[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 24074-24075]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       LISTEN TO GENERAL PETRAEUS

  (Mrs. BLACKBURN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, this afternoon we will hear from General 
David Petraeus on the Iraq progress report. He is going to tell us what 
worked, what hasn't, and what needs to be done. And Congress should 
listen to the general and to Ambassador Crocker.
  My position is that we should have been listening all along to our 
commanders and leaders on the ground, and the testimony from General 
Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker should be heard without prejudice. They 
are men of impeccable credentials, and it is troubling that the antiwar 
liberals are already moving en masse to discredit and dismiss the 
testimony without even hearing a single word of what they have had to 
say.
  The debate over the surge should be over. While much remains to be 
done in Iraq, there is evidence that the surge is working and 
stabilizing that country and improving the security situation.
  Finally, the consequences of failure in Iraq are monumental. A 
failure in

[[Page 24075]]

Iraq will embolden al Qaeda. They will use the nation as a launching 
pad for attacks. Iran will move in and fill that void. It is a 
monumental day in the war on terror. We should approach it with an open 
mind.

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