[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6717]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        MISSION NOT ACCOMPLISHED

  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to speak out of 
turn.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentlewoman from 
California is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, exactly 3 years ago yesterday, President 
Bush gave his speech about the military operations in Iraq and said 
they had become ``Mission Accomplished.''
  Why was this speech important? Because in a single stroke, it 
revealed more about the President and his administration than all of 
his other speeches combined. Paying attention to the news, you will 
recall how on that day President Bush, adorned in a fighter pilot suit, 
rode shotgun in a military jet that landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln 
aircraft carrier, and a massive banner declaring ``Mission 
Accomplished'' was brashly displayed in the background during his 
subsequent speech.
  It seemed like a bold act put on by a President who wanted to be 
perceived as taking bold steps against our Nation's enemies. But 
nothing had actually been accomplished to that point. The problem is 
that the ``mission'' in Iraq was not accomplished 3 years ago, and it 
certainly hasn't been accomplished today, which makes the military jet 
landing and ensuing speech 3 years ago far short of bold. It was a 
grandly staged political stunt, pure and simple.
  Let us talk about ``Mission Accomplished.'' For whom exactly is this 
mission accomplished? Is the mission accomplished for our troops, many 
of whom have returned home from Iraq forever changed as a result of the 
physical and mental trauma they endured during years of repeated 
deployment to Iraq?
  One such soldier is retired Naval Hospital Corpsman Charlie Anderson 
who last Thursday spoke at an Iraq forum that I organized. Charlie 
suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and now is a regional 
coordinator for Iraq Veterans Against the War.
  I quote him in saying, ``I was completely untrained and unprepared 
for what I experienced in Iraq.'' He also told us, ``In the 7 years 
preceding my deployment to the Middle East, I had not set foot in the 
desert or had any training on how to fight or survive there. I had 
fired my 9 millimeter service pistol exactly once.''
  Is the mission accomplished for Faiza al-Araji, an Iraqi civil 
engineer who recently fled Baghdad, the only home she has ever known? 
Faiza and her family left Iraq after her son, a student, was detained 
for days by the Ministry of the Interior without charges being filed. 
After nearly a week of panicking, Faiza and her husband paid a ransom 
to have their son released. They were told he had been detained because 
he had a beard, and was therefore probably a terrorist.
  The fact is, 3 years after President Bush's ``mission accomplished'' 
pronouncement, Iraq is still mired in chaos. Our troops are still 
sitting ducks. They are halfway across the world, and the United States 
is still tangled up in a quagmire of epic proportions.
  Of the over 2,400 American soldiers who have been killed in Iraq, all 
but 139 were killed after the President's USS Abraham Lincoln speech. 
Attacks against Iraqis, U.S. and coalition troops, and critical 
infrastructure have increased by nearly 25 percent since then.
  According to the Brookings Institute, the Iraqi insurgency has 
tripled in strength since 2003. It is pretty clear by now that the 
``Mission Accomplished'' speech was just another example in a long 
pattern of the Bush administration playing up the political theater 
while ignoring the facts on the ground.
  Whether they are talking about tax cuts for the richest 1 percent of 
Americans, prescription drug coverage that does not work for seniors, 
or the cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, this 
administration's MO is to avoid revealing bad news at all cost, even if 
it means toying with the truth. It is like all of the bad stories are 
cut out of the newspaper before they are brought into the White House.
  Mr. Speaker, let us accomplish something that will help secure 
America and Iraq for the future and save thousands of innocent lives in 
the process. Let us accomplish an end to the pain and suffering felt by 
the hundreds of thousands, and let's end the war in Iraq and bring our 
troops home now.

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