[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5368]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      SUPPORT VICTORY, NOT DEFEAT

  (Mr. WILSON of South Carolina asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, this morning I joined 
many of my colleagues from both political parties with over 400 Iraq 
and Afghanistan veterans at an event organized by Vets for Freedom. 
This nonpartisan organization is dedicated to supporting our veterans 
by achieving victory in the global war on terrorism to protect American 
families by defeating terrorism overseas. I am proud to stand with 
these patriotic Americans.
  Their visit to Washington comes on the eve of General David Petraeus' 
and Ambassador Ryan Crocker's presentation to the House of their report 
on Iraq. I hope my colleagues will listen to General Petraeus and 
Ambassador Crocker with an open mind.
  As a grateful veteran with two sons who have served in Iraq, I know 
these two men serve the best interests of our troops and the safety of 
American families. They deserve attention to what they have to say.
  The old, failed talking points that ``the war is lost'' or ``so the 
surge is a failure'' do a disservice to this debate. Those claims have 
been soundly refuted by the facts on the ground, as I saw last month on 
my ninth visit to Iraq. Let's be sure our policy going forward is based 
on the facts.
  In conclusion, God bless our troops, and we will never forget 
September 11th.

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