civil war rages with the past two days bringing us the news of sunni attacks on shias while the shias observed a religious holiday tax that killed at least three score wo d more than one hundred and of course the shias were receptive kate and just in an off place that you have to search hard in the newspaper mr president three more will three more dead american soldiers these are the facts in israel we find the bush administration has been too preoccupied to be concerned with the volatility the palestinian israeli situation now we have a raging civil war in the palestinian territory hamas versus fatah a government can be formed in lebanon which some say is also a civil war or ran as thumbing its nose at us and the world community torture warrantless spying on american citizens all as a result of this misplaced war these mr president are the facts in an op ed published in today's washington post three noted writers and foreign policy experts said this and i quote republicans will claim that after four years of disastrous mistakes the bush administration the administration finally got it right with its troop surge yet despite the loss of nearly a thousand american lives and the expenditure of one hundred fifty billion dollars the surge has failed in its stated purpose providing the iraqi government with the breathing space to pass the eighteen legislative benchmarks the bush administration called vital to the political reconciliation i continue with the quote today it has passed only four and some say the four past are for show they have no substance moreover as part of the surge the administration has further undermined iraq's government by providing arms and money to sunni insurgent groups even though they have not pledged loyalty to baghdad and of quote mr president my high school pal my buddy i named one of my boys after him he named one of his boys after me i'm proud of my namesake he's a really helicopter pilot having served a very difficult tour in afghanistan and now iraq we exchange regular emails during his time overseas these e mails were wonderful before going to iraq we had the opportunity to meet in las vegas for dinner he was on his way was a nice dinner he proudly told me of his war stories stories of real life that was present the e mails of stopping i had the good fortune meeting my friend at my home and searchlight last week last monday a week ago yesterday said why not the why don't get emails anymore on his dad told me that his son said they need to get us out of here he wants to come home with the rest of our gallant even hurlock troops mr president these are the facts the mission has not been accomplished we have not been met as liberators after five years of war we're still an occupying force arac with untold wealth because this oil supply must take care of its own citizens americans need to start taking care of americans we cannot spend i half a billion dollars every day in our back these are the facts mr president general casey testified today in a building a short distance from here the army's in a state of distress we heard on the media this morning about what's going in the pacific the admiral in charge there doesn't have the necessary we need to begin to redeploy our troops that's what this amendments about we can refocus on other threats and challenges there are many and limit the troops in iraq to counterterrorism force training and protecting our assets the other bill that will vote on later is also extremely important it calls for a report on the administration from the administration on the status of the fight against al qaida the fight against terrorism as the war in iraq rages bin laden remains free and his terrorist network is gaining power worldwide this legislation will shine the spotlight on this unmet challenge of fighting terrorism and keeping america our country safer today tomorrow and beyon my colleagues to seek common ground toward a new american foreign policy that strengthens our security supports our troops and begins to restore a nation's ability to once again lead in the way we have in  move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to counter number five seventy five f twenty six thirty three safe redeployment of u s troops signed by sixteen senators by unanimous consent a mandatory quorum call is waive mr hatch i no way i mr webb now mr lieberman no mr pryor no florida kno to proceed to counter number five seven five s twenty six thirty three a bill to provide for the safe redeployment of united states troops from iraq this president majority leader is present i ask unanimous consent there be two hours of post cloture bait prior to the most  proceed being agreed to with the time equally divided control between the two leaders or the designees further upon disposition of this legislation s two six three three the senate then proceed to cloture vote with respect s two six three four is their objection that mr president and i reserve the right to object and i will object we now have an opportunity here to discuss the issue that the majority feels we ought to be talking about i have a number of speakers lined up on my side i said that is the case on the other side and i appreciate the bipartisan vote in this regard usually however mr president when the cloture on a motion to proceed i mean senators are prepared to actually begin consideration that legislation however i've just asked consent that we do just that not my minority colleagues have objected the only conclusion a reasonable person could have is that they're resorting to a new variation of the old thing remember mr president in one year last year republican minority broke all rules and filibusters in one year they got sixty we had to file cloture sixty different times so it's obvious that this is only an effort to stall as they have done for the entire time that we've been in the majority now mr president we are happy to legislate regarding arac but mr president it's obvious to me what the game plan is they want us low the senate down from getting things done it's interesting to note that when the thirty hours out we will automatically go to cloture on the piece of legislation that calls for a reporting requirement on the global war on terror from statements made by distinguished republican leader they don't like them so it would seem to me that it's very clear that they're going to do everything they can to stop us from getting the housing legislation which the american people badly name but i know i think that it's important we do housing we do consumer product safety course we're going to do the budget resolution but it's obvious when the republican minority is in their usual stalling tactic now we have a few people can speak to during these thirty hours but what we should be doing is legislating on this most important legislation remember mr president there rack war is within a matter of days going to be starting the sixty year sixty years of this war and it's been reported that in less than a year this war will cost the american taxpayer a trillion dollars remember lenzie was fired because he said it would cost one hundred billion he was fired well he was he was a little off and we know that in a matter of few days we're going to have a milestone a tragic milestone or the four thousand dead americans our troops of fought valiantly mr president we all acknowledge that but as i indicated in my statement here earlier today they want to come home wherever you go that's what they tell you the parents tell you that the troops tell you that capitol policeman came home he's been over there for almost a year talked to him yesterday when you going back you said two weeks how's it been he's a different person than he was having been through what he has been through so much president if republicans want to talk about iraq we're happy to talk about iraq how this money that we have borrowed and continue to borrow a trillion dollars is preventing us i met with a governor just at the democratic governors they know what they're not doing in their states because they have no money whether it's infrastructure the deterring roads bridges and dams whether it's health care they can't take care of some of the basic needs of the people from their states and they know it's because of this war the president doesn't like to borrow money except for th there's a carte blanche borrow as much as any this war is costing is now mispresent about a half a billion dollars a day a day so isn't it good that we the american people are hearing us talk about this and as i indicated in our earlier statement i made a few minutes ago let's not stop start boasting about surge during the surge we've lost about one thousand american troops a thousand american troops were gone and it's is down but that is all a matter of degree the sh religious holiday they're trying to finish two days more than sixty killed more than a hundred wounded and as a rule this is this is sunni on shia and you can bet or you had to bet shias will be back to inflict equal damage against the sunni's emma sunni's who we have paid huge amounts of money have not even declared loyalty to the baghdad government president we're happy to talk about iraq it's obvious that the republicans are doing everything they can to stop us from going forward on legislation something dealing with the economy of course what would have been the right thing to do if they were sincere about moving forward motion for saying i want everyone that's within the sound of my voice to understand that motions to proceed were just routine i mean no one made us go forward on motions to proceed until this republican minority showed up and then on virtually everything they are doing the slow walk on everything everything if they were legitimate and genuine about what they want to do we would be on this piece of legislation that has been introduced and we would be talking about the merits of it but no that can't start and mr president i understand at the end of thirty hours automatically we have a vote on the next closure that's been filed because everything we do around here we have to file cloture on a motion proceed because of the big stall is taking place  so mr president we're going to be we're ready to caulk as long as people want to talk on this issue we have the democratic senators wanting to talk about this because they know what is war has put in the queue for us to have a debate on that we would not be dealing with this issue this week but for his decision to file cloture on two motions to proceed to find gold amendments the first feingold amendment which is before us we've actually  voted on four times already since the new majority took over in january of two thousand and seven in fact this will be the thirty fifth iraq vote we've had since the new majority taken over we spent a lot of time discussing iraq over the last year during and much of that time as the view of what was happening in iraq was not nearly as positive or optimistic as it is now why we should have a truncated discussion of iraq at a time when things are getting me when things are getting dramatically and measurably better strikes me is somewhat curious so  obviously the iraq debate of the moment has commenced i have a number of speakers on my side want to talk about the success of the surge the improvement in iraq the improvement on the government side as well as the military side and so we are happy to engage in this debate it was not our decision to schedule it it was the decision of the majority to devote whatever time was necessary this week to a discussion of these two fine gold amendments related to iraq so we look forward to discussions and i do believe we have a number of people lined up who would be happy to engage in the iraq discussion and we'll continue that until such time as there's a mutual agreement to go back on which may or may not occur depending upon the situation and how many speakers we have this is the way the senate break only operates the way it was when our good friends on the other side were in the minority there's nothing unusual about this at all the one thing we know the majority leader can do is schedule and it was his decision to schedule the two feingold amendments and there were the  times more than republicans are in the jordie the war went on for years with no oversight none whatsoever we have released demand again and i think that's important we've done that i've also asked my republican colleagues why don't they ever talk about the cost of this war the cost in line bodily injury and money money that's keeping this country from taking care of its own senator from illinois mr president i rise in support of this senate twenty six thirty three offered by senator feingold and i think it's unfortunate that the republican leadership has once again put the senate into a stall it seems like the republicans feel that it takes