[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 17376-17377]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1615
                              IRAQ POLICY

  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, yesterday I had the honor to visit a group 
of folks gathered on the Mall as part of Camp Democracy, a nonpartisan 
camp for peace, for democracy and for the restoration of rule of law.
  Those who gathered are relentlessly working to promote peace and 
justice. They bring great passion to our shared struggle. They have led 
one of the most important and powerful grassroots movements in recent 
memory, and because of the pressure they have applied and the eloquence 
with which they have made the case, the immorality of the Bush Iraq 
policy has been exposed.
  Mr. Speaker, in a few months, our troops will have been in Iraq for 
as long as their grandfathers fought in World War II. But unlike the 
struggle against Nazism, this has been an unmitigated disaster, a 
national tragedy and a moral outrage. More than 2,650 soldiers of our 
own are dead, nearly 20,000 wounded by the Pentagon's own

[[Page 17377]]

count and countless more psychologically traumatized. And for what? So 
we could make the world a more dangerous place and increase the 
terrorist threat? So we could create more jihadists and inspire more 
hatred for Americans among Muslim extremists? So we could foment a 
bloody civil war and rip a nation apart at its seams, killing tens of 
thousands of innocent civilians for the cause of their so-called 
liberation?
  Like the people at Camp Democracy, I have been speaking out against 
this war and this occupation even before they began. I have held 
forums, forced votes on resolutions and joined demonstrators at rallies 
across the country. Most recently, I introduced a bill that would 
rescind the President's authority to use force in Iraq, authority that 
was granted in 2002 under what we now know are false pretenses. I will 
not give up this fight until every last American soldier has been 
returned home to his or her family.
  But even after that, we will have plenty of work to do, because Iraq 
is only a part of the problem. The real problem is a foreign policy 
that uses too much brawn and not enough brains. The real problem is an 
approach to national security that says might is always right; that 
says, when it doubt, shoot first and ask questions later. What we need 
is to completely overhaul the way we handle global conflict and prevent 
wars from starting in the very first place.
  Working with the Friends Committee, working with WAND and working 
with Physicians for Social Responsibility, I created the SMART Security 
plan, which was introduced in the House in 2005. SMART would do just 
what I was talking about. SMART stands for Sensible Multilateral 
American Response to Terrorism. It emphasizes peacekeeping and 
diplomacy instead of invasion and occupancy. It rejects war in all but 
the most extreme circumstances. It fights terrorism with stronger 
global partnerships and with sound diplomacy, with better intelligence, 
with tough weapons inspections but without violating our civil 
liberties and fundamental freedoms.
  SMART would put more resources into securing loose nuclear material 
and ensuring the United States lives up to the commitments we have made 
in our Nation on nuclear nonproliferation. SMART would wean us off 
Middle Eastern oil. It would invest in renewable energy technologies 
instead of Cold War weapon systems that have outlived their usefulness. 
SMART would dramatically increase development aid and debt relief for 
the poorest countries in the world to combat the deprivation and 
despair that often gives rise to terrorism in the first place. It 
protects not by wreaking violent havoc around the world but by staying 
faithful to the most honorable American values.
  Armed conflict around the world is destroying our bodies and our 
souls. I am particularly troubled by the devastating impact this war is 
having on our children. Our children are the war's most tragic victims. 
Children represent a disproportionate number of civilian deaths in 
conflicts worldwide. And for many who survive, their education is 
disrupted, their communities destroyed and their families separated.

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