[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4642]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           OUR TROOPS IN IRAQ

  (Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Members of the House, this country 
has given the best of its young men and women in the battle in the war 
in Iraq and much of its treasure on the theory that we were fighting 
terrorists in Iraq so that we would be safer at home, on the theory 
that we were fighting terrorists in Iraq to eradicate them. We have 
lost over 4,000 young men and women in that battle, and tens of 
thousands of more seriously wounded, and almost $1 trillion of our 
treasure. Yet, this last week we saw our troops were not called upon to 
go against insurgents, to go against al Qaeda. They were called upon to 
enforce one side of an election battle of Shias against another band of 
Shias.
  Our troops were put into battle over this last week because there was 
a fear by the Maliki government that the Supreme Council of Iraq would 
lose an election in Bosra. So they declared a battle against Muqtada 
al-Sadr's supporters in Bosra. They were unable to do it. They were 
unable to effectively carry it out. And they didn't force American 
troops into that battle.
  Our troops should not be engaged in trying to square the field for 
the election advantage of one group of Iraqis over another. That is 
what elections are about, that is what democracy is about. But it 
should not be with the lives of our troops and the treasure of this 
country.

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