let us pray of god our help in ages past our hope for years to come thank you for the gift of another day guide our senators in their labor give them the greats to work together in the strategic mix that is our legislative process make them such models of integrity that their actions will match they help them to resist the tendency to rely too much on their own wisdom as they permitted you to lead them to truth grant that their lives this day will be chair assigned robert c byrd president pro tempore majority leaders recognize following my remarks and those of the republican leader there be a period of mourning business for an hour with republicans controlling the first half majority controlling the final house following morning another day in iraq see from morning papers the washington post is a good example headlined suicide bomber his bus and racks north among other things our goal goes on to state a suicide bomber detonated his explosives belt explosives belt outside a bus in northern iraq on tuesday killing at least eight injuring many more different paragraph the talent for a bombing followed a bloody weekend of attacks can shape pilgrim taking place sunday a suicide bomber killed at least sixty three pilgrims near the southern town of this canada even as overall violence is following the recent attacks underscore the tenuous security environment killing the sunni volunteers was present this is one day and a half a billion dollars what's going on in iraq and what didn't pak does that have general casey testified here yesterday general casey said the cumulative effects the last six plus years of at war of left our army out of balance consumed by the current fight unable to do the things we know we need to do so mr president  that's where we are on the iraq debate today i will see some energy in a short time after i make a few other remarks and ask consented we have some idea today as to how we will proceed i would tell all senators that we will have some time today even either after the thirty hours or before a vote on the motion to proceed to the matter this now before the senate meeting after that no matter what happens on that we have a cloture vote on the second matter which is a as we all know that is a piece of legislation that calls for periodic reports by the president on the war on terror following that one that is disposed of we will go to the housing stimulus package and that's what i'd like to spend a few minutes on because we will get that sometime this week it's only question when we get to it is present the sites and signs of america's housing are all around us there is not a state in the union that doesn't feel the housing crisis a neighborhood streets dotted with one for sale sign after another and once we have one for sale sign or even worse bank has a foreclosure sign on it it affects the whole neighborhood my one of my boys lives in las vegas lives in a nice neighborhood the housing prices there in the last three months have dropped twenty percent twenty percent in las vegas last month there were more foreclosures than there were sales of new home this is very unusual because las vegas has been the fire that has burned for twenty years upward creating such an economic a strong point that it's all it's known as for twenty years the last rapidly growing state newnan in the struggles of construction workers are having trouble finding jobs construction workers are having trouble making the payments on their home in the desperation of hardworking people the way they've been talking to bad mortgages and now seeing their homes just slip away every day day new statistics eliminate the death of this growing crisis a crisis mr president is every lance corporal drew weaver specialist keesha morgan so mr president i would ask consent that my remarks i just mention about the three dead american soldiers appear following my statement iraq that i just completed without mr president the statistics illuminate the depth of this growing crisis in the housing market today associated press reported the number of homes facing foreclosure across our country grew by fifty seven percent in the month of january after peggle year ago we also now know that the sales prices lost almost ten percent in the final quarter of last year and i'm sure this quarter is going to be even worse now the last quarter marked the steepest drop in the twenty twenty year history of the standard and poor's housing index the crisis in nevada i've mentioned briefly last month we saw the rate of foreclos rise ninety five percent from the previous year in reno sparks six hundred eleven percent now who suffers from these foreclosures families on the homes of course they do but they aren't the only ones it's the whole neighborhood those who live near foreclosures families who have done nothing wrong ix they've paid their bills on time or seen the value of their property cept the center for responsible lending is estimated that forty million neighboring homes will experience a loss of equity if the expected foreclosures materialize that would likely lead to a total decline of more than two hundred billion dollars in home equity and some say that's very very conservative this could mean more than three billion dollars in lost for nevada alone and if that's not bad enough for homeowners it's very bad for local governments have already been forced to cut service is a result the shrinking tax base one example washoe county that's reno is facing a twenty six million dollars cut to its local budget and they say it's mainly due to housing crisis twenty six million dollars to washoe county is a lot of money these numbers are staggering we all know that the housing crisis isn't just about statistics about families i have had in the stay nevada mr president six mobile resource centers right bring in people and we do advertising let them know we're going to be there to bring in experts we have service people who service the loans there we have credit counselors we have representatives from f have a wide ranging expert here to talk to these desperate