[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 19765]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    WE NEED TO CHANGE COURSE IN IRAQ

  (Mr. FILNER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, a famous law of nature says that when you 
have dug yourself into a deep hole, the first thing to do is stop 
digging. That hole is Iraq. According to our own intelligence agents, 
the war in Iraq is actually fueling more terror worldwide, undermining 
the global war on terror. And yet this administration refuses to stop 
digging.
  Conditions for our own troops are getting worse and worse. They are 
merely serving as referees in a civil war between Sunnis and Shias in 
which over 100 Iraqis die every day.
  And our Army Chief of Staff, who I refer to as the Carl Sagan of the 
budget, says we need billions and billions and billion of more dollars 
if we are going to keep the Army going in Iraq and elsewhere.
  Last week, General Abizaid was asked if we were winning the war in 
Iraq; he said we would be if we had unlimited time and unlimited 
resources.
  Yet in the face of all of this mismanagement, all of the death and 
destruction, our President has the nerve to say when history looks at 
Iraq, it will see a mere comma. A mere comma. What about the deaths of 
2,700 of our bravest men and women, Mr. President? How about the 
injuries of 20,000 of our finest troops? It is time to stop digging and 
bring the troops home.

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