[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 21922]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, last week the American people voted for 
new ideas and a new direction in Iraq. Changing the Secretary of 
Defense was a good first step, but we have a long way to go, and the 
situation is getting worse.
  Last week, I went to Amman, Jordan, to listen to a cross-section of 
moderate secular leaders from the region. They gave me their ideas for 
stabilizing Iraq. It is a way forward and it comes from the people in 
the region closest to the chaos.
  These leaders believe the U.S. should redeploy our soldiers to the 
borders between Iraq and Syria and Iraq and Iran. These leaders believe 
strategic redeployment can stop the infiltration of violence and get 
U.S. soldiers out of harm's way in Baghdad.
  The leaders gave me a four-point plan they believe will save American 
and Iraqi lives and their country. Strategic redeployment is a key 
element. We should do it.
  In medicine, doctors are taught to listen to the patient. The saying 
is, ``Listen to the patient. He's telling you what's the matter.'' Too 
often we have gone in like a doctor who had an idea that they knew what 
was wrong and how to fix it.
  We, the Congress, must listen to those moderate secular leaders in 
Iraq.

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