there, America might 
finally get an honest assessment of the war and a road map to peace.

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