[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3825]
[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 Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  It is interesting listening to the Republican fog machine starting to 
churn out its smoke surrounding the resolution that we are going to be 
discussing this week. I listened to my friends from Texas and from 
Georgia talking about the innocent people that are going to suffer 
under the approaches that we are talking about. Well, it is interesting 
that polls show that the people in Iraq, the majority of them, think 
it's all right for the insurgents to shoot and kill our soldiers. They 
are not just fighting us. They are also fighting each other. The 
discussion this week is going to be the first honest and direct 
opportunity to start redirecting the course here.
  Stay the course? My Lord, that is not remotely what we are talking 
about here. Anybody who has watched what the Democrats have done for 
the first month that they have been in power realize that we are 
setting in motion a foundation to do what should have been done from 
the outset: to regain the power of the purse, to be able to deal with 
oversight which has been completely abandoned by my Republican friends 
over the last 5 years, and start developing the policy framework that 
is going to be necessary to deal with the disaster that has been 
created in Iraq. The increase in troops, the over 20,000 that we will 
be talking about this week, was not the first choice of the military 
and indeed the masterminds that President Bush turned to for this surge 
theory did not talk about 20,000 or 25,000. They wanted far more 
troops. They have stripped this down.
  I heard my friend from Texas disparage the retired generals and 
admirals who have come forward to deal with their deep concern about 
the flawed strategy and implementation of the Iraq campaign. These are 
men and women who have proven their dedication to this country, who in 
many cases have been in far more battles than all the people in 
Congress combined, who don't have anything to win or lose by not 
speaking their mind. If you go back and check the record with what they 
have said, with what has happened in Iraq, I'll take those retired 
commanders every time. The fact is they've been right, and if the 
President and Congress had listened to them, we wouldn't be in the 
middle of the mess that we're in now.
  I served in this body when President Clinton took steps to stop the 
genocide in the Balkans, and I watched the Republicans on the other 
side of the aisle be unable to figure out whether they supported the 
President, they were opposed to the President, or they wanted to change 
the policy. Go back and look at the former majority leader, Tom DeLay, 
who just couldn't figure out what to do in the Balkans but he sure knew 
that he wasn't going to support the Commander in Chief.
  What the Democrats are doing now is laying a foundation that should 
have been done from the outset. We have had over 50 oversight hearings 
now, in the first month, more meaningful oversight than in the last 5 
years of the Republicans who just couldn't bring people in to find out 
what happened to the billions of dollars in cash that is now 
unaccounted for. In committee after committee, the American people are 
finally getting to what should have happened years ago in terms of 
meaningful oversight. This is what the Truman Commission did during 
World War II. The Republicans would have no part of it, and now the 
American people are seeing for themselves. We will soon see in the 
appropriations process that Congress is regaining the power of the 
purse to make sure that the money will be spent properly.
  There is no reason to not have troops that are deployed with a 
guarantee that they will have the equipment that they need. It was a 
travesty what men and women from my State were subjected to, being sent 
over to Iraq in a war of choice without being properly equipped. Under 
the Democratic watch, we are going to make sure that that is not going 
to happen.
  Last but not least, by having a simple debate on whether or not this 
Congress approves of this escalation, we are going to establish a 
baseline. I suggest that this baseline is not only going to have 
overwhelming Democratic support, but we are going to find dozens of 
Republicans on the other side of the aisle who, when finally given a 
choice, are going to make a clear stand with us. It's just the 
beginning, it's long overdue, and it's exactly what the American 
people, what our troops and the Iraqi people deserve.

                          ____________________