[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 4386]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        U.S. IN IRAQ UNTIL 2009

  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to speak out of 
order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from California?
  There was no objection.
  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, for a President whose party controls both 
Houses of Congress, the Supreme Court and, of course, the White House 
bully pulpit itself, George W. Bush has certainly had an awful lot of 
explaining to do lately.
  With all the power at his disposal, starting with a knee-jerk 
legislature all too ready to follow his lead, lock, stock and barrel, 
the President should not have to constantly redefine his mission and 
America's. That is exactly what he has done and what he is doing.
  Before the war, he offered only a strained rationale as to why we 
needed to attack Iraq. First, it was getting rid of Iraq's weapons of 
mass destruction. Then the rationale was deposing a dictator who 
provided refuge to al Qaeda, and finally, it became spreading liberty 
throughout the Middle East.
  Once things started to turn south, President Bush redefined what he 
meant when he declared ``an end to major combat operations'' only a 
year into the war. Now he is redefining what it means to be in a civil 
war.
  Mr. Speaker, let us be perfectly clear. Iraq is not in danger of 
falling into a civil war. The country is in the very throes of a civil 
war conflict as we speak. Some people have this false notion that an 
Iraqi civil war would resemble two sides fighting and fighting it out 
with antiquated rifles in a field that looks kind of like Gettysburg.
  Unfortunately, the sectarian violence that currently plagues Iraq is 
pretty similar in appearance and scope to the Lebanese civil war fought 
in the 1970s and 1980s. Then, like now, religion was manipulated to 
encourage fighting among different sects. Alliances shift rapidly so 
that no one ever really knows who is on their side and who is not; and 
worst of all, innocents are killed on a nearly daily basis as a result 
of the infighting.
  As if the failure to acknowledge what is really happening in Iraq was 
not bad enough, only a week ago, the President attempted his most 
strained leap of logic yet. During a press conference, which, by the 
way, after 6 years in office he is finally conducting with regularity, 
the President stated that American military forces would remain in Iraq 
until 2009, at the earliest, that another President would have to end 
it.
  After initially implying that the war would not cost much and would 
not take long to fight, the President needs to explain to the American 
people why the decision to bring our troops home from Iraq will, as he 
says, ``be decided by future Presidents.''
  Mr. Speaker, given the current instability in Iraq, which 150,000 
brave U.S. troops who have not been able to quell after more than 3 
years of war, why in the world would we plan on American forces 
remaining in Iraq until 2009? It seems like the President is trying, 
yet again, to redefine the mission to his satisfaction.
  Well, you cannot redefine the facts, Mr. Speaker. There is no way to 
paper over the hundreds of Iraqi civilians who are being brutally 
murdered in sectarian violence. There is no way to disguise the nearly 
2,500 American troops who have lost their lives in this war or the over 
15,000 who have been forever injured.
  Yet, none of these tragic losses have made either the United States 
or Iraq safer from the threat of terrorism. The tragic irony is that 
the war has actually made Iraq a haven for international terrorism.
  It is time for the President to stop trying to redefine reality. It 
is time to define something constructive for the American people. It is 
time we plan how we will bring our troops home.

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