[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 10392-10393]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    IT IS TIME FOR THE PRESIDENT TO STOP TALKING AND START LISTENING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, the bill we just passed has the weight of 
a feather. It is very weak on setting a date to get our soldiers out of 
Iraq. If anything, this legislation bends in the wind as a sign of 
flexibility by the Democratic Congress to work with the President.
  And yet a piece of legislation so inherently weak has provoked so 
many attacks from the White House that its real value may be proving to 
the American people that the President is out of touch and out of 
control.
  The President's military escalation has only escalated the body 
count, but he claims we are making progress. Mr. Speaker, tell the 
President we are not making progress. We are making widows and 
widowers. The bloody awful war must end now, but the President is in 
total denial.
  How many more must die before this President opens his eyes to 
reality? We are not seeding democracy. We are spilling blood into the 
soil, and what is growing is hatred for America, contempt for the 
President's military occupation and the killing and maiming of 
America's next generation.
  What will the President say to the 82nd Airborne when his rationale 
for continuing this war is irrational? This heroic, distinguished unit 
of American soldiers has suffered its worst single day of casualties 
since the Vietnam War.
  Mr. Speaker, what will the President say; we are winning? There will 
be bad days in Iraq? We are making progress? Mr. Speaker, tell the 
President we are not making progress. We are digging graves to bury 
mothers and fathers and sons and daughters, all patriotic Americans, 
all of them sacrificed needlessly.
  They marched off to war, and tens of thousands of Americans are 
coming home in coffins and on stretchers. The American people have had 
enough of this bloody, worthless war, but the ways of Washington are 
not as wise and as pragmatic as the will of the American people.
  Today, we passed a weak-kneed piece of legislation that this 
President will cut off at the knees. The President will emerge from his 
reality-proof bunker

[[Page 10393]]

just long enough to veto the bill. He will make a speech and what will 
he say? My way or no way.
  The stroke of the President's veto pen will be like a knife cutting 
away any hope of reason or sanity for ending this bloody, God-awful 
war.
  The President has retreated to a bunker where he cannot hear the 
American people, the Iraqi people, our soldiers, military experts and 
world leaders who keep telling him that the Iraq War will never end 
until we end it by withdrawing our soldiers and demanding diplomacy.
  The American people want their government to listen. The American 
people want this President to stop ordering soldiers into the crossfire 
of civil war. The American people want our soldiers home and out of 
harm's way.
  I voted for this Iraq bill today, knowing it will never become law. 
But I voted for the Iraq bill today because the weight of a feather can 
sometimes support the resolve of a Nation.
  This piece of legislation is the smallest step down the right road, 
the only road available to leaders who can truthfully assess the 
reality on the ground in Iraq and respond with reason.
  Some will say we are sending a message with this bill, but I think 
differently.
  I believe the President will be sending a message to the American 
people when he vetoes this bill, a bill so flexible that it could 
barely stand on its own. The President's veto message will be that he 
refuses to listen, refuses to change, refuses to work with Congress and 
rejects the will of the American people.
  The President said America will still be at war in Iraq when he 
leaves office in January 2009. That ought to be America's worst fear. 
And the only way to overcome it is for the American people to demand 
that the Republicans vote with the Democrats to overturn any 
Presidential veto that perpetuates the war any longer. And if 
Republicans will not do it, then elect someone who will.
  The American people have spoken in November and they have said, get 
out of Iraq. It is time for the President to stop talking and start 
listening. Bring our soldiers home and leave Iraq to the Iraqis.

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