[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11155]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  (Mr. AKIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. AKIN. The Democrats' supplemental bill was a crafty way to quit 
in Iraq. Now, certainly each of us individually, and even as leaders 
and nations, is tempted at various times in the face of overwhelming 
odds to quit and to give up; and yet greatness in leaders and greatness 
in nations is frequently measured by a stubborn and cussed 
determination to carry on.
  We think, of course, immediately of George Washington at Valley 
Forge, we think of Winston Churchill challenging the people of England 
to rise up and to be strong against the Nazis; he loved to mispronounce 
it to bait Hitler. But we also recall in our own history how we were in 
Vietnam, how we bombed North Vietnam, and in the observation of 
Jeremiah Denton, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, how we were just 
very close to victory. North Vietnam was about to capitulate because of 
the bombing, and then we cut and run.
  The test before us today is for the courage and the heart of not just 
the Iraqi people, but the American people. What are the measurements we 
should be looking at? It is not the day for the sunshine patriot, but 
for the cussed and the strong and the brave.

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