[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 931]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            FAILURES IN IRAQ

  (Mr. McNERNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. McNERNEY. Mr. Speaker, last night President Bush accepted 
responsibility for the failures in Iraq. Yet he offered no real 
strategy for winning the war in Iraq or the broader struggle with 
terrorism.
  Many military and foreign policy experts, including the Joint Chiefs 
of Staff, have acknowledged that the President's proposal to increase 
troop strength is not a solution to the ongoing instability in Iraq.
  I believe that an influx of troops will actually worsen the situation 
on the ground. Not only that, but redeploying 20,000 additional troops 
in Iraq will stretch our already fully deployed Armed Forces even 
further.
  I am particularly concerned that deploying additional troops will 
significantly hinder our ability to effectively combat the global 
terrorist threat. In fact, the very consideration of redeploying troops 
in Iraq means that we are distracted from the wider war on terrorism, 
especially in Afghanistan where additional forces may be necessary to 
rein in al Qaeda and the Taliban.

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