thirty hours to make up their mind to do anything they want to burn off thirty hours of senate time i don't know why what senator reid offered them was a chance to move to this resolution to to debate it if amendments are going to be offered they would be offered it turned down they want to wait thirty hours before we even possibly reach that point as senator reid explained it there may be an intervening motion that slows us down there but that's really what this is all about this is the republicans slow boat for america they want to slow everything down to a snail's pace and it's unfortunate that they do they know what we want to do we want to have a good open debate on the policy in the war in iraq followed this week by emergency legislation to deal with the housing crisis in america so their strategy is to avoid that debate in iraq a debate that leads to the actual bill tie it up and procedural issues and hope that we don't get to the housing crisis by the end of the week i guess the in the wake the republicans will say god well done senate went home and didn't do anything another week well i guess that is what they think the minorities all about to stop anything from happening isn't it unfortunate if you listen to the presidential campaign both sides republicans and democrats talking about change they point an accusing finger at us saying that time and again senators and congressmen dream up ways to avoid facing the important issues in america well it's time for us to face those issues in a timely way to give ample opportunity the minority and majority to debate to a man to move forward and yet the republicans as they did last year are doing everything this year again to obstruct to stall and to stop why is this important the minority leader senator mcconnell of kentucky was complaining that we have had thirty five votes on the war in iraq he is war weary of voting on iraq well i want to say to him i am war weary as well i am weary of two thousand pardon me three thousand nine hundred seventy two u s service men and women killed in iraq i am weary of twenty nine thousand injured many seriously and with permanent conditions they'll struggle with for a lifetime i'm wary of a war that this president will pay for or that costs us ten to fifteen billion dollars a month i am wary of the excuses that we made for the iraqis who failed to lead their own nation while we risked and give american lives in this conflict i am weary of the missed opportunities in america that one trillion dollars spent on this war could have bought us to make our nation stronger at home better schools making certain that our teachers are compensated for good work the technology that we need so our children can be successful in this twenty first century medical research funds that have been cut under this administration funds for extending health care and insurance for families across america putting infrastructure in place in america so that our economy can grow and move forward with good american jobs building those roads and highways and airports and mass transit i'm wary of that too no apologies to the senator from kentucky for thirty five votes on iraq that's hardly one vote for every one hundred americans have been killed in that country it's certainly worth our time to debate this even more important it's worth our time to change this policy in iraq i salute senator feingold he's been a lone voice there were times i didn't agree with him i thought he had a approach t that we weren't ready for but over time i've come to understand his wisdom on this his insight and his political courage to bring this issue to the floor if he didn't fight doggedly to make certain that we have this a rocky war debate we would skate along perhaps month after month without ever facing the music what we face is a reality the republican plan is to stall and wait to eleven months until president george w bush on january twentieth two thousand and nine can leave the white house give a fund do to washington d c and say well i i left the war and now it's up to the others to try to solve this well it's going to take quite a bit to try to undo the worst foreign policy decision in modern memory in america many of us remember that night in october of two thousand and two when here in the senate chamber we voted on authorizing this president to go to war i was a member the senate intelligence committee then i listened behind closed doors to classified confidential information and i just couldn't put it together i couldn't square with the information we received in the intelligence at teligent committee all of the dire predictions being made by president bush vice president cheney condo lisa rice donald rumsfeld it didn't square away where in the world with the threats that they were talking about the weapons of mass destruction the nuclear weapons the connections with nine eleven it turned out that none of them existed not one we found no weapons of mass destruction we found no nuclear weapons we found no connection between saddam hussein and the terrible tragedy of nine eleven all of the pretenses and reasons given by this president to engage us in this war to risk american lives and to drag us on for more than five years in this conflict turned out to be false all of them there is no greater deception in a democracy than for the leader to mislead the people of a nation into a war to ask  families to offer their children and their children's lives in service to this country for reasons that turn out not to be true no weapons of mass destruction no nuclear weapons no connection with nine eleven and here we are still bogged down mired down into this conflict it's cold comfort to know that as we sent twenty or thirty thousand more soldiers into iraq last year things got better i'm glad they did i've been there since then i'm glad the surge brought some peace to some sections of iraq but that wasn't the reason for the surge the surge was to be put in place so that the iraqis could finally take responsibility for their own country so that they could make heart political decisions and govern and lead and defend themselves here we are almost a year later and what do we have to show for it in a rocky parliament that when we can get them to meet won't even face the serious issues time and again they fail to make the decisions they need to make so that their government can govern time and again we find excuses from them they need a little more time every day that they need is at the expense of american soldiers every month that they take to finally reach a decision means that more body bags will come home to america and more wounded soldiers will return so as they take their sweet time making their decisions we paying a heavy price as a nation and the complaint from the other side is we've had thirty five votes on this haven't we had enough you know we haven't had enough until we change this policy until we start bringing the troops home you a lot of things said about this feingold resolution i certainly hope that colleagues and members will take the time to read it here's what it says it says that our future role in iraq is going to be limited we're not going to say to the military do whatever you'd like we're going to say to our military in iraq here is your role this is what you can do this is what we will provide funds for first conduct targeted operations limited in duration and scope against members of al qaeda and affiliate terrorist organizations that's certain certainly something we all agree on al qaeda was behind nine eleven that saddam hussein and we should continue to target them they've used iraq as a land of opportunity now to go in and so there seeds of division and hatred try to kill innocent people and to kill american soldiers senator feingold says we will continue to fight to eliminate the al qaeda in iraq secondly provide security for personnel and infrastructure of the united states government that should never be in question we should make certain that our armed forces are always there to protect our people and to protect important installations third provide training to members of the iraqi security forces who have not been involved in sectarian violence or in attacks upon the united states armed forces if the iraqis are ever going to take over defense of their own country so that we are not in iraq for fifty years or a hundred years or even a thousand years as one of the presidential candidates has said if we're ever going to avoid that terrible outcome the iraqis have to stand and fight defend their own country senator feingold says that is one of the legitimate reasons we can stay in iraq i agree with him finally to prove forth to provide training equipment other materials to members of the u s armed forces to ensure maintain or improve their safety and security no argument there and finally the resources to redeploy members of the united states for armed forces from iraq what's missing from this what's missing is any unilateral combat operation that opens up a new part of this war for five years we have given the iraqi people all that they could ever ask for we deposed their dictator we brought the best military in the world to their country we gave them a chance to elect their own government write their own constitution and govern themselves and defend themselves what more could they ask for we have paid for it mightily almost four thousand lives the hundreds of thousands who have served and the thousands who've come home i'll tell you mr president for those who think that we ought to look the other way for eleven months so president bush can get out of town he ought to go to these national guard deployments and redeployments you know to look into the eyes of our guardsmen and their families their tear filled eyes as they send their soldiers off for yet another deployment young man here on the capitol police force works with my office he's about to face a second deployment with the navy reserve it's taking it very well with a smile but he's going to be gone for eight months eight months away from his family making less money serving with the navy that he makes serving as a capitol policeman taking a pay cut because the federal government is too cheap to provide what private corporations do to their activated employees and he'll be off away from his family for another eight months easy for us to say well it's just eleven months they'll be a new president maybe they'll be a change but what about those soldiers and sailors and marines and airman all of our military who are called to serve eleven months will be a lifetime away from their families and during eleven months some of them will give their lives that's why this debate's important and why it's timely and why i'm glad that senator feingold has brought a force it's really unfortunate three republican side wants to stall this debate stall it for thirty hours in the hope so we could drag everything out so we'll never quite get to the issue here on iraq and maybe never get to the issue of the housing crisis in america that's the grand old party's brand new strategy stall try to delay by and ways to make sure we don't get to the important issues it's little wonder that the opinion of the american people of this congress is low but we should do is look to the positive side if we change this policy in iraq if we tell the prez on a bipartisan basis that we've had enough of this that we want to see a change in mission we've got a chance to change this country we can take the resources that would have been spent in iraq and spend them in america could make sure that we're building schools providing health care roads and bridges and job training we can create an economic stimulus in the united states instead of an economic stimulus in iraq i think a strong america begins at home would be great if we invested our precious tax revenues in that belief but you still you what the national intelligence estimate said about the state of this war in iraq last year they gravely noted that quote  conflict has become the cause celeb for jihadists breeding a deep freeze a resentment of u s involvement in the muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihad is movement in the quote from the national intelligence estimate what it says is that as we battle on in iraq and lose american lives and spend american dollars we are creating a magnet for the extremists around the world to come and kill our troops and to be inspired in their own sad devilish ways to kill other innocent people around the world that anyone bargained for that when we invaded iraq that anyone think it would make the war on terror more difficult to win but that is what the national intelligence estimate tells us this admin administration has recklessly diverted critical military intelligence and civilian assets from afghanistan in the process there was a war that i voted