[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15228]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ AND CONTINUED VIOLENCE

  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.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, today is the 161st time that I have come to 
the floor to deliver a 5-minute Special Order about the United States 
occupation of Iraq.
  Mr. Speaker, this effort would not have been possible, it would have 
been totally impossible, without the excellent words and guidance and 
general assistance of a member of my staff, Eric Powers.
  Mr. Speaker, Eric will be leaving my office tomorrow, after 3 years 
of service and 161 5-minute speeches, to attend Washington University 
in St. Louis, law school, where he will have the opportunity to further 
his work in the international law department. Mr. Speaker, believe me, 
Eric Powers will be missed and, believe me, Eric Powers is appreciated.
  Mr. Speaker, Iraq is burning. It is becoming hard even to read the 
news accounts. The last few days have been marked by two of the 
deadliest attacks on civilians in months.
  A new U.N. report concludes that roughly 6,000 Iraqi civilians have 
been killed just in the last 2 months. Random violence, fear, and 
lawlessness are ruling the day. People cannot leave their homes. 
Vicious thugs and vigilantes control the streets where people are 
pulled from cars, where they are tortured and executed.
  Do not bother calling the police. They have been infiltrated by 
militias and are brutally corrupt themselves. One Sunni sheikh laughed 
as he said this about the police to the New York Republic: ``The good 
ones just take bribes . . . the bad ones rip off your head.''
  Monday's New York Times cited an Iraqi Army official who notes that 
in a recent attack some of the gunmen wore the uniform of the Iraqi 
Security Forces. As he put it, ``You cannot recognize your friend from 
your enemy.''
  To those who insist that all hell will break loose if our troops 
leave, I say hell has already broken loose. How much worse can it 
possibly get, and how many American lives must we endanger for a civil 
war that we are virtually powerless to stop?
  I am not saying that democracy will be busting out all over once the 
last American soldier takes her last step on Iraqi soil. But we cannot 
begin the process of putting Iraq back together again until our troops 
come home. Every day that the occupation continues will make it that 
much harder for the United States to play a constructive nonmilitary 
role in Iraq as a construction partner rather than a military occupier.

                              {time}  1600

  If you will recall, the architects of the earlier Iraqi war and the 
resulting occupation did not just promise us democracy in Iraq. 
According to their fairy tale, an invasion was going to have this 
glorious ripple effect, spreading peace and freedom across the Middle 
East. These were Vice President Cheney's words in 2002.
  Regime change in Iraq would bring about a number of benefits to the 
region. Extremists in the region would have to rethink their strategy 
of jihad. Moderates throughout the region would take heart, and our 
ability to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process would be 
enhanced.
  Of course, this week's open hostilities between Israel and Lebanon 
have proven that statement tragically wrong. The Iraq war hasn't spread 
freedom anywhere. It has made all of us, Iraq, its neighbors, the 
United States and the world, less safe.
  There is no question, we have reached a point of diminishing returns 
in Iraq. In fact, the bloodbath in Baghdad has only gotten worse in the 
month since we moved more troops into the capital as part of a security 
crackdown that we called Operation Forward Together.
  You know how the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over 
and over and expecting different results? Well, last week, General 
Casey said that we might need still more troops to contain the violence 
in Baghdad. This is madness, Mr. Speaker. Our soldiers were not trained 
for this. They are largely powerless to control hostility that is 
rooted in a religious conflict that dates back centuries. It is time to 
bring them home.

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