[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23544]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        CHANGING COURSE IN IRAQ

  (Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Madam Speaker, for months now this Democratic 
Congress has tried to change course in Iraq, but a stubborn President, 
supported by a rubber-stamp Republican Congress in both the House and 
the Senate, has made that impossible.
  In the spring, Republican leaders said by September, which is now, we 
should know if the President's troop escalation plan is working. And if 
it wasn't, then they would be ready to explore a different course.
  Yesterday, the GAO released a report concluding that the Iraqi 
Government had fallen short of meeting 11 of the 18 benchmarks that 
President Bush said they would have to meet. The report also found that 
four other benchmarks had only partially been met. That means that the 
Iraqi Government has met only three of 18 benchmarks. Let's not forget 
that the main reason that the President gave for the troop escalation 
earlier this year was to better secure the Nation so that the Iraqi 
Government could meet these political objectives. The GAO report 
concludes that ``violence remains high'' and that the political 
promises have not been kept.
  Madam Speaker, I would only hope that our Republican colleagues would 
take a serious look and join us, as they said they would, in demanding 
a change of course in Iraq.

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