[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10327]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              OPPOSING U.S. MILITARY INTERVENTION IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Hahn) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. HAHN. Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to come today and add my voice 
and my constituents' voice to the situation in Iraq. I wanted to voice 
my strong opposition to any further United States military intervention 
in Iraq.
  I don't think we should be sending our men and women back to Iraq or 
to engage in air strikes. I don't believe that this is the right course 
of action. Our Nation's military involvement in Iraq, I think, needs to 
be over.
  The United States has already spent trillions of dollars in Iraq 
while, here at home, our economy is still suffering. Our schools are 
going without needed funding. Families in my district are struggling to 
find jobs, to put food on the table, and our own infrastructure is 
crumbling.
  My colleague earlier, on the other side of the aisle, talked about 
Esther and her great line of ``for such a time as this,'' which is 
something I actually try to live by, but I don't believe that this is 
the time to go back and fight a war that I don't believe is ours. I 
believe it is the time for America to focus our resources here at home.
  We can't afford to spend millions of dollars on this military action 
when our schools are failing, one in five children lives in poverty in 
the United States, and so many of our veterans are not being taken care 
of when they come home.
  I don't sit on the Committees of Armed Services, of Foreign Affairs. 
I am not on the Intelligence Committee. I sit on the Small Business 
Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. From 
that perspective, I know that our small businesses want us to help 
them. Our infrastructure is failing and crumbling. We have 70,000 
bridges in this country that are structurally deficient. I believe that 
we need to focus our resources here at home.
  We have had nearly 4,500 brave men and women that sacrificed their 
lives for what I believe was a misguided mission in Iraq. More than 
30,000 Americans have come home emotionally and physically scarred. 
Let's not do this again.
  I don't think we have any place trying to solve a modern-day civil 
war. I think enough is enough. I hope, before the President takes 
action, he will come to Congress and ask us and the people that we 
represent what action needs to be taken.

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