for without unanimous vote in united states senate just days after the attack on nine eleven we knew where that attack came from it didn't come from saddam hussein in iraq it came from osama bin laden and the taliban and the al qaeda forces that were run rampant through afghanistan well the situation in afghanistan is deteriorating because we've spent so much in human life and american dollars on iraq that's the reality of the subindustry sions priorities the taliban and al qaida sadly are regrouping in afghanistan and we know for sure pakistan the neighboring country is increasingly unstable in fact the strongest military on earth is apparently so overstretched at this moment the administration can't even find a handful of transport helicopters to help the desperately needed people of daraa for with a un peacekeeping force how long will we stand by this failed foreign policy this disaster in iraq at such a high cost in human lives dollars reputation and national security we're hearing once again that we are seeing progress in iraq how many times have we heard this story least for five years from the beginning from vice president cheney's rosy scenario of the troops being greeted with parades and arms laden with flowers to welcome them to iraq something that unfortunately did not occur until the present time when the so called surge is turned everything around and yet one hundred fifty thousand american lives are still at risk this morning this afternoon and th in iraq today the entire point of the surge was carve out political space for the iraqi political leadership they have it is the time they haven't used the surge for that to happen this anyone really i honestly believe that we closer to the day that the iraqis will take responsibility for their own future they will if this passes because they'll know that our days are numbered in iraq we are not going to be there for twenty five fifty or a thousand years that's not fair to our soldiers it's not fair to america this administration has no strategy be on state of course until january twentieth two thousand and nine we in congress have a responsibility to change direction our responsibility is for those soldiers and their families is for those guardsmen and their families is for everyone risking their life today in iraq they need to come home and when they come home we know that we have our hands full because we promised that we'd stand by them when they returned they come home with serious problems the suicide rate among soldiers is at a record high even higher among guardsmen who are activated to serve post traumatic stress disorders of years gone by are intense and many from the returning soldiers in iraq and afghanistan we know those who suffered serious injuries amputations of traumatic brain injury are going to need our help for a long long time to come this administration is short changed the veterans administration when we begged them to put in the billions of dollars necessary to keep our promise to these veterans and those from other wars they said they didn't need and then of course they were proven wrong we continue to put billions of dollars into this veterans administration and we should and we will for the future trying to pay the long term costs of this war a heavy cost that future generations will carry and those on the other side say well let's just let this go for another eleven months let's see how this all works out another eleven months of returning veterans returning wounded another eleven months of more responsibility for future generations mr president staying with a failed strategy is no strategy at all changing course in iraq is long overdue quite simply we cannot give this administration another blank check because we know what's going to do with it they're going to you this policy as we see more and more american soldiers in harm's way the bill before us is reasonable it's measured it's a thoughtful effort to put before this administration a new approach a new policy and a new direction in iraq starting to redeploy the majority of u s troops from iraq within one hundred twenty days i think is a reasonable thing to do certainly many of them will stay there for these specified responsibilities but as they start to leave the iraqis may wake up to the reality that it's their country and their responsibility the question is no longer whether the surge or more accurately the significant escalation of troops has worked the question is how we can return our focus to the original al qaeda threat sad to say six years more than six years after nine eleven osama bin laden is still on the loose he is still guiding in his own way the al qaida forces that threaten us and the rest of the world we need to help countries like jordan who've been overrun with iraqi refugees we certainly have to understand that a country that has been that friendly to the united states deserves a helping hand and we have to start to rebuild our international image and reputation it's really unfortunate when you hear  people around the world once our friends once our allies once our supporters so critical of the united states because of the colossal mistake made by the bush administration with this invasion of iraq we have to turn a page and we can't wait til twentieth two thousand and nine to do it last year in new york times c b s news poll showed that only five percent of americans trust this president to successfully resolve the iraq war one out of twenty americans trust president bush to resolve the swore well i don't believe he will either i'd be with the ninety five percent but congress has an equal import responsibility to oversee this war as it is fought to do everything we can to protect our troops and to resolve this war so our troops can come home to the hero's welcome that they richly deserve we need to step into the leadership void that this white house has left and change directions for our policy in iraq i'm going to support this bill to bring end to this war i was one of twenty three who voted against it of all the votes that i've ever cast in congress in the house and senate i look back with greatest assurance that that was the right vote the right vote for america i don't think that anything that has transpired since that late october night in two thousand and two has ever made me waver in my belief that that was a serious mistake for the united states to give to this president and this administration the authority to begin this war which has cost us so much over the years i believe that we have to be careful in our foreign policy of course defend america that's our first responsibility but never never engage in a war when we can't understand the consequences that might follow like this one it is so much easier to get in a war than it is to get out of one with senator feingold is doing is engaging the senate in a debate that's long overdue for a change in policy that is long overdue the republicans are going to stall try to avoid the vote try to speechify us to death not want to face this vote for a vote on the housing crisis but that's nothing new as senator reid said the majority leader last year sixty eight times they initiated a filibuster brand new record in the senate before that it was sixty one filibusters in two years that was a record well they managed sixty eight in one year it shows you what they're up to they just want to grind to stand slow us down and make us avoid the issues that count in america one of those issues is in this war the right way and another which will phone is the housing cri which plagues our economy to preserve your floor as president senator from arizona the president i'm a little confused here but an hour and a half ago the majority leader brought up a bill he and the senator from wisconsin and filed this bill to leave iraq in one hundred twenty days and he filed cloture on that to see whether enough senators would agree to proceed to debate the bill so that we could start the debate took sixty senators to vote yes i think the majority leader must have been surprised when we voted yes because he doesn't seem to want to take yes for an answer he filed a bill wanted to debate it and presumably have a vote on it but when we agreed to debate it he called foul and said you're trying to stall because you didn't vote no so that we could move on to the next bill and then the next bill which will be the economic stimulus package and so i'm confused and maybe i shouldn't be because almost half of the members of the majority voting voted against cloture that is to say they voted against proceeding to the bill that the majority leader had filed narrowly members of the majority don't vote against these cloture petitions that the majority leader file is to take up a bill ordinarily all the members of the party vote with their leader on these votes i gather that the majority leader must have thought that the bill wouldn't get cloture that is to say that we wouldn't start the debate that i suppose republicans would be accused of trying to stall of not being willing to vote on the bill that he and the senator from wisconsin had filed may be putting republicans into a no win situation damned if we do and damned if we don't if we agree with the majority leader and take up his bill to debate it we're stalling and if we don't agree then i suspect we would have been accused of not being willing to debate iraq and not being willing to vote on the amendment that the bill that he and the senator miscounts and filed so as i say i am confused all republicans did was to say ok you want to debate the bill that you file will agree to proceed with that now the distinguished minority whip just said that republicans are speechifying this to all republicans are talking about five minutes out of the last hour all the rest of time has been taken by members of the majority party the minority or majority whip himself spoke i think a little over a half of an hour i won't take that long but i think it's hard to accuse republicans of speechifying the build of this when all we did was an hour and a half ago agreed to debate it and the majority excuse me the minority leader is now spoken about a total of five minutes do you want to debate on iraq or not now that the surge is working it appears maybe that members of the majority party aren't so anxious to have that debate but as majority leader excuse me minority leader mcconnell pointed out republicans are willing to have that debate a group of republicans were just in iraq over the course of the last week several of us have been there since the first of the year and have a very positive story to report about the work that our troops are doing there and the effect of their this is a positive report that the american people deserve to hear and so i think you will see republicans agreeing to debate the resolution and for my purpose i'm perfectly happy to vote on it but under the rule that the majority leader has taken advantage of as soon as we've had thirty hours to debate this then automatically we go to the next feingold read bill that's a bill that doesn't have us get out of iraq but rather says that we should try to develop a strategy to deal with al qaeda one of course the administration's first strategy and as we've discussed on this floor many times the first best way to deal with terrorists is to get good intelligence on them to know what they're up to maybe we could have prevented nine eleven had we had better intelligence and so the foreign intelligence surveillance act this is the the law that allows us to listen in on the communication of these terrorists that bill that that law expired and the president said we are losing good intelligence you need to act to reauthorize that law the senate did like we had sixty eight  in a bipartisan way we acted to support that many of our colleagues on the other side however opposed i think it was twenty eight or twenty nine now the house of representatives leadership has said well let it expire and they went on the break twelve days ago without having acted to reauthorize the so called fice law foreign intelligence surveillance act that law needs to be reauthorized each day that passes that it is not reauthorized we losing intelligence what happens if there's another nine eleven and we later find out that one of the reasons is because for a period of several weeks we couldn't listen in to what these terrorists were saying were missing intelligence and frankly we want to do anything else around here until we get that that law reauthorized and the president can sign it into law but the majority leader said first we're going to have a debate on the feingold reid bill to get out of hundred twenty days then we need to have a debate on developing a new strategy for dealing with al qaeda ok republicans are happy to engage in that debate as i said but to be accused by the majority of trying to stall by