[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2625]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  PRESIDENT'S TROOP ESCALATION PLAN IS NOT A PLAN FOR SUCCESS IN IRAQ

  (Mr. BUTTERFIELD asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Madam Speaker, just how many people need to tell the 
President that his troop escalation plan is a terrible idea before he 
actually begins to listen? The American people sent the President a 
strong message last November that they no longer want our troops 
involved in what has become a civil war in Iraq.
  The President's own generals have told him that they didn't need more 
troops in Iraq; but rather than listening to his generals, as he has 
always suggested that he has done, he has now turned around and 
replaced them with generals who are more friendly to the idea of 
sending more troops.
  The bipartisan Iraq Study Group told the President that more troops 
were not needed. Instead, they concluded that a strategic redeployment 
should be initiated in the coming months and that the administration 
should reach out to the neighbors in the region, ideas the 
administration has rejected. If this were not enough, an overwhelming 
number of Democrats, and Republicans I might say, here on Capitol Hill 
have expressed opposition to the plan.
  Madam Speaker, how many people have to tell him ``no'' before he 
listens?

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