[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 4008-4009]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE START OF THE WAR IN IRAQ

  (Mr. COFFMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, today is the 10th anniversary for the war 
in Iraq that began with the United States-led invasion on March 20, 
2003.
  In 2005, I resigned from public office in the State of Colorado to 
return to Active Duty in the United States Marine Corps for assignment 
in Iraq. I did this, not because I believed that the invasion of Iraq 
was the right decision for our country, but because I strongly believed 
that, once the decision had been made to go into Iraq, that we had a 
responsibility to bring this war to a just conclusion.
  I can't say enough about the young men and women of our military whom 
I met in Iraq when I served there and observed their courage, their 
determination to succeed under very challenging conditions, and their 
extraordinary sacrifices.
  However, now that I'm a member of the House Armed Services Committee,

[[Page 4009]]

 I will do everything I can to make sure that our country never goes 
down this path again. Nation-building operations, where we invade, 
pacify and administer whole countries, is the wrong direction for 
America and must never be repeated again.

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