simply agreeing to the debate that the majority requested i think is is not is not correct moreover nobody is trying to stall consideration of a housing bill or an economic stimulus package we understand that the majority is going to be bringing such a package to the floor we haven't seen it we don't know what's in it we're certainly not stalling it it's not here yet the majority leader could have put that on the floor he could have told us what's in it  could have filed it he could have filed cloture on it so that we had to vote on whether we're going to take it up or not but instead he brought up the first iraq resolution and then that's going to be automatically followed by a second resolution dealing with al qaeda and then only after that apparently do we get this economic stimulus or housing package so it's not republicans that are holding it up we haven't done anything to hold it up we haven't even seen it yet so i think this criticism of republicans for stalling simply iraq resolution i think it's interesting that the first criticism was that we had a failed policy in iraq and so when general petraeus developed a new policy the surge policy which began to work the debate su began to shift and now that it's very clear that the surge has worked it's shifting even more it's shifting now to well ok maybe the surge is working but the iraqi government needs to do more but the iraqi government is now doing a lot more to do as we will here but i suspect that really nothing is going to be good enough for those who want to get out of iraq now because as the minority a majority whip just pointed out we really need to improve america's image abroad in there are a lot of people who disagree with us and so that's one of the reasons why we need to get out of iraq but he also said how many times have we heard the story that we're doing better in iraq well i don't know how many times but certainly since general petraeus reported to the congress and every week there after there has been improvement and all we have to do is listen to our own colleagues who have been there recently to see this report of progress in iraq i don't know why people are so afraid of good news when you're winning in a war why isn't that a good thing why rich are proud of that why don't you say this is great let's finish the job i suspect that if you ask the majority of our troops over there now that you've got your foot your boot right on the neck of these enemy terrorists you think we don't know let it up and walk away or do you think we'd ought to finish the job my guess is they would all say let's finish the job or you all back in washington let us finish the job don't pull the plug on us so that we have to leave home before leave iraq before we've finished the job  it's interesting that there's now a new argument ok maybe the surge is working maybe the iraqi government is going to be making the actions that we have asked them to do in fact they have they are now taking action on the so called reconciliation there on the local elections and the like but now the new argument is well we could actually spend this money on other things of course you can almost always spend money on other things when you're in a war however it's a little different you can't just pull the plug and say we'd rather spend money on housing or transportation or education than we would on the war you don't have that option you can't just pick up a steak and leave because you have to at the cost of what you leave behind and most of the experts who have talked about this have made it crystal clear that if we decided that we wanted to leave because we'd rather spend the money on something else the ultimate cost would be far greater than if we finish the job because by most estimates the situation would deteriorate would reinfiltrate back in the other enemies of the iraqi people would would create more problems and then actually you know we'd have to come back in and try to clean up the mess that was created because we left prematurely so the bottom line is the costs of leaving prematurely would be far greater than the costs of finishing the job once and for all it's also very difficult to put a price on our national security and especially because of those young men and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice i think we owe it to them to ensure that what they have done the sacrifices they've made is not going to be wasted it's not going to be lost we were too anxious to get out of there to spend money on something else that's not good policy it's not the way to win a war it's certainly not the way to beat terrorists so i guess the final point that the that the majority whip made was we should return to the original al qaeda threat and i get back to the point i made earlier if you want to return to the original al qaeda threat there's no better way to do that than a finishing the job in iraq or we've got al qaeda on the run there essentially defeated let's don't let them rise back up again and be past the price of legislation the foreign intelligence surveillance act which allows us to collect intelligence on these terrorists abroad now again we did that here in the senate many on the other side twenty eight voted against it but the house of representatives leadership has an obligation to try to get this done and therefore i call upon the democrat caus leadership bring up the bill that the senate passed and see if it'll pass the house of representatives i suspect the reason it hasn't been brought up is because they know it would pass and that's a bill the president would sign why wouldn't that be a good thing madam president it seems to me that that's the appropriate way to move forward so we just try to summarize here republicans have put us into a stall our democratic friends say because we agreed to debate the bill that they wanted us to debate they expected us to say no that we wouldn't debate it as i said then we've been accused of trying to avoid a debate but no we agreed we'll have the debate it's only thirty hours and the that's hardly enough time for all of my colleagues to be able to say the things they want to say if we have half of that time but nonetheless we'll we'll try to give the report of the truth of what's happening in iraq and i think the american people will be better off for that so i'm glad that we agreed with majority leader to proceed to the debate on this bill and i suspect we'll want to do the same thing on the next bill and if and when  democratic majority puts together an economic stimulus package then we can take a look at that and see whether we want to debate that as well but again our first priority ought to be to get the foreign intelligence surveillance act passed because every day that goes by that that law is not in effect we jeopardize our national security we jeopardize our ability to collect intelligence on al qaeda and other terrorists and we put the lives of americans at risk and that is unacceptable of new jersey madam president as i understand it in this post cloture time how much time do i have compelled having heard some of the remarks made by some of our colleagues to first to preface my remarks as it relates to this debate you know yes we're happy to have a debate but it doesn't take thirty hours to come to the same conclusion that the american people have clearly come to in this country that continually engagement in the war in iraq in the course that we're on is not in the national interests of the united states and they have come as to their common sense that americans always show this is overwhelmingly the conclusion of a great majority of americans they understand it doesn't take a thirty hours to do that now we can have an open honest and intelligent debate with a few members on each side making the case for their respective point of view but we don't have to take thirty hours in order to get to that goal so that we can move to the other important business of the senate this is important business and it deserves a thorough the paper by the same token it's clear that the whole process of objecting to the majority leader's effort to limit the scope of time so that we can have a robust debate but then go on to the other business before the senate in the country is to extend the time is to delay as we have seen through a record number of filibusters that the republican minority has used in this chamber in a way that defies all of the stork proportions it is clear that what was intended to be used as  rare case to protect the rights of the minority particularly on its exceptional critical issues of the time has now been abused in such a way in which it is intended to stall the work of the senate but more importantly the work of the american people so that's that's the framework in which we start this debate we can have a robust debate but we don't need thirty hours to accomplish that secondly i really cannot understand how some members can come to the floor of the senate and rail against the fact that the foreign intelligence surveillance bill has not been passed by the house of representatives when they refuse to agree to a twenty one day extension of the existing law that gives it ministration everything they want to do so if this is such a critical issue as has been described by members of the republican side of the aisle why would you not have agreed to continue while the congress debated the opportunity to extend the law that allows you to do all those things that you say are critical to the protection of the american people i can only come to the conclusion either it's not as critical as they define because fear is what is what we sell it seems on the republican side and we've been hearing here for quite some time and the american people have caught up to that or or in fact they simply wanted to have the proposition for a political purpose if not we would have had the twenty one day extension everything they  they would have had and therefore we would have been able to move forward so i think those two items need to be put in the conflicts now let me get to the main purpose of what i came to the floor to speak about and that is in support of senator feingold's amendment the senate has an opportunity once again to vote to transition our troops out of iraq with honor and refocus our efforts on defeating refocus our efforts on defeating al qaeda and it is long past time for us to make that decision now the administration has never told us the truth about the war in iraq some people want to gloss over that but if what is past is prologue then we need to be worried about what we constantly hear the budget that they submitted to congress is just the latest proof of that the budgets terrible in a lot of ways it leaves millions of children without full access to health care it fails to wean us off our addiction to foreign oil it fails to adequately address climate change it fails to repair our education system or basically it fails to make a serious effort to tackle the most pressing problems that average americans face in their lives each and every day but beyond that the budget is dishonest about the cost of one of the most expensive wars in this country's history a war that has lasted more american engagement in world war two a war that has lasted more than america's engagement in world war two and lift the cost of the war in iraq for next year at seventy billion dollars all the other calculations in the budget budget including the debt and the deficit in some way assume that seventy billion dollars is all the war's going to cost in the next fiscal year that we have to wonder if whoever wrote the section of the budget on iraq found their job after leaving their old post at the accounting department of enron because it's clearly the same type of accounting you know recently the secretary of defense took a baby step towards honesty and estimated the true cost for next we're at another hundred and seventy billion dollars of america's money and he said that was just a rough estimate because when you've already spent more than a half a trillion dollars i guess you just round up to the nearest hundred billion now this is with that administration that has over five years of a historical engagement in iraq knows how many troops we have knows the projection moving forward therefore knows what the consequences in terms of costs are and to come and send a budget to the congress that everyone knows in the context of the cost in iraq is a farce this type of carelessness if one can call it carelessness in accounting is offensive to the american people who are funding the war this is ministration is so dead set on staying in iraq i know some presidential candidates have suggested that we will do so for one hundred years if necessary they just don't seem to care how much tax money they spend they don't seem to care how much money they have to borrow from the