[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10811]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  (Mr. HOLT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HOLT. Madam Speaker, 4 years ago, President Bush used soldiers 
and sailors as stage props to declare ``Major combat operations in Iraq 
have ended.'' Those combat operations indeed, should have ended, in 
fact, they should never have begun. This combat was constitutionally 
and strategically unjustifiable, operationally poorly executed with 
regard to armoring and deploying the troops, and politically and 
diplomatically disastrous.
  This war is not making anyone safer or more free and it cannot be won 
militarily. As retired General Odom said, ``The challenge we face today 
is not how to win in Iraq; it is how to recover from a strategic 
mistake: invading Iraq in the first place.''
  The President continues to squander American influence, blood and 
treasure. The President's intransigence is why our Congress was forced 
to pass a spending bill that forces a change in course in Iraq. The 
President needs to know that the days of congressional blank checks in 
support of a failed policy are over.

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