[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 1962-1963]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              THE IRAQ WAR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker and Members, tonight the President of the 
United States will address a joint session of Congress to offer his 
assessment of the state of the Union. He is expected to spend a lot of 
time talking about domestic issues and will reportedly spend some time 
on the war on terror. However, very little, if any, of his State of the 
Union address will discuss the war in Iraq.
  Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States has bungled 
the management of this war, and he certainly needs to explain further 
why he feels that escalation will suddenly turn the situation in Iraq 
around. The reality is that escalation will not bring us success. The 
President pushed forward against the advice of many Members of 
Congress, the joint chiefs of staff, and many experts in and outside of 
government. Even the Iraqi Prime Minister did not want more U.S. troops 
sent to his country.
  Since Friday, January 19, 2007, 27 members of our armed services have 
died in Iraq. These deaths bring the total number of U.S. 
servicemembers that have died in Iraq since the war in Iraq began to 
3,029. More than 22,000 others have been seriously injured.
  The insurgent attacks against the United States military have become 
more and more brazen. In one of the attacks over the past weekend, 
insurgents wore uniforms that looked like official U.S. uniforms and 
used vehicles that the U.S. and Iraqi officials use. According to press 
accounts, Iraqi guards at a government compound allowed several 
vehicles traveling in a caravan through checkpoints because they were 
wearing what appeared to be legitimate U.S. military uniforms and 
driving cars commonly used by foreigners. Once the insurgents were 
inside the compound, they attacked and killed five of our troops. 
Witnesses say that the attackers targeted only U.S. servicemembers and 
not the Iraqis who were in the room. Elsewhere in Iraq, 12 Americans 
were killed when their Blackhawk helicopter was attacked, and 10 others 
were killed in fire fights with insurgents.
  Mr. Speaker, Iraq is in a civil war. The level of violence is growing 
each day, and increasingly our troops are caught in the middle of it. 
By adding more troops, as the President plans to do, we will only 
increase the risk of more U.S. deaths and injuries.
  Nearly everyone agrees that the war will not be won through military 
means. Instead, there is general agreement that stability in Iraq and 
the Middle East will only come about through intense diplomatic 
efforts.
  The President's Iraq policy has failed. Sending more troops to Iraq 
will only make the situation worse. As the saying goes: when you find 
yourself in a hole, stop digging. Mr. President, I would urge you to 
stop digging and bring our troops home.
  Ladies and gentlemen, this is what bothers me about what is happening 
in

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Iraq. Our military, our troops don't know a Sunni from a Shiite from a 
Kurd. They are with Iraqi soldiers who don't like them oftentimes, who 
desert us when there is a confrontation, and who undermine us. There 
are those who believe that the way that the insurgents got into the 
compound was they were allowed in there by Iraqi soldiers.
  How can we win in the middle of a civil war? We can't win. It is time 
for the President of the United States to come up with a reasonable 
exit plan. We have not asked, and nobody is saying, Quick withdrawal. 
Withdrawal in 24 hours. Some would make you believe we are saying that, 
but we are not. We are talking about a well thought through reasonable 
plan for getting out of Iraq. Some people would like to say, Oh, if you 
don't continue to support the President's request for additional funds, 
that you are deserting the soldiers. Not so.
  And the Members of this Congress have got to have the courage to 
stand up and explain the difference between the sound bites and what 
those on the opposite side of this issue would describe as our efforts 
of getting the soldiers out and the truth. The truth of the matter is 
we all know there is enough money in the pipeline to credibly come out 
of Iraq in a timely way.

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