chinese to pay the bills because we don't pay for this in terms of how we're going to afford the war we don't domestically decide well this is going to be offset by some other either revenue streams or cuts in programs so we under this administration just keep adding at to the next generation more debt more debt they don't seem to care how much wind gets knocked out of our economy because the money could have gone to creating jobs stimulating the production of green energy or helping families make is made as a matter of heart we could use that money to do something that's critically important as well protect america here in domestic soil because as we look at the president's budget what does it do it to live in a cops funding put one hundred thousand police officers on the streets of the senate it cuts homeland security grants to states by seventy percent it cuts port security by half it cuts infrastructure security by half and this at a time in which every report including those of the administration house out kater reconstituted in the pakistan afghanistan border and the reports coming out that they have been reconstituted with the strength and the ability to perform another attack on the united states now the terrorists have to only get lucky once we have to be right one hundred percent of the time how can you achieve those goals when you eliminate the very essence of the funding that we learned oncet kember eleven who came to respond on that fateful day it wasn't the federal government it was local police and firefighters and emergency management and hospital personnel that's who came and what this this budget do it slashes the living daylights out of those very first responders who are critical critical to our domestic security what does it do about one of the gaping wounds that we have in the country in terms of security it slashes port security now everybody who comes into this capital has to go through a security divi hundred percent everybody goes to the white house has to go through a security device one hundred percent but when we talk about cargo coming from all over the world only five percent has to go through the scanning process and yet we're going to cut port security by fifty percent you know mass transit congress spoke the last session put a mass transit up there because understanding that we saw what happened in madrid and mumbai and other places in the world and yet the president cuts mass transit security by fifty six percent so those who argue that we cannot talk about the consequences of our engagement in iraq in a financial context here at home well in the context of security here at home at a time of regrouping and re strengthening both qaeda in the pakistan afghanistan border with the abilities to ultimately commit terrorism domestically in the united states yes there is a real causal connection and a real consequence and we have to include that as part of the debate and part of the consequences in our continuing engagement in iraq in an open ended way with what we heard the secretary of defense talk about with the amount of money the secretary of defense things we might spend in iraq next year in a different context we could have more than doubled our package to stimulate the economy this year when americans get rebate checks in a month or so they should imagine them more than twice as big because that's what this year in iraq would cost if we want to imagine the total financial cost of the war in iraq over almost five years if we want to imagine what six hundred and eight billion dollars means we could divide that up and send every american a check for two thousand dollars if we want to know what the war will cost over the next decade if we continue the course that we are on that's about two point eight trillion every american should picture a check for more than nine thousand dollars that's what the war costs more than nine thousand dollars for every man woman and child living in the united states of america is there for people in your family that's thirty six thousand dollars that potentially could have been put in your family's economy when so many hard working families are struggling to keep their homes and so many are struggling to help keep with the rising cost of health care and college tuition and heating oil when so many have to care for aging parents put food on the table and struggle to make ends each mom thirty six thousand dollars would go a long way so it's a different way of looking at there are many different ways of looking at the cost of the war so here's how it all adds up we can't think about economic stimulus without thinking about how we can stimulate peace we can heal our economy without closing the financial hemorrhage that is the war in iraq and you know it seems to me that in addition to those financial context there's the whole question of security the security i just talked about in a domestic capacity the security challenges we have by overextending our troops in such a way in which all of our military leadership speaks about the challenges that we would have if we had to meet another security challenge in the world and basically an understanding that god forbid we had another security challenge while we are still engaged in iraq in a way in which we are engaged wow we have a resurgence in afghanistan of the taliban was some of the latest report talking about some very fierce fighting and the lack of response by nato and a pumping up of our troops there and looking at that scenario and now looking at the afghanistan pakistan border well kate it has reconstituted and that's god forbid if anything else happens in the world that's our challenge in the security context if we continue the course of a challenge that those who have the military promise tell us that we cannot meet if we continue in this way for five years the administration has parroted the line that quote we're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them but now more than ever we realize that one of the biggest impacts of the war has been we're spending our money over there and therefore we cannot spend it here money that includes billions of dollars that have been misspent including hundreds of millions of dollars in reconstruction projects that are unaccounted for and i you know i came back from iraq about a month ago and i must say you know when i see these schools going wanting here in america when i see hospitals closing in my home state when i see roads that have to cherry rated bridges that have fallen and say reconstruction in iraq but no instruction here at home real consequences of the war when i see is talk about the genocide in darfur and we are universally committed to the proposition never again never again what is never again me that we will not repeat legacies of the past failures of taps in the holocaust in rwanda in the armenian genocide no no we will act and yet because the part present security challenges and the consequences of being engage in iraq in the way that we are we stand by and watch foremost the trip through something i believe for a long time we should be incredibly proud of the men and women who wear the uniform of the united states and who are serving there they don't ask whether this is the right or wrong mission they just serve with honor and integrity of the rest their lives every day and i came away extremely impressed newt was their commitment and i felt honored to be able to share some time with them including many from my home state of new jersey who are serving there and so we need to give them a mission worthy of their sacrifice i believe that's what senator feingold's abetment does beyond that one other thing became very clear to me the solutions to your iraq's problems lie in the hands of the iraq cannot achieve peace we cannot achieve reconciliation we cannot achieve power sharing we cannot get sunni shia and kurd to sit side by side at the point of a military gun and as long as we continue to in essence be enablers of iraq leadership that has become so dependent on the united states and refuses to meet the challenges of the har choices compromises negotiations necessary for their government to ultimately achieve they will never ever feel the urgency of now when the presidents that sent thirty thousand additional troops into harm's way in iraq last year the purpose his purpose his stated purpose not my view of it his stated purpose his stated purpose was to allow iraq is to have the opportunity and the space the environment to strengthen the federal government to achieve national reconciliation and that no matter how we try to paint it has not been accomplished even our own benchmarks that even the administration agreed to then the iraqis agreed to have largely not been accomplished and so so use a sports analogy we keep changing the goalposts every time father and father away from the obligations of the iraqi leadership has down the law not too long ago iraq's parliament finally passed three laws up to months a bit of squabbling and we certainly should applaud them for that but the bush administration is touting this event as an end all be all political break but as usual they are taking a small bit of good news and trying to whitewash the bigger picture the agreement the iraqi parliament reached is basic only temporary the provincial powers arrangement is set to expire guess what in one year what they pass as an expiration in one year hold the politicians over so they can have the same arguments all over again next year iraqi politicians are still a law way from permanent agreements over fundamental issues because they don't have the pressures of the necessity to do so and the reason is as long as we continue to insist as an open ended presence in the lives of americans and the national treasure of the united states they won't make the hard choices and compromises necessary to achieve lasting stability you know when i went to iraq and met with a lot of iraqi elected leadership and some of the chiefs and what not i i was stunned that they kept telling me about what america needed to do and my response to them was iraq's future is in your hands not in americans hands you must make these decisions for your country and you know i know we've heard a lot about the surge and certainly depends what your measure what your measurement is if you're talking about greater security in baghdad the answer is yes yes no question although baghdad has become far more segregated as a city so that one of the ways in which security has been achieved is that we segregate sunis and shias into different parts of baghdad of the splice iraq to use that are beginning to come back and now they come back to neighborhoods and just homes where a person living there is not only has their home been taken over but they're not even from their same s so they feel they cannot go live there and as how we i asked how are you ready to take on the displacement of several million of your country people coming back to the country and they have no real plan we've got eighty thousand or so concerned local citizens individuals who one time fought us and who have decided to join us but who are on the payroll we pay them every weight to be there and their expectation is they're going to be integrated there into the security forces or get some type of employment we don't have from iraq is a clear sense of how they're going to meet that challenge these are eighty thousand individuals who have weapons on them so when we hear about the surge let's not forget what president bush said was the purpose it was to create the space and environment necessary for the opportunity for iraqi leadership to make the hard choices compromises negotiations to pass the benchmarks that we had passed and that the iraqis agreed to and that has failed and that has failed and about security yet we push we've got create a greater security in baghdad we've also created greater segregation and bag ratbag that and we've pushed the challenges elsewhere in the country that i'm president at combat post x ray outside of bad that i met with troops from new jersey serving in the air force and i had just killed one of their colleagues and wounded several others the hardest thing i've had to do in thirty three years of public life is to call a family and give them my condolences because a loved one has been killed hardest thing i've had to do in public life enough for a parent or a wife or a husband or a mother or father to hear that when they believe their family member was fighting for freedom and for our security it's incomprehensible when that death was about iraq the politicians fighting for resources and power when senator when the sunni general petraeus was here last year came before the senate foreign relations committee he said in this testimony that what we have in iraq going out is a fight over power and resources i don't think that americans are