[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 16]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 22434]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        RESOLUTION FROM THE CITIZENS OF WASHINGTON, CONNECTICUT

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 31, 2007

  Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Madam Speaker, when we invaded Iraq in 
March of 2003, we were told that we did so only to prevent the spread 
of weapons of mass destruction and to enforce compliance with a United 
Nations resolution. Now, four years and over 3,600 American lives 
later, we are mired in a bloody civil war that only grows more 
intractable every day. Despite overwhelming evidence and an 
increasingly broad public consensus, the Bush Administration refuses to 
yield to the reality that our presence in Iraq is not only failing to 
accomplish our goals, it is hindering them.
  So many of the reasons and explanations given to justify this war 
have proven woefully misleading, were prefaced on faulty intelligence 
and inaccurate information and--in some cases--wishful thinking. The 
grave threat posed by Saddam Hussein's burgeoning chemical, nuclear and 
biological weapons arsenal is now believed never to have existed. 
Iraq's oil infrastructure, which was supposed to fully fund the 
country's post-war reconstruction efforts, remains severely damaged and 
in some cases, actively supporting the Iraqi insurgency. We have been 
saddled with a war that now actively fuels the forces of terror it was 
waged to prevent.
  While the war's greatest cost lies in human lives, it continues to 
drain our Nation's treasury at an alarming rate. Nearly $600 billion 
has been spent toward the Iraq war thus far, and we continue to expend 
tens of billions of dollars in funding it every month. Equally 
disheartening is the estimated $10 billion in missing Iraq 
reconstruction funds that simply cannot be accounted for.
  Meanwhile, the Bush administration refuses to abandon its hopelessly 
naive belief that major progress is just around the comer in Iraq, 
despite the conclusions of its own interim report released days ago on 
the troop ``surge'' strategy, which found only 8 of 18 major benchmarks 
had been met by the Iraqi government to date.
  As the secret NSA wiretapping program and his use of so-called 
``signing statements'' have demonstrated, the President's 
irresponsibility in office extends beyond calamitous military decisions 
to Iraq to an outright disregard for the rule of law. Tragically, this 
has led an unprecedented number of Americans to lose their trust and 
belief in government. Where Americans once believed that government had 
the potential to affect meaningful change, they now see it largely as a 
tool for cronyism, corruption and deception at the hands of their 
leaders.
  I have seen and heard that disillusion firsthand from my 
constituents, neighbors and friends. The outcry against our wrongheaded 
strategy in Iraq and the President's disregard for the rule of law 
comes not merely from opinion makers, retired generals and former 
cabinet members, but from the very people who elected us to represent 
them in our Nation's capitol. My office receives dozens of phone calls 
every week from people so distraught by this President that they can 
see no other choice but to call for his impeachment.
  On April 2, 2007, a coalition of concerned citizens from Washington, 
Connecticut banded together to pass a resolution calling for the 
President's impeachment. These citizens include Janet Buonaiuto, John 
Buonaiuto, Sandra Canning, Ken Cornet, Bill C. Davis, Diane Dupuis, 
Rita Frenkel, Paul Frenkel, Helen Gray, Diana Hardee, Joe Mustich, 
Mildred Pond, Davyne Verstandig. These conscientious residents of 
Connecticut's Fifth District presented me with their resolution and 
asked me to raise their concerns to the full House. I commend them for 
their activism and concern, and wish to register their views before 
Congress here today.
  Thankfully, with the new Democratic majorities here in both houses of 
the 110th Congress, we now have the ability and the will to take a 
stand against this administration and its reckless conduct at home and 
abroad. We will continue to confront this President at every turn on 
his mismanagement of this war, and we will not cease to challenge the 
corrosive secrecy and corruption that his lack of leadership has 
spawned. While the battle is proving to be a hard-fought one, I am 
confident that we can bring the will of the people to the people's 
house of Congress.

                          ____________________