[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 1449]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE WAR IN IRAQ

  (Mr. HOLT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the most important political 
and moral issue of the day, the war in Iraq. The war in Iraq costs us 
dearly in lives, more than 3,000 Americans so far, in dollars, 471 
billion by my count; in international prestige by compromising our 
ability to meet our other foreign policy goals.
  President Bush has rejected the sensible recommendations of the Iraq 
Study Group and instead chosen an escalation of troops. Rather than 
sending more brave young Americans to fight in an undefined, impossible 
mission in an Iraqi civil war, we should be looking for ways to 
redeploy our troops responsibly.
  Representative Murtha has courageously offered a framework for that 
redeployment, and the administration would be wise to heed his advice. 
The American people want to bring home their loved ones who are in 
harm's way. The Iraqi people want us to leave so that Iraqis can solve 
their problems.
  As former Secretary of State Albright has pointed out, the only ones 
who want us to stay are those who will leave Iraq when we leave.
  Mr. Speaker, Congress should reject the President's last ditch effort 
to salvage a botched execution of a flawed strategy.

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