believe that sending their sons and daughters into harm's way so that iraqis can fight over power and resources is a mission worthy of their sacrifice there is no military solution in iraq everyone including general petraeus has admitted that the only way to pressure iraqi politicians into making the choices necessary to move their country forward is to stop signing blank checks and to set a timetable to transition our troops back home and that's in essence what my colleague senator feingold does he create the transition affected one hundred twenty days after this law is passed and signed by the president that conducts but that still permits us to meet critical missions to conduct targeted operations against members of al qaeda the real threat to the united states and affiliated international terrorist organizations to provide the security for our own personnel and the infrastructure of the united states government to provide training to members of the iraqi security forces who have not been involved in sectarian violence or in attacks upon the united states armed forces so that we can ensure that they can ultimately be able to stand up for their own country as our major focus and to provide training equipment or other material to members of the united states armed forces to ensure maintain or improve their safety and security while we deploy members of the united states armed forces that in my mind is ultimately an opportunity to transition with honor focused our mission on who we need to qaeda strengthen the iraqi security forces to meet their own challenge and send a message to iraqi leadership that you must do what you have failed to do the opportunity has been given to you we cannot continue an open check in terms of national treasure or a continuing loss of american lives and finally madam president i felt truly brust to step onto american soil after flying back from iraq too many american men and women over there did not have the option right now of taking that return flight and too many americans have not returned and others may not as well i've seen firsthand how bravely our troops have served but let's be clear about that service american troops cannot be waiting for rockies forever to make the choices necessary to achieve success in their country they cannot be asked to serve up a functional society on a platter they cannot be expected to be the only ones serving up a functional electric grid sewer systems or revenue sharing agreements about oil they cannot  the former chief of staff said we need the iraqis to love their children more than they hate their neighbors that is a powerful truism but that does not come at the point of a gun if iraq is politicians think they can sit back and keep looking at the menu of options and squabble over the choice no matter what americans will keep delivering everything they order it will keep picking up the tab they'll never feel the pressing urgency to build a functional country for themselves it's time for that type of service to end and it's time for every american soldier to have the most wonderful privilege we have senators have had with visited iraq privilege of booking of return home t madam president says you're from georgia and i'm present i rise for just a few minutes i know the distinguished senator from michigan wants to speak now will not the be long but i feel compelled to come to the floor today and talk about bangle amendment twenty twenty six thirty four for just a second on the required report back to the people of the united states into the congress on our country's plan to address al qaeda and its affiliates on a worldwide basis about a present it is very disappointing to me that we would put something on the floor like that when in fact those who have the jack to do the plan that we have that are causing all the problems we're experiencing today but for a minute i want to go through because there is a place now days after nine eleven when united states of america was attacked in new york city was attacked in the world saw the evil of al qaeda and the evil of terrorism the president ited states went to the floor the united states house of representatives and he made a speech in which he declared a change in u s policy a change from one of reaction to one of preemption and so first of all we don't need a sixty day report back to the bill united states and what our policy is our policy is one of preemption now if you want to argue well that's right or wrong by and with me but don't pretend like we don't have a plan secondly in terms of preemption it is a proposition where you don't want to see what happened on nine eleven happen again so you are proactive rather than reactive we were attacked as a country in the late one nine hundred ninety s and early two thousand and seven different times in which we reacted after the fat in most cases those reactions were but none in one case we sent one missile into an aspirin factory but it was too late for the that had died for the soldiers and sailors on the cole who had died for others who died tragically under terrorist attack so first and foremost i would submit to you we have a policy and it's called preemption secondly i would submit to you it's been a pretty good policy because since in that speech on the floor of the house in september two thousand and one there is not been a single executed attack on the united states of america on our homeland i think that's a pretty good evidence that we have a plan and we have a plan that's working in the interest of the safety of the american people now secondly recommendations regarding the distribution and deployment of united states military intelligence diplomatic and other assets to meet the relative regional and country specific threats described in paragraph one these people that want to pass this amendment are the very people that two weeks ago would not allow us in the house of representatives to extend the foreign intelligence surveillance here we are asking what our plans are going to be and yet people are voting against the united states having the intelligence to conduct a worldwide program against al qaeda and its affiliates you just can't have it both ways i respect anybody's being opposed to our deployment in iraq i respect anybody's opinion in this body or any other body for that on the policy of the united states but don't on the one hand assume we have no policy and then on the other hand vote against every meaningful contribution to the policy that we do have and the absolute promise facia evidence of that is five go look at the vote the united states senator who voted against extension of fires and you'll find the same people who are supporting and furthering s twenty six  thirty four it's it's on its face patently unacceptable lastly it requires recommendations to ensure that the global deployment of united states military personnel and equipment  assad and described in paragraph one and a doesn't understand the military readiness they require as deployment of reserve units more than twice once every four years and see require further extension of deployment of members united states armed forces let me interpret what that means for you in sixty days i don't want us to report to our enemies exactly what our military deployments are going to be in the future you know one thing you don't do when your sons and daughters are engaged in in harm's way around the world is tell your enemy what your game plan is sure you should have one and it should be one we all listen to on the fourth floor in our secured briefing rooms but don't require it to be advertised to the world we live in the greatest free is most liberty loving country and the world we fight in this body every day to protect the bill of rights but we have to recognize something the terrorists don't want what we have they don't want to have what we have they don't want to have a first amendment  for me to be able to stand up here and express myself they don't want to citizen a law abiding citizen to carry a be able to carry a firearm or own a firearm they don't want you to be able to worship on sunday or worship on friday or worship on saturday or worship five times a day if you're a muscle they want to be able to dictate how you worship and who you worship we have to remember that as we talk about the individual liberties and freedom that we protect those are the very liberties that al qaeda and its affiliates as this amendment portends want to take away from us the last thing we need to do is pass legislation requiring us to give them our game plan i welcome debate on these issues choose any time we want to come to the full and i take pride in the accomplishment of the young men and women who stand a day in afghanistan and iraq and other places around the world furthering the interest the united states of america and protecting us against al qaeda and its operatives we have a policy and it's called preemption we have a plan and it's our plan and it doesn't need to be advertised to them and most importantly of all we have the finest men in the world executing men and women executing that plan today around the world on behalf of the people of the united states of america but let's not require disclosure of our plans and that's not pretend we don't have a way to attack al qaeda and its affiliates we do it's called preemption and as of yet they haven't hit us on our floor on our country since the day we establish that as the policy of the united states of america and  the senators could explain how the doctor of preemption is going to help us against an organization that is existing in some eighty countries in the world are we going to invade in preempt eighty different nations after seeing what al qaeda wants to do to us and has done to us i don't think we should minimize what the effort might be that we have to take but i would ask the general it is one of preemption and the number one way to preempt is know in advance what the enemy is going to do and the number way number one way to do that is to be able to surveil known enemies that's why we had the boss bill if you can preempt you can preempt when you have the knowledge if you don't have the knowledge and you strip your intelligence agency of the business yes they are going to grow in eighty countries and yes they're going to hit you so we have  a preemption the best way to preempt is to have good intelligence and the best way to get their attention is to let them realize we will go after them wherever they are as long as there's a cleared enemy the united states of america through the chair get asked the senator so you're not referring here to the doct preemption that was used as a justification for invading iraq you are you're talking about the need for intelligence that correct the pres in the united states i believe it was not days after nine eleven announced the change of u s policy to be one of preemption that's what i addressed in my remarks the pfizer address that i made was to say that i found it a little unusual for the people who were supporting the amendment of the gentleman from wisconsin which i completely respect to be most of the same people who voted against us having the intelligence to be able to preempt them and then to have an amendment that portends we don't have a policy i just didn't think it makes good sense when president has sent further afield for question if i understand what he's saying in terms of the need for intelligence but the of preemption that was announced by the president nine days after after nine eleven and through that period was not about intelligence it had to do with the notion of where we could intervene in various nations so i'm  just a little bit confused about that and trying to understand the connection between responding through the chair appreciate the clarification my point is you can't intervene if you don't know where it's going to happen and let me just make a point if i can do senator i live in the  state of georgia and i live in a suburb of atlanta will be a trial in april of two students at georgia institute of technology georgia tech because of the patriot act in the fazil law our intelligence agencies track tracked communications from islam d pakistan into atlanta georgia to the l'abri of georgia to to to students islamic students who were then communicating toronto canada stablish a cell in atlanta days before they were to activate the plan of that s by having the strong intelligence of military forces to make it work man president appreciate it well it's certainly centers increases response and simply say that i certainly agree with that general proposition that we need to be able to have the information we need to stop terrorist attacks and i'm glad we're able to do it in georgia but the fact is a kate is operating in eighty countries around the world and because we're putting so much focus on iraq including