[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 24516]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          IRAQ DEPRESSING NEWS

  (Mr. BLUMENAUER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, as we have been greeted with a torrent 
of depressing news about Iraq, more violence, there is debate here 
about whether or not it is progress that the President plans to have 
the same troop level next summer that we had before the surge.
  There is no good way out. Keep the troops there and have bloodshed; 
have them leave and have bloodshed. But there is one thing that every 
Member of Congress ought to be able to agree upon, no matter what their 
position on the war in Iraq: That we have a moral and practical 
responsibility to step up and help those Iraqis who have put their life 
at risk because they help Americans as guides, as translators. As 
Ambassador Ryan Crocker pointed out this last week, it is time for us 
to step up and help these people.
  The Department of Homeland Security needs to have more people 
processing applications for those that are trying to escape the worst 
humanitarian crisis in the world other than Darfur. Don't make them 
leave Iraq for Syria or Jordan to apply when we have the largest 
embassy in the world in Baghdad. Support our comprehensive bipartisan 
legislation, H.R. 2265, to help meet that responsibility.

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