[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 4245]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            IRAQ RESOLUTION

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, the debate taking place here in the House 
this week is long overdue. We are approaching our fifth year of this 
war. This is the first time Congress is debating the strategy President 
Bush wants to implement in Iraq. Congress can no longer stand on the 
sidelines, and the President has to know that to escalate the war in 
Iraq is not acceptable.
  The President hopes this troop escalation plan will help secure 
Baghdad and reduce the sectarian violence that is ripping the country 
apart. But there is no evidence to support those hopes. In fact, on 
four different occasions, the President increased troop levels in Iraq, 
and every time these plans failed to calm the violence in Iraq.
  Additional troops are not going to make a difference because there 
simply is not a military solution to the war in Iraq. The devastating 
sectarian violence is going to continue. But our troops should no 
longer be asked to serve as referees in a battle between religious 
sects that have been fighting for centuries.

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