[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5513]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            CONGRESS MUST TAKE ACTION TO END THE WAR IN IRAQ

  (Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, the President's representative from the 
military is on Capitol Hill urging us to continue to stay in Iraq, 
telling us to wait, don't leave.
  What are we waiting for, until the cost of the war reaches $6 
trillion, so that our American economy goes totally bust, so that we 
don't have any more money for education or health care or housing?
  What are we waiting for, for the casualties to get to 10,000 or 
20,000 deaths of our service men and women?
  What are we waiting for, for America to stand alone against the 
world?
  It is time that we take a new direction. It is time that Congress 
regain its rightful role as a coequal branch of government. It is not 
appropriate for leaders in Congress to say, well, it is the 
administration's fault that the war continues, when in fact we have the 
authority to cut off funds.
  Congress must take a strong stand and say no more funding; end the 
war, stop the occupation, close the bases, bring the troops home, set 
in motion an international peacekeeping and security force that comes 
in as our troops leave, work for a program of reconciliation between 
the Shiites, the Sunnis, and the Kurds, work for a program of 
repatriations, and stop trying to control the oil of Iraq.

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