[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 22293-22294]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     THE LAME DUCK SESSION AND IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be back in Washington for 
the final session of the 109th Congress. I only wish that the current 
leaders on the other side of the aisle had used their final days in the 
majority to actually exercise leadership and do something constructive 
for the American people. Instead we are here for the lamest of all 
possible lame duck sessions.
  Just look at what we have done today. With all due respect to my 
Resources Committee colleague Mr. Simpson, the Southern Idaho Bureau of 
Reclamation Repayment Act of 2006 really isn't one of the most pressing 
matters facing our Nation. And what about the Captain John Smith 
Chesapeake National Historic Trail Designation Act?
  My friends, we are in the middle of a war, a failed war, which a 
majority of the American people no longer want any part of; a war 
which, by the admission of the President's own choice for

[[Page 22294]]

Secretary of Defense, we are not winning. More than 2,900 of our best 
and brightest American troops are dead because of this failed policy. 
At least 46,000 have been wounded, severely wounded. And it is not as 
if they have sacrificed for a noble cause. Iraq, which was supposed to 
spontaneously blossom into a democracy the minute our troops arrived, 
has instead been plunged into a civil war as a direct result of the 
American occupation. In fact, a lot of people are saying that ``civil 
war'' is really too generous a term for what is happening in Iraq. It 
is actually much worse. ``Civil war'' implies two sides battling it out 
for state control. What we have here is many factions of thuggish 
militia and vigilantes terrorizing the streets and killing 
indiscriminately. The director of the CIA recently referred to the 
violence as ``Satanic.''
  So why then are we spending the people's time and the people's money 
deliberating on naming a room in the Capitol? It is no wonder people 
have lost confidence in Congress to do the Nation's work effectively. 
Instead of doing what we were elected to do, we are waiting with bated 
breath for the findings of a blue ribbon commission to tell us what to 
do in Iraq. Mr. Speaker, this is political cowardice, pure and simple. 
The Congress doesn't want to confront the problem and doesn't want to 
challenge the President. So we pass the buck to a group of unelected 
so-called wise men who appear prepared to offer a watered-down 
compromise that will satisfy actually no one. I think it is appalling. 
What are we here to do if not to address the issues of national 
security, war and peace, and life and death?
  And the White House, meanwhile, persists in a stubborn state of 
denial. The President continues to say he will not leave until the 
mission is complete, but at this point there is no clear mission nor 
how to know when it is complete. As he consistently has, the President 
is leaving open the very real possibility that our troops will be in 
Iraq for as long as he occupies the Oval Office.
  The White House obviously wasn't listening to the message that was 
sent on November 7. But we are a co-equal branch of government, and we 
owe it to the American people to push for a course correction in Iraq. 
Obviously we won't make any progress on that front this week, but I 
look forward to the new year when the quacking stops and we will have a 
new Congress with a mandate and the fortitude to bring an end to this 
disastrous occupation and to bring our troops home.

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