[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 1628]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   REPEATING THE MISTAKES OF VIETNAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, you have been doing a wonderful job up 
there today.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today for the 180th time in the last few years 
to challenge the Congress and the President to end the destructive, 
violent, senseless military occupation of Iraq.
  A generation ago, Madam Speaker, Democratic and Republican Presidents 
alike entangled the Nation in a foolish and unnecessary war. Even after 
a decade, and thousands upon thousands of American casualties in the 
jungles of Vietnam, our leaders could not bring themselves to publicly 
admit what most Americans knew; that the United States was asking its 
youngest and bravest to risk life and limb on an unwinnable mission.
  Today, our President is repeating this American tragedy. President 
Bush said that his goal is to win in Iraq. But he has offered no clear 
idea of what he means by this or how it is achieved. He just knows he 
doesn't want to lose.
  The bipartisan Iraq Study Group concluded that the United States 
cannot win in Iraq; that the only question is how best to exit. Iraq is 
mired in a civil war, and even though we helped ignite it, we have very 
little influence on its outcome. You can't expect American soldiers as 
brave, as intelligent, and honorable as they are to solve a religious 
and sectarian conflict that stretches back centuries.
  Whether we stay or leave, the Iraqis will be the ones to decide their 
own fate. Yet President Bush is sending 20,000 more American lives into 
mortal danger, and spending $100 million a day just to avoid the 
humiliation of admitting that his policy has been fundamentally flawed 
from the very beginning. I think most Americans would prefer the 
wounding of Presidential pride to the wounding of thousands more of 
their countrymen and women.
  That is why I joined my distinguished colleagues, Ms. Waters and Ms. 
Lee, yesterday in introducing the first comprehensive legislation that 
will quickly, within a 6-month time frame, end the occupation and bring 
our troops home.
  In addition to military withdrawal, the Bring Our Troops Home and 
Solvency of Iraq Restoration Act would accelerate training of a 
permanent Iraqi security force during the 6-month transition. It would 
authorize, only upon the Iraqi government's request, a 2-year U.S. 
support for an international stabilization force, which would be 
combined with economic and humanitarian assistance.
  Our bill would also prohibit the construction of permanent U.S. 
military bases in the country; ensure Iraqi control over its own oil 
supplies; and guarantee full health care funding, including mental 
health, for U.S. veterans of military operations in Iraq and other 
conflicts.
  It is not enough to stand up and speak out against the President's 
new escalation plan. I am concerned not just about the 21,000 soldiers 
that are already being deployed as an add-on to this occupation, I am 
losing sleep over the 130,000 who are already there. I want to see them 
returned, and I want to see them returned safely to their families. It 
is not just the President's escalation of this policy that is 
unconscionable, it is the policy itself.
  That is why our new bill is the answer. That is why it is time to end 
the occupation now. I fear that in 3 months he will ask for yet another 
chance to make his plan work and ask more American families to 
sacrifice. He will tell us once again that he must win. But, really, it 
will be about saving face, running out the clock until January 2009 
when he can make this some other President's problem.
  Our more than capable young men and women in Iraq have shown great 
courage, and it is time that our leaders in Washington showed some 
courage of their own and stopped trying to defend the indefensible. It 
took a long time to muster that courage in Vietnam. It is time we have 
that courage here.

                          ____________________