[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10809]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      TIME FOR A CHANGE IN COURSE

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. The Republican minority would say take the advice of the 
professionals. Well, if this administration had taken the advice of the 
military professionals, remember General Shinseki, ``400,000 troops on 
the ground or you'll have an insurgency,'' they fired him because he 
talked about reality.
  From day one they've been dumb: firing Shinseki; delusional: ``we'll 
be greeted as liberators'' and the war will be short; and deliberately 
deceptive: Saddam Hussein had links to 9/11 and they had weapons of 
mass destruction.
  It's time for a change in course. They want status quo, stay the 
course. It's not working. Our troops are mired in the middle of a civil 
war. Someone needs to take the role of leadership here. It's not going 
to be Bush and Cheney. It can be the United States Congress reasserting 
itself as a third co-equal branch of government and the only branch 
which has the authority to declare war and set limits. Yes, set limits 
on a war, and bring it to an end.

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