so much focus of our intelligence system in iraq we don't have the adequate resources to preempt terrorist attacks throughout the world that's the very problem there are terrorist attacks going on in places like algeria and morocco and afghanistan in southeast asia and because we're so consumed with iraq we can't pursue the very notion of preempti terrorist attacks that the senator from georgia properly referred to refers to and president yield floor and present senator from michigan thank you madam president first let me let me indicate that as my colleagues were speaking a moment ago i think it is incredibly important to understand that in fact we are talking about a threat in eighty countries and we do have a fison law that in fact has worked and no one is suggesting we do not have the need for strong intelligence and support for our intelligence operations in fact that is what all of us are willing to see happen but what we're talking about here in this resolution is whether or not we're going to continue to keep our focus on a country that is now in the middle of a civil war or whether we are going to redirect our efforts in fact to address what are real threats not only abroad but threats at home when we talk about what are threats for our families i would suggest that when if we are now spending some words somewhere of fifteen billion dollars a month some say that when we look at what could be done here at home to address the very real threats of job loss people losing their homes children walking into schools that are crumbling the lack of health care that those are also very important threats and so we we certainly want to make sure that we are safe and address those threats abroad but more broadly we have many threats affecting our families right now and they expect us to use the very best judgment to keep them safe both from threats outside our country and as well as from threats at home including a huge economic cloud over many many families madam president i write say to lend my strong voice of support for the feingold legislation to provide the safe we deployment of united states troops from iraq and to refocus on in fact those things that are threats to our country into the families of this country man and president tonight five hundred ninety one members of the michigan national guard will bed down with after a long day of working and fighting and facing danger at every turn in the harshest physical conditions imaginable for every single one of these men and women a family will go to sleep in michigan tonight worried that their son or daughter father or mother sister or brother won't make it home the true cost of this war cannot be measured in dollars and cents the real cost is measured in the sacrifices of our brave men and women and their families every day this causes more than just the possibility and the reality of physical danger this cost includes the sacrifices that every single american family makes by being apart from each other time and time again it isn't right what is happening it isn't fair it isn't safe it isn't making us safer as a country and we need to change this policy that's why i'm so grateful that once again senator reed has made it a priority for us to focus on the war in iraq and what is happening to troops and families and people here at home and a lost opportunity costs of spending upwards of fifty teams billion dollars a month now in iraq and i'm president five hundred ninety one guard members tonight in iraq five hundred ninety one families at home five hundred ninety one missed birthdays miss father's days and mother's days missed high school graduations and children's first steps or anniversaries or family funerals or holidays five hundred  ninety one missed paychecks sidetracked careers small businesses and farms put in economic danger five hundred ninety one lives that will never be the same five hundred  ninety one sets of missed opportunities that will never be replaced and these members of the michigan national guard make up only a fraction of the hundred sixty thousand men and women in uniform currently serving bravely and honorably in iraq for the countless others who have served in too many cases these men and women are back in iraq for their second time the third time their fourth redeployment in addition to the five hundred ninety one that are already deployed there are about a thousand members of the mission michigan national guard that have been mobilized and who will deploy this year many of them will be doing their second or third or fourth deployment to a combat zone this year alone will be a thousand more missed paycheck thousand more missed birthdays and holidays and special occasions and a thousand more lives that will never be the same our fighting men and women are the greatest single resource our military has and this government is abusing that resource america puts our trust in our military to defend us when our sons and daughters join the military military they are putting their trust in us to give them the tools the resources they need and to treat them with the respect that they have earned the current policies and redeployment have violated that trust that those policies have let our troops down and once again i am proud to join with my colleagues from wisconsin and saying anough is enough of what is happening when it comes to placing our armed services in harm's way by stretching them to the breaking point with redeployment nothing's enough when it comes to being in the middle of a civil war and enough is enough when it comes to this administration taking its eye off the ball on the war on terror we're all aware of the worsening situation in afghanistan however this administration continues to focus on a civil war in iraq our armed forces have traveled a tough road since we invaded iraq they shouldered a heavy burden with pride with confidence and with honor we've asked extraordinary things from them at every turn and at every turn they've delivered they have done us all proud they face tough situations and have done their duty now we need to do what's right for them time to face the tough situations it's time to make the hard choices to make them proud of us and it's time to remove them from the civil war in iraq to change course to refocus as this bill does regis tribute our resources to those areas that truly address the threats facing our families and our country america soldiers sailors airmen and marines are always there when we call on them the question is will we be there for them what this legislation proposes is as simple as it is right it would choir's that our forces in iraq target operations against al qaeda and other international terrorist groups why is this important because al qaeda has declared war against us we know that the people of iraq are in the middle of a civil war as something that they now have to address and come to terms with and bring their own resources to address so why our troops are in iraq they should be targeting those who have said they wish to do harm to us also our troops in iraq would be required to focus on providing security for u s personnel vcore and that's externally nesses kerry in order to bring them home safely now i understand that the iraqi security forces are still developing still learning as i have met with them in traveling to iraq we have heard certainly the continual need to train the need for them to continue to develop and we know that we have a role in supporting that and this bill recognizes that fact it would allow our troops to continue to train iraqi security forces but only if our troops are training the iraqis that have not been involved in the sectarian violence or attacks against our troops bill would also allow our troops to continue to train the iraqi security forces but only if that training does not result in our troops being in combat training yes but they need to step up at this point after five years and to be the ones at the front line this bill also brings our troops home safely it specifically allows our military to train in the clip itself to ensure their safety and most importantly it requires that we begin to bring our troops home madam president this administration said the surge was necessary that the surge would give the government of iraq the time to reach the political solutions necessary to end their civil war and to end the violence they said time was needed well the government has had time and during this time our troops have continued to pay the price our troops have been caught in the middle of a civil war they've been victims of i d's they have come home with post traumatic stress syndrome and other mental and physical ailments and the bottom line is it's time for our troops to be place first and to begin to bring them home that's all this bill does is it does that while allowing our troops to continue to focus on who we all agree upon is the real enemy al qaeda and i'm president on october eleventh two thousand and two i was proud to be one of twenty three members of this body who stood in this chamber and said the war was the wrong choice administration i believe since that time has in fact failed our troops and the american people by committing our troops to a war without a clear reason or goal and by squandering resources that are desperately desperately needed here at home to rebuild america to invest in american communities this administration has failed our troops by not having a clear mission for armed forces in iraq by not providing the proper equipment and body armor and logistical support for the troops planning on the invasion in iraq and the lack of planning for how to secure the country and what would happen after the initial attack and i believe they have failed by sending our brave men and women back into harm's way over and over again without the proper rest between redeployment history will be a hard hard drug judge of this administration because i believe they have failed the american people this is ministration fail because they took their eye off the ball this legislation is about putting our eye back on the target of what we ought to be doing together is very important in closing let me say to we emphasize the fact that while the most important thing is to be supporting our troops is to be addressing there the threats to them and the fact that they are in harm's way the lives lost the people who are coming home that will need help the rest of their lives but it's also important to look at this from the standpoint of the precious resources that have been lost at a time when so many american families are struggling we always make decisions based on values and priorities and it is shocking to me as we have seen this war go forward to see upwards some say twelve billion some people say now fifteen upwards of fifteen billion dollars a month not part of the normal budget just going to wreck the on the national deficit national debt to be paid by our children and grandchildren but it let's say it is fifteen billion dollars and want to see that continue month after month after month to see us work together on a bipartisan basis to pass a critically important piece of legislation to increase health care for children for ten million children across this country which costs only seven billion dollars a year and yet that is vetoed there's not a willingness to invest in american children to the tune of less than half of what it's costing per month in iraq these are the wall values and wrong priorities we see schools being rebuilt in iraq and yet i can go into too many schools in michigan where there is a bucket in the corner to catch the water dripping from the roof or we don't have the kind of computer technology in the classroom that every single child will need to know how to use in any job that they get from working at a gas station to working at a technology company we know that we have crumbling roads and bridges here in america we know that every time we invest in rebuilding america those are jobs that aren't going to be art outsourced to another country those are american jobs rebuilding american roads and american bridges and it was her in sewer systems in america and yet we're told we can't do that there are not the resources to invest in america but we are spending fifteen billion dollars a month in iraq we now know that we have a whole nother group of industries called green collar jobs and i'm very proud of work that joining with many of my colleagues to focus on the new alternative energy technologies things that we need to do small investments w huge results for energy independence and creating more jobs and addressing global warming and yet we consistently hear there are not the resources for any new investments here in america are so many areas where we are told no no money for doing the bold research we need to solve alzheimer's and parkinson's disease