[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14333-14334]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          FUNDING WAR IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, since Democrats took over Congress, we have 
tried to establish a process to responsibly end our involvement in 
Iraq. We, like all Americans, have watched in sadness as 3,422 of our 
brave soldiers have lost their lives, including 57 of those who came 
from the State of New Jersey.
  That is why Congressman Pascrell and Congressman Pallone, Congressman 
Holt, Congressman Rothman and Congressman Sires and myself voted 
against this resolution.
  As we said, we have asked the President to have a responsible end to 
our involvement, but 3,422 deaths later, the lives of 57 Americans from 
New Jersey have been lost. Already we have passed and sent to the 
President a plan that would include a timeline for troop withdrawal.
  Our best efforts, however, have been consistently met with a veto. 
Indeed, President Bush continues to stubbornly, recklessly insist that 
his failed Iraqi policy continues without any reasonable compromise. 
We, along with the great majority of Americans, strongly disagree with 
the President. He has been wrong every step of the way, and it is long 
past time to bring U.S. involvement in Iraq to a conclusion.
  The Democratic leadership has tried repeatedly to bring finality to 
the war. But because of a lack of a veto-proof majority, today they 
have relented on key requirements to help bring about the end.
  While we understand why the proposal before us was crafted in such a 
way, that we believe we must continue to forcibly stand up to the 
President.
  We voted against spending even more money in Iraq because there were 
no timelines or real accountability on an administration that has 
proven to be utterly incompetent on the most important issue of our 
time.
  As late as yesterday at a major address, the President continues to 
try to directly implicate Iraq in 9/11. It was Osama bin Laden, al 
Qaeda, who made it very clear on that dastardly, cowardly act on 
September 11 to our World Trade Center that it was done by al Qaeda, 
done by the Saudi who led this and still continues to lead this 
terrorist organization.
  So why do we continue to try to stretch the reason for going in and 
having an attack on Iraq that it was because of 9/11. We know that 
there is the continued attempt to connect the two when they are not 
connected. Now we

[[Page 14334]]

hear al Qaeda is strong and doing well in Iraq. However, before 9/11, 
there were no al Qaeda operatives in Iraq.
  So we have now a country that is no better off, really. More people 
die there. We have a world that is really not any safer. Yet, and 
still, we have a President who refuses to see the light, continues to 
go down a path of destruction. So, for that reason, I am proud of my 
colleagues, Pascrell, Pallone, Holt, Rothman, Sires and myself who 
stood up and said, enough is enough, the time is now.

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