[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 2944]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 URGING CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT OF IRAQ

  (Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. EMANUEL. Madam Speaker, since last month's bombing of the holiest 
Shiite shrine, the sectarian violence we all feared has begun to engulf 
Iraq. But while Iraq is on the brink of civil war, all the 
administration gives us are mixed messages and finger-pointing.
  The U.S. Ambassador to Iraq says the country is nearing civil war and 
that we have opened a Pandora's box by toppling Saddam Hussein. Yet 
General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has a 
totally different view. Over the weekend he said, ``I wouldn't put a 
great big smiley face on it, but I would say that things are going 
very, very well from everything you look at.''
  Meanwhile, Secretary Rumsfeld puts the blame squarely on the press: 
``From what I've seen thus far, much of the reporting in the U.S. and 
abroad has exaggerated the situation.''
  Which is it? A Pandora's box? The brink of war? Or an exaggerated 
news story only to sell papers and boost ratings? Yet instead of 
demanding answers from the administration, this Congress has turned a 
blind eye.
  It is time for this hear-no-evil, see-no-evil Congress to open its 
eyes and ears. Americans want more than mixed metaphors and finger 
pointing. They want a policy. They deserve real answers, and it is our 
job to find them. We need new priorities for America rather than the 
same old policies that have gotten us here.

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