[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3823-3824]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          IRAQ WAR RESOLUTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 4, 2007, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. Speaker, apparently we are going to start today on debate of a 
resolution, the meat of which simply indicates, Resolved by the House 
of Representatives that Congress and the American people will continue 
to support and protect the members of the United States Armed Forces 
who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq; and 
Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush 
announced on January 10, 2007 to deploy more than 20,000 additional 
United States combat troops to Iraq.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, the record has been clear. The new commander for 
Iraq, General Petraeus, has had hearings and has now been confirmed 
unanimously by the Senate. The outgoing commander of Iraq, General 
Casey, has had hearings and has now been confirmed as the new chief of 
the United States Army unanimously. Both commanders and their 
subordinate commanders have indicated that these additional troops are 
needed.
  We hear talk that we are supporting our troops, but basically the 
message to the troops is, Yes, with our lips we say we support you but 
with all of our actions we say, We don't believe a word you say. We 
don't think you know what you're talking about. We don't want to give 
you what you say is necessary to protect yourselves and to win the day 
in Iraq.
  There are no proposed solutions in the resolution that we will debate 
this week, no proposed fixes, nothing proposed to help anybody. It just 
says, We disapprove, we don't agree with the generals, the commanders, 
those who are in the theater, those that have come from the theater who 
are on active duty.
  Now, you will always have some retired generals and commanders who 
are not happy that they are retired and who will take their pot shots, 
but here again there are no new solutions, no new efforts in Iraq. The 
Democratic Party does not propose to change anything. So this 
resolution, I guess, could be more properly categorized as stay the 
course, stiffen the enemy, start our collapse, because when you say to 
the world and to all of our enemies, We

[[Page 3824]]

don't believe our commanders, we don't believe they know what they're 
talking about, we don't believe they know what they need, we're not 
going to have any new solutions, what you are doing to the enemy, you 
are stiffening their resolve. Materials that have been found in Iraq 
have indicated just that, that the Americans don't have the stomach, 
they ran from Vietnam, they didn't keep their commitments to the people 
of South Vietnam. Even after the Paris Accord, they did not keep their 
commitment. The new larger Democratic Congress in 1975 even cut off all 
the funds and millions of people in Southeast Asia lost their lives. In 
1979 while I was stationed at Fort Benning, we were attacked. It was an 
act of war. And we did nothing. We begged to have our hostages 
returned. We did nothing. And those are the kind of things that the 
enemy goes back to in saying, we don't have the stomach to do this. In 
1983 when our barracks was bombed in Beirut, we withdrew. In 1993 when 
the World Trade Center was attacked, we did virtually nothing on the 
international front. Then throughout the nineties, the attack of the 
USS Cole, Mozambique, Somalia, Africa, time and again, time and again 
we showed we didn't have the resolve. This must be the time we stand 
firm, tell our enemy, We will defeat you, we have nothing but 
solutions. This resolution, the stay the course, stiffen the enemy, 
start our collapse resolution, is not the way to go. I hope our fellow 
Members of this House will do the right thing. We will try something 
new. We will try to help the troops. We will give them what they ask. 
The Democratic stay the course, stiffen the enemy and start our 
collapse resolution is not a solution.

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