[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 9046-9047]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2015
                 200TH SPECIAL ORDER ON THE WAR IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the 200th time to express 
my disgust and dismay with our Nation's policy in Iraq. And I want to 
thank Bart Ackeocella, who has helped me with my many, many words 
calling on the President of the United States to bring our troops home.
  Forty-nine months after this failed Iraq policy was launched, we are 
still being told, Be patient. Progress is just around the corner. All 
of our sacrifices will somehow be worth it. But all that amounts to 
nothing more than desperate spin. And the American people aren't buying 
it; neither, apparently, are some top military brass. The 
administration can't find someone to take the job of war czar, a job 
that would coordinate the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. 
One of the recruits for the job, retired Marine General Jack Sheehan, 
told The Washington Post last week that he would rather spare himself 
the ulcer, saying of the Bush administration, ``The very fundamental 
issue is they don't know where the hell they're going.''
  How can the administration possibly say that Iraq is on the road to 
freedom and stability when a bomb goes off inside the Green Zone and 
kills members of the elected Parliament? If it's not safe inside the 
fortress of the Green Zone, just imagine what it is like in the streets 
of Baghdad.
  How can the administration say progress is being made when the 
Associated Press reports that dozens of Iraqi police officers were 
demonstrating outside their Baghdad station chanting, ``No, no to 
America. Get out, occupiers.'' And now American soldiers can look 
forward to a few more months of trying valiantly, but in vain, to carry 
out this misguided mission, as the Pentagon has announced that 
soldiers' 1-year tours will be extended to 15 months.
  I ask my colleagues who gave the President the authority to invade 
Iraq 4\1/2\ years ago if they weren't surprised that they voted for an 
occupation with no apparent end in sight. They absolutely didn't intend 
for our troops to be caught in the middle of a civil war that our very 
presence as occupiers has inspired. Four and a half years later, over 
3,300 Americans who will never make it home to their families, and all 
at the cost of more than $375 billion to stop Saddam Hussein from using 
weapons of mass destruction that he didn't have.
  This week, Americans sent their 2006 tax returns to the IRS, trusting 
that our government will send that money back to us in the form of 
services, benefits, stability and security. So what do we tell them? 
What do we tell the American people about the staggering costs they are 
being asked to assume for the occupation of Iraq? Can anyone possibly 
argue that we have somehow gotten a return on this reckless investment?
  The National Priorities Project has broken down the Iraq financial 
burden, assuming a total of $456 billion once the latest supplemental 
is signed by the President. Here is what it boils down to: $4,100 for 
every American household; $1,500 for every man, woman and child; $275 
million a day; $11 million every hour. Look what we could do with that 
kind of money: $928 million, 3 days in Iraq is enough to build 100 
schools or 5,400 affordable housing units, or provide health care for 
144,000 children for the length of the Iraq war.
  And if national security is what you want to redirect the money 
toward, we could have used Iraq appropriations for more secure posts, 
for energy independence initiatives, for nuclear nonproliferation 
programs, for debt relief

[[Page 9047]]

in the underprivileged areas of the world. We could have invested in 
real national security.
  Mr. Speaker, we have sacrificed more than enough in lives, in 
treasure, in national stature and credibility for a mistaken 
ideological pipe dream.
  It is time for our leaders to hear the frustration of the American 
people, frustration with this shameful, wasteful, futile policy. It is 
time to end this occupation. It is time to bring our troops home.

                          ____________________