[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11622]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE WAR IN IRAQ

  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I ask to address the House out 
of order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentlewoman from 
Texas is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I follow the distinguished 
gentleman from Tennessee. I thank him for his honesty, and I thank him 
for his eloquence. And I too, Mr. Duncan, wish that we could do this in 
a nonpartisan manner, and I would have hoped that we would have had 
every voice to have been able to be heard on this question. This is not 
a Democratic or Republican issue about the forces in Iraq, the freedom 
of this Nation, the right to defend our Nation, the right to tell the 
American people the truth that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 
the tragedy, the horrific, heinous act of 9/11.
  If you looked at the 19 terrorists, you might think that we need to 
be engaged in war with Saudi Arabia. But we are not. That is why this 
debate had such insignificance because all of us believe in our troops. 
More importantly, we believe in the families and the wounded that have 
come home.
  But I stand here today, Mr. Speaker, as someone who has just returned 
from Iraq, been to Iraq three times and Afghanistan; been to the border 
between Pakistan and Afghanistan where we truly believe Osama bin Laden 
hides. Do we remember that name? Someone that we allegedly have been in 
pursuit of for a number of years, a pursuit that has been stymied by 
the intrusion of the Iraq war. Rather than the global war on terror, we 
have misdirected and misconstrued the truth.
  I am reminded of the somber presentation that Secretary Powell made 
before the United Nations; all the world was in awe, all the world's 
eyes were turned to America, America with the high moral compass. Yes, 
if America said it, it must be true. And now we can't get more than one 
or two countries to follow our lead. It cries out for a change in 
direction.
  And so, Mr. Speaker, I hold up for the world to see and for America 
to see that these are the ones that we should be concerned about, those 
who have lost their lives in battle, 2,500 and growing, and the 19,000 
casualties that are facing America. Are these the soldiers that we are 
going to say are cutting and running because we want a new direction 
that makes sense?
  Well, I believe in the Declaration of Independence when brave 
patriots said we all are created equal, with certain unalienable rights 
of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And our soldiers 
deserve the right to pursue happiness. And America deserves the right 
of the right investment of its tax dollars. The global war on terror is 
where we should be confronting the evilness of the Osama bin Ladens and 
the others who are mounting efforts around the world to fight against 
us.
  The insurgency in Iraq, the foreign terrorists are a mere 10 percent 
or less. It is a civil war in Iraq between Sunnis and Shiia. And Mr. 
Murtha is right: there is no mission. The mission is complete. Our 
soldiers are victorious. Saddam Hussein is gone. We are not broom 
sweepers. We don't go around cleaning up IEDs. That is what their 
mission is. That is not a mission of freedom.
  And so Democrats today joined with more than one-third of this 
Congress to ask for a new direction. And I would venture to say that we 
would have more if there had not been the hard hand of the Republicans 
to scare their Members into not going against the tide.
  The war in Iraq has increased the burden on taxpayers. We are paying 
$300 million a day, a day, for this war. And yet we do not have monies 
for our enlisted personnel. Our soldiers' families are on food stamps, 
and veterans health care has been cut when soldiers are coming with 
catastrophic injuries, brain injuries that they have yet not diagnosed 
of how long they will be impacted by what we call closed-brain 
injuries.
  We asked the administration to tell the truth. We asked them to 
recognize the young soldiers that were kind enough to sign this scarf. 
Yes, they are true and the brave, and this is not a question of 
challenging the soldiers' bravery and duty. This is a burden on the 
policymakers like Secretary McNamara, who indicated that he was wrong 
in the Vietnam War. But, oh, what a price we paid: 50,000 dead in 
Vietnam and broken hearts and broken families and yet someone 20-some 
years later was willing to admit they were wrong.
  Well, I voted against this resolution and I voted because I never 
want it to be said that any war to which we send young soldiers into 
battle, the military into battle does not have the truth and the 
strength to withhold the understanding that America's freedom is at 
risk.
  I close, Mr. Speaker, by saying when I went to Iraq and visited many 
bases, one sailor took this off of his chest. It is a badge of honor I 
wear.
  We are not cutting and running. We are holding up the Constitution 
and the Declaration of Independence. We want our soldiers to be able to 
pursue happiness, and we want a sovereign Iraq to protect its own 
nation.

                          ____________________