[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6490-6491]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, let's get on with this micromanaging the 
war business. Maybe if the administration was micromanaging the war, we 
wouldn't be here today. They said there were weapons of mass 
destruction in Iraq. Maybe if they had micromanaged the intelligence 
community, we wouldn't even have gone into Iraq in the first place.
  No. 2, they said, We are ready to go. If Mr. Rumsfeld had 
micromanaged the U.S. military, maybe we would have had enough troops. 
Maybe if they had micromanaged the war, they would have had enough body 
armor. Maybe if they had micromanaged the system, we wouldn't have the 
scandal at Walter Reed. Maybe if they had micromanaged, we wouldn't 
have this horrific backlog at VA. They are the ones who should have 
been micromanaging the war, and if they can't do it, they need to get 
out of the way and let us pass our resolution.
  The distinguished whip from the other party said he wants us to 
finish by sundown. We would like to sunset the war. That is what we 
would like to do. It is time for our troops to come home, and it is 
time for us to bring them home swiftly. But we have a moral obligation 
and a constitutional obligation to bring them home safely. This is why 
I support the Reid resolution. This resolution states clearly that the 
Congress and the American people support our troops. Yet, at the same 
time, we are saying bring the troops home by March 31, 2008. Unlike the 
reckless incompetency that got us into the war, we are following the 
guidelines of the Iraq Study Group, wise heads who pondered some of the 
best ways to a new way forward.
  The Reid resolution sets a framework and a time line for doing what 
needs to be done and assuring our troops that we honor their service, 
and we are going to protect them on the battlefield. We are going to 
make sure they have the resources to do the job, and when they come 
back home, we want to be sure they have health care and they have jobs 
and they have job training.
  I know the distinguished Presiding Officer has been a leader in 
making sure that when our troops come home, they have job training, and 
I thank him for that.
  I am not new to this position on the war. I never wanted to go to war 
in the first place, not because I am a pacifist--and I respect those 
who are--but I read that national intelligence report; I am on the 
Intelligence Committee. I had very grave suspicions about the level of 
weapons of mass destruction

[[Page 6491]]

Saddam had. But I also believed it was the U.N.'s job to go to Iraq and 
do the work that the U.N. was supposed to do.
  I opposed giving the President unilateral authority to engage in a 
preemptive attack just because he said we were in imminent danger. I 
wish he had micromanaged that a bit. Maybe we wouldn't have had to go. 
I said the United States had to exhaust our diplomatic options, and I 
encouraged the administration at that time: Please, stick with the U.N. 
so the U.N. can meet its responsibility to deal with the Saddam threat. 
I said we shouldn't go on our own and we should work with the U.N. and 
the international community.
  The day of the vote when I spoke, I said I didn't know what lies 
ahead. I didn't know if our troops would be greeted with flowers or 
with landmines. Go to Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Hospital and talk 
to those coming home from Iraq. You know what we got. When we got 
there, there were no weapons of mass destruction, but destruction sure 
happened.
  After 4 years of fighting, are we better off in Iraq? The United 
States went to war with Iraq, now we are at war within Iraq. Saddam is 
gone, we are still there, and now we are in a civil war. It is time for 
us to come home, and it is time for us to come home following the Iraq 
Study Group recommendations.
  We need a new way forward in Iraq. The Iraq Study Group gave us 79 
recommendations. Surely, we could agree on 50. If the administration 
wasn't being so isolated and so rigid, they would know it is time to 
engage in the international community, that it is always better to send 
in the diplomats before we send in the troops. Let's send in the 
diplomats so we can bring our troops back home.
  The Iraq Study Group calls for enhanced diplomatic and political 
efforts in Iraq and outside Iraq. It provides a direction for the U.S. 
Government and the Iraqi Government to follow that would bring our 
forces home by the first quarter of 2008. That is what the Reid 
resolution calls for.
  The Reid resolution sets a goal of bringing all U.S. combat forces 
home by March 31, 2008, except for limited numbers of troops for force 
protection, training of the Iraqi troops, and targeted counterterrorism 
operations. It would begin a phased redeployment within 4 months after 
the passage of this legislation. But it also develops a comprehensive 
diplomatic, political, and economic strategy. Finally, this resolution 
requires the President to report to Congress within 60 days.
  That is why we support this resolution. Are we micromanaging? No, but 
I wish the administration, as I said, had micromanaged the war. We 
wouldn't be in the debacle we are in now.
  I support the Reid resolution because I believe what the Iraq Study 
Group said, that the Iraq problems cannot now be solved with a military 
solution, no matter how brave, no matter how smart. It requires a 
political solution by the Iraqis and a diplomatic solution with Iraq's 
neighbors. It says the Congress and the American people will not just 
support the troops, but protect them.
  I want this war to end, and I believe this Reid resolution will do 
that. Yet, in ending the war, it is my responsibility to ensure our 
troops are brought home not only swiftly but safely.
  Mr. President, I have had sit-ins in my office four times during the 
last 3 weeks. Four times, people have come to my office to sit in. Some 
come to protest, some come to get arrested, but all have a right to 
speak out. They want me to vote against the spending for the war. Well, 
there is no way a responsible Senator can vote against spending. There 
is no one line item that says: War, yes or no. That is not the way the 
supplemental works. That is not the way the defense budget works. That 
is not the way our entire budget works. There is no vote that says: 
War, yes or no.
  So I won't vote for defunding the war. I say to the protestors--I say 
to those well-intentioned liberal activists--know that we are on your 
side, but what are you asking us to vote against? Do you want us to 
vote against the pay for the soldiers and for their spouses and for 
their children? I won't vote against their benefits. What do you want 
us to vote against--the bullets and what they need to fight? I won't 
vote against that. Do you want us to vote against the body armor and 
the armored humvees they need for survival? I won't vote against that.
  What if they are injured? One of the things that save their lives on 
the battlefields is the tourniquet. I won't cut off the money for the 
tourniquets. I want them to have the tourniquets to cut off the 
hemorrhaging on the battlefields. When they come out of there, there is 
the jet fuel that gets them on the medevac from Baghdad to Germany to 
Walter Reed and Bethesda. We will clean up Walter Reed, and we will fix 
Bethesda Naval Hospital, but they have to get here. When they get here, 
they need medical care. Hats off to acute medical care.
  Now we need outpatient care. Now we need long-term care for the 50 
years or so these men and women will have the need for it. We have had 
22,000 people receive Purple Hearts in Iraq, and more have been injured 
than we will ever know or we will know years from now. So I can't vote 
against funding.
  I tell all who are listening that you can sit in every single day, 
you can follow me throughout my Senate career, you can follow me to my 
grave--I will not vote to in any way harm the U.S. men and women in the 
military, nor will I cut off the support for help to their families. If 
you want to picket, you want to protest, you want to disrupt my life, 
better my life is disrupted than the lives of these men and women in 
uniform.
  I am going to support this Reid resolution because I believe it helps 
bring the war to an honorable end, but at the same time, we are going 
to support our troops. It is time to stop the finger-pointing, and it 
is time to pinpoint a new way forward.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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