[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14729]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          END THE WAR IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, from the very beginning of the war, which 
is now an occupation, in Iraq, the Bush administration has not kept 
faith with our troops. Whether it was sending them into combat without 
the proper body armor or failing to provide wounded veterans with 
proper care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, this administration 
has turned its back on our brave men and women time and time again.
  Another example of this outrageous mistreatment is the Pentagon's 
``stop loss'' policy. A very disturbing article about ``stop loss'' 
appeared 3 days ago in the Chicago Tribune. Actually, it should be 
required reading for every single Member of this House. The article 
says:
  ``As the United States moves into its 5th year in Iraq and escalates 
troop levels there, the Pentagon has kept combat units manned by 
forcing as many as 80,000 soldiers to stay in uniform in war zones even 
after their enlistment obligations have been met or their retirement 
dates have passed.
  ``The policy, known as ``stop loss'' . . . has sparked . . . a spate 
of lawsuits and in backlash in the ranks.
  `` . . . The vast majority of troops find that stop loss means one 
thing: Instead of beginning new lives in the civilian world, they are 
headed back to Iraq for their second, third, or even fourth combat 
tour, a practice critics say amounts to nothing less than an 
involuntary draft.
  `` . . . Suzanne Miller, a Jacksonville lawyer whose son expects to 
be stop-lossed this summer, said, `I like . . . to call it indentured 
servitude . . . you have no control over your own destiny and are being 
forced, under threat of prison, to work for an employer you no longer 
want to work for.'''
  Mr. Speaker, it is time to stop mistreating our troops and the 
families who wait so patiently for their return. We need bold action to 
bring our troops home.
  Last month this House had the opportunity to take such bold action. 
We had a bill before us that would have fully funded a safe withdrawal 
of our troops and defense contractors starting within 90 days. This 
bill also would have provided for the social and economic 
reconstruction of Iraq so that the Iraqi people could look to their 
future with hope. And it would have supported diplomatic efforts and 
multinational efforts to restore security in Iraq. That plan of action 
made sense.
  But instead of taking bold action, the Congress took the same old 
action and gave the President every single thing he wanted in the 
supplemental spending bill. There is no timetable for withdrawal, and 
the President doesn't even have to hold the Iraqi government 
accountable for failing to meet the benchmarks in the bill.
  Mr. Speaker, every third grader in America is being held accountable 
for meeting his or her reading and math benchmarks under No Child Left 
Behind. We are demanding more from our 8-year-olds than the Iraqi 
government.
  Mr. Speaker, the American people didn't send us here to go all wobbly 
in the knees and weak in the stomach when the moment of truth arrived. 
They sent us here to stand up to the President to end this war, and 
that is what we must do.
  So let us begin to restore the good name of the Congress by 
overturning the original authority for the war. Congress didn't 
authorize this President to use U.S. troops to police a civil war, 
which is what Iraq has come to.
  From here on, there must be one benchmark and one benchmark only. The 
orderly, fully funded, and fully protected withdrawal of our troops. 
They have done their duty. Now it is our time to do our duty for them.

                          ____________________