[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 382-383]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                 THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ IS STILL GOING ON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, I rise to make an important and urgent 
announcement to the House: the conflict in Iraq is still going on, and 
we are still occupying that country.
  I have to make this announcement because apparently some people have 
forgotten all about Iraq or don't think it's an important issue 
anymore. That's because it doesn't dominate the TV news like it used 
to. As an example of that, a recent story on CNN began with the words, 
``Whatever Happened to the War?''
  Well, I hate to spoil everyone's day, but I have to report, with 
great regret,

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that the occupation is still going. As proof of that, nearly 300 
American and Iraqi soldiers and Iraqi civilians have been killed or 
wounded so far this month alone. Yes, the bloodshed continues.
  And after nearly 5 years of occupation, our leaders still have no 
exit strategy. They have even stopped pretending that they have one. 
Last year they told us we couldn't get out of Iraq because things on 
the ground were going badly. This year they're telling us we can't get 
out because things are going well; and if we get out, they'll go badly 
again.
  So if you follow the administration's argument to its logical 
conclusion, this is what you get: We can't leave when things are good; 
we can't leave when things are bad. Which means we can never leave. The 
result is permanent occupation, which is precisely what the 
administration appears to want.
  Forgetting about the bloodshed in Iraq is bad enough. But it's 
dangerous for many, many other reasons. It gives the administration a 
free hand to ratchet up the threats against Iran. It takes the pressure 
off the Iraqi Government to make progress toward national political 
reconciliation. It means our military will continue to be overstretched 
and less capable of meeting real challenges to our national security 
that may and will arise elsewhere. It continues to make America appear 
to be a lawless and arrogant Western occupier of the Middle East. And 
it allows our budget to be plundered at a time when our economy is more 
than shaky. People are in danger of losing their jobs here at home; but 
thanks to the administration's policies, the boys at Blackwater will 
always have their high-paying military contractor jobs in Iraq where 
they can continue to terrify the Iraqi people.
  We are spending over $300 million every day in Iraq, Madam Speaker. 
We couldn't afford that when the economy was good, and we certainly 
can't afford it as the economy goes into recession.
  But thankfully, thankfully, the American people are too smart to fall 
into the trap of believing that everything is just swell. According to 
a recent CBS News poll, nearly 60 percent of Americans continue to 
believe the occupation is going badly, and 58 percent believe the U.S. 
should never have gotten into Iraq in the first place.
  Madam Speaker, we cannot stick our heads in the sand and pretend that 
Iraq isn't a problem anymore. The only way to change course is to hold 
the administration accountable, and the only way to do that is to keep 
the pressure on the administration every single day. That's why I'll 
continue to raise my voice against the madness of this occupation, and 
why I will continue to urge the House to use its power of the purse to 
end it.
  Iraq is not a television show that got canceled because of the 
writers' strike. Iraq is a real place where real people continue to 
die. We must redeploy our troops. We must give the Iraqi people back 
their sovereignty, and we must give them their hope for a brighter 
future.

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