[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 14307-14308]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         WHY IRAQ WAS A MISTAKE

  Mr. JONES of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I would like to claim Mr. 
McHenry's time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from North 
Carolina is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. JONES of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, today at 12 o'clock in the 
Liberty Caucus, which is a group of about 9 or 10 of us who meet in Mr. 
Ron Paul's office, we had retired Lieutenant General Greg Newbold, who 
spoke to us; and I have met with General Newbold in my office a couple 
of times. I am very impressed with this gentleman and his integrity and 
his honesty, and I want to read just a couple of paragraphs from a Time 
magazine article. It is entitled, ``Why Iraq Was a Mistake, A military 
insider sounds off against the war and the `zealots' who pushed it.''
  This article is not written by a reporter for Time magazine. This 
article was written by Lieutenant General Greg Newbold, Retired, and I 
just want to read a couple of paragraphs because I think he makes such 
a great point. Again, this article is April 9, 2006. I met with him in 
my office in May of this year.
  This is paragraph one of two I want to read for the Record.
  ``From 2000 until October 2002, I was a Marine Corps lieutenant 
general and director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After 
9/11, I was a witness and therefore a party to the action that led us 
to the invasion of Iraq, an unnecessary war. Inside the military 
family, I made no secret of my view that the zealots' rationale for war 
made no sense. And I think I was outspoken enough to make those senior 
to me uncomfortable. But I now regret that I did not more openly 
challenge those who were determined to invade a country whose actions 
were peripheral to the real threat, al Qaeda. I retired from the 
military 4 months before the invasion, in part because of my opposition 
to those who had used 9/11's tragedy to hijack our security policy. 
Until now, I have resisted speaking out in public. I've been silent 
long enough.''
  Mr. Speaker, I mention that, before I read the last paragraph, I had 
the pleasure, as I said earlier, to meet with General Newbold in May of 
this year. I had the pleasure of hearing him speak today, and he is a 
man of great integrity, like the majority of all of those in

[[Page 14308]]

our military. He was on the inside before we went to war in Iraq. He 
heard the planning, was part of the planning, and as he said to us 
today, he said, You know, when we first had our meeting after September 
11, we were told to develop a strategy for Afghanistan; and then the 
next time we have our meeting, we are asked, Where is the plan for 
Iraq?
  This is, I think, such an important part that he writes:
  ``Members of Congress, from both parties, defaulted in fulfilling 
their constitutional responsibility for oversight. Many in the media 
saw the warning signs and heard cautionary tales before the invasion 
from wise observers like former Central Command Chiefs Joe Hoar and 
Tony Zinni, but gave insufficient weight to their views. These are the 
same news organizations that now downplay both the heroic and the 
constructive in Iraq.''
  Mr. Speaker, I mention this because I think we in Congress, to meet 
our constitutional duties, do have a responsibility for oversight. I 
would think and hope that my party, as well as the other party, would 
want to know how did we get into Iraq, was the intelligence verified 
time after time, time after time before we committed our troops to 
Iraq. I think that we should know in fairness to democracy. A democracy 
will not stand without truth being told.
  So I hope that my side, as well as the other side, would come 
together and let us hold hearings. I have actually asked the chairman 
of Armed Services to bring in General Newbold, General Zinni and 
General Baptiste and bring them in to the Armed Services Committee for 
hearings, even if it was a classified or a closed hearing, because we 
in Congress, in both parties, should be asking these questions.
  I will close by saying that, again, it has been a pleasure that I 
would have the privilege to hear General Newbold today at lunchtime. He 
reiterated things he had said to me back in May to about 10 of my 
colleagues, and I do hope that we need not to make the same mistake in 
future wars.
  We need to make sure that the Congress is informed and informed with 
credible evidence from intelligence that has been verified time after 
time before we are asked to give the authority to the President, 
whether it be a Republican or a Democrat, to commit our troops to Iraq.
  So, Mr. Speaker, with that, I will close as I have many times on the 
floor of the House. I will ask the good Lord in heaven to please bless 
our men and women in uniform, to please bless the families of our men 
and women in uniform; and I will ask God to continue to bless America

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