and to aggressively move forward and other health research desire not to help those who lost their jobs because of trade be able to go back be able to get the training that they need to be able to move on to new kinds of jobs so that we have a middle class in this country and their families can pay their mortgage and lectured bill and heating bill and know that they have the opportunity to keep their standard of living in our country there's a lot at stake and this focuses on what we need to do to change the mission to refocus on ways to truly keep us safe to begin to bring our troops home from iraq from a civil war where we need to leave and redirect our troops to those areas where in fact we will be focusing on the real threats to our country that's on the surface that is what this legislation does but i would suggest it does more than that madam president because this is about who we are as americans what our priorities are number one how to make sure we are truly smart enough to be focused on what keeps us safe and number two understanding that we have much to do here in our country our families are feeling squeezed on all sides to munity is need help and we have an opportunity to not only redirect our troops and our focus but to critical critical dollars to be able to make sure in fact we are finally putting the interests of american families first i would urge my colleagues to support this important thank carolina yes i think the senator from oklahoma will return just in a moment and if it would be appropriate i'd like to suggest that he go i think you'll go next fall about my myself of a democrat senator sessions that generally ok there thank you well i'll get started senator coburn i think has been to iraq just a week or so ago and look forward to hear what he's got to say about the conditions on the ground as he found it and to my friend senator feingold one thing i think all of us should agree upon is that you've pushed this deal of withdrawing from iraq for a very long time there's no question in my mind that you're very sincere that you believe it makes america stronger not weaker and that if the polls were ninety two and the stay you'd be doing this simple because that's what motivates you as a senator and i have nothing but the utmost respect for what makes you tick as a senator i know you take on some very difficult challenges sometimes not popular and  particular piece of legislation i think is ill advised and now will speak for a while oh as to why it should be defeated but the author of the amendment is consistent as a patriotic as anybody else who will speak and we need more of this not less so what is the senate all about we're about talking about important things there are a million things going on in this country that to be addressed but i think taking some time to talk about iraq where we're at and where we're going to go and how we're going to get there is probably time well spent i think most americans are very interested in the outcome in iraq and having just returned from iraq i think senator coburn can give want to express my respect for the sense from wisconsin we have a lot of things we agree on this happens to be something that we adamantly disagree on but i appreciate as someone who pushes the limits in this body his desire to have this debate because i think it's important just heard the senator from michigan talk and the statement would have been a fairly accurate reflection two years ago but it is nothing to do and it's not even anywhere close to what is ongoing in iraq today i think the case could have been made two years ago that iraq was near in a civil war nobody who has visited iraq in the last two months can make that claim it's not there you know outside of the green zone i met with people whose daughter had been murdered by al qaida i met with people whose father had been murdered i met with both sunni and shia in the same village in multiple villages who had reconciled because they reject the terrorism of al  there is no question lots of mistakes have been made with the iraq policy but the claims under which we tried to describe iraq today in light of how it was twelve months ago are fictitious at best and damaging probably in terms of what the truth is do we find ourselves in a very difficult situation absolutely but and is this an expensive war absolutely and would we all like to not be where we are i think almost everybody would agree to that but probably the more important question for me is where are we today compared to where we were twelve months ago and have in fact the mistakes of the past been reflected in policies that have changed and bode for a greater future absent additional mistakes and the senator from wisconsin's desire to have us out in a way that limits our exposure is something that i would love to be able to see but the practical nature of what he wants to accomplish couldn't be accomplished in less than one thousand to twenty four months but just couldn't do it couldn't happen if you go and talk to the military could happen without us leaving tons of quitting but the point is we shouldn't dwell on that the point is is did we make the necessary changes that can create an outcome that gives us an honorable exit from the situation and doesn't leave a genocide behind and i and i kind of firmly believe having traveled prior to this one was six months before the surge and i want to tell you the difference is like night and day everywhere i went to a duplicated places where i'd gone before and outside of it so with the earnestness that the senator from wisconsin drives his position we ought to reflect well on what has been accomplished i also find it very disingenuous to talk about the cost of this war by the person who sponsored more legislation and greater government spending than anybody in this body and one hundred ninth congress in the first session of this congress the fact is is three hundred forty nine billion dollars worth of news pending was co by the senator from michigan last year turned forty nine billion dollars this the same senator that voted to fund the bridge to nowhere so to make a claim on fiscal issues about the war now i happen to agree we ought to be paying for the war we ought to be paying for the war by a lemonade and ways really could pay for the war by eliminating wasteful spending i would direct you to the the reader's digest this last month where they estimate a trillion dollars that were missed and either not collecting are not in wasteful spending and that's it an underestimate so for us to make a claim on the fiscal nature by the person who's conned co sponsored more spending than anybody in this said is we had a debate and we actually funded the search it actually happened and we ought to talk about what happened with that to it is phenomenal the difference and i will tell you i'm very i have we lost a soldier this last week from ardmore oklahoma a nineteen year old soldier killed by an i he how can it be that we can continue to do this unless we're doing it for the right reasons and the right cause i believe if we walk away no matter how we got there rightly or wrongly if we walk away what i see happening from my experience in iraq in one thousand nine hundred three after the first gulf war and before this one as a medical missionary here's what i see happening  if we do what the senator from wisconsin wants us to do and we effectively carry this out i see an unstable northern iraq i see a war between iran turkey and the kurdistan i see a marked civil war between shia and sunni with involvement of the sunni triangle sunni crescent i see these total destabilization to the middle east but beyond all that what i see is a tremendous additional tragedy that we will have the impacted on of the people of iraq and in the deaths of five hundred thousand to a million more people and the question ought to be is do we have a moral obligation to fix what we started the assessment of the senator from wisconsin is that we can't fix it and so therefore we have to come home and we ought to get out and that is that it was a mistake to begin to begin with it doesn't matter what's happened in the past other than we learn from it the question is what can we do about the future and i want to tell you you know i just don't buy everything the pentagon says i'm pretty critical across their spending across everything else queues them aligned with me on the training of iraqi troops in two thousand and six but when you see what has been transformed in the training of troops in iraq which is comparable to our training of our own troops over the same period of time and what they've accomplished both in terms of synergism with both their equipment their military leaders and their troops and they walk out of training as a unit sunni and and she together and you see that and you say we're going to walk away from it we're going to what we're not going to finish it we're going to allow this thing to collapse and it will and so then the question is is have we made another mistake in not fulfilling an obligation in something that we started i don't believe we can do that and if we do that i think the blood of every iraqi th displaced or dies after that is on us not on the taliban not on al qaeda not on shia extremists not on sunni extremists but on us we can win we will w we can create there is political progress all across the board local and at the regional government and at the national government level i would remind the members of this body how long it took us to get a functioning government a truly functioning government after our independence one that was based on a constitution one that was based on the rule all it wasn't smooth sailing and we didn't do it in a short period of time and we didn't get it right when it comes came to equal rights of individuals we're going to get it right and yet we're frustrated with that i see a new day in iraq isn't not over it's not not dangerous it's still very dangerous but the the progress the improvement that the reconciliation between see it shia and sunni is unbelievable is in stark contrast to what was there a year and a half ago think about the message it says if we're not going to create a stable iraq what it immediately do they do what they immediately do is start going to their own intrinsic ethnic corner we divide we send the kurds one way we send the shia one way we send the sunni one way we create a whole accost i want to say publicly that i've had a lot of misgivings about what our country has done in the middle east but i have no misgivings at all at this time about the course that we're on the leadership of general petraeus the leadership of ambassador crocker the leadership of people within iraq shakes within small communities who are risking their lives every day to stand up and say i'm going to join hands with the sunni i'm going to join hands with the sh i'm going to reject outside and we're going to get our lives back together that's happening that's a dynamic that is forcefully happening because people want peace this will eliminate that movement this will create insecurity this will drive people to their corners this will drive people to their extreme positions and in fact what we have accomplished in the last twelve months will be denuded and neutered out to the point where we will have created a worse situation rather than a better one to the soldiers and the families who have sacrificed so much in this war i say thank you for my family the real problem the real problem is that the administration mistake they made is we should all be sacrificing for this war not just our military families we've refused to do this we've refused to do that as members of the senate by making sure that we pay for this war by getting rid of things that are lower priority get rid of things that are wasteful get rid of things that are deeply we didn't do that we said we'll just charge it to our kids and we didn't we didn't ruffle any feathers and make the hard choices the senator from michigan said when we do things based on values and priorities that's baloney we don't do things based on value priorities we do things based on how we get reelected and that's the lowest and with the exception of the senator from wisconsin who is one of the most honorable men in this body he never thinks about that issue if thinks about what he thinks is right but the way we really do things around here is what is politically expedient not what is right and for her to claim that that's how we do things when we don't we can't even get rid of billions of dollars and duplicated programs we can't get rid of eight billion dollars where the buildings that the pentagon wants to get rid of because that might ruffle somebody some politicians feather somewhere we don't do things based on priority or on values we do that on political expediency so again i want to say thank you