people to see if anything you'd be done to help and there are some things that can be done to help these centers but borrowers and mortgage services together so they can have a conversation about how to help homeowners facing foreclosure mr president the stories that they tell are heartbreaking i could tell lots of stories but the one stands out in my mind is a man by name of what extraordinary challenges this man and his family face he's a marine veteran of the iraq war he has three children three little girls like thousands of others of these heroes returning from iraq and afghanistan the war took its toll on him he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and is recovering from many surgeries related injuries he sustained in iraq as a result of injuries he suffered in service to our country his family was forced for time to rely on the income from his wife's part time job and remember three little girls fell behind in a mortgage payment that doesn't surprise anyone he called his lender was told it was his responsibility to pay the l they were willing to work with him at all told him to sell the home get an apartment all across the country people just like elizardo look to us for help far too many cases people like him saw their mortgage payments skyrocket after the interest rate on their reset the combination of a sudden loss of income combined with a dramatic increase in the monthly payment is lethal for any homeowner these are the families that the legislation will get to hopefully sooner  later but this week would help this legislation we have is not for speculators it's not for speculators who lost a bet we're going to bail out lenders who underwrite mortgages counselors together to form the hope now alliance and project lifeline these efforts should help but mr president it is such a tiny bit of help and they are all voluntary they fall fully short some estimate that less well some of the estimates are less than three percent of at risk families will be reached under these proposals less than three percent we have to help ninety seven half percent that won't be reached  this legislation before us does that will keep families in their homes by increasing preferred foreclosure counseling funds expanding refinancing opportunities mending the bankruptcy code to allow more home loans and primary residence the modified businesses by making it easier for them to utilize losses incurred in two thousand and six two thousand and seven two thousand and eight set prior years income to recoup previously paid income taxes this is the provision that was in our previous stimulus package that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle stopped this move forward on this one homebuilders like very very much the legislation is before the senate shortly will help families like foreclosure in future by improving loan disclosures during the red origin alone refinancing promise process and one of the provision this present was also in our package that we had that my friends good friends on the other side of the aisle defeated was one that the president called for in a state of the union message revenue bonds to help people get into some of these homes are being foreclosed upon title for the station make changes to the bankruptcy cod these changes would allow bankruptcy judge to modify the terms of the mortgage on a primary residence only under very limited circumstances limited in scope and duration only families can pass a strict means test bankruptcy and are currently struggling with adjustable loans already exist or eligible for relief that's all there are limits to the modifications judge can make to the interest rate term and prints a lot of the mortgage we do not aim to drive struggling families into bankruptcy with this proposal no one should abuse the code to get out of debts they owe the means test provided in this legislation should prevent that from happening this present remember the reason this is necessary today if you have for example in las vegas you want a home down an ocean front  malibu and you buy that and finance go back you can go to bankruptcy court and they can the bankruptcy court can readjust that loan on your vacation property your second home but not on your primary residence and that's not the way it should be we're also article getting real about the rescue mess what it's about and they go on to stay how important is that we do this stimulus package but especially we do this bankruptcy provision this editorial says among other things that the bankruptcy if the bankruptcy provision becomes law as it should lenders will have a powerful incentive which they currently do not have to modify troubled loans voluntarily if they can't or won't come to new terms of borrowers then they would run the risk a bankruptcy court would do the modifying for them but most of all is to present i repeat independent experts agree that any increase in costs be nonexistent meanwhile this modified bankruptcy language could help more than two hundred thousand families and lloyd foreclosure i would stabilize the housing market prevent future perhaps deeper losses to families investors and that's so important if we don't we have to do that's why we have to act the may be no perfect solution to the growing housing crisis but to stand back and do nothing would be a real mistake the legislation that will shortly be before us will make a real difference to homeowners neighborhoods and our economy more than seven hundred thousand families will benefit from the policies in this measure eighty thousand vacant foreclosed homes will go back to productive use thirty thousand jobs and ten billion dollars in economic activity will be created so i hope that my colleagues will join us to support cloture  motion proceed in this matter so we can pass the legislation bring relief to hundreds of thousands of which is a bill to provide for the safe redeployment of u s troops from iraq after the cloture vote i made a proposal that we would have post closure bait for a period of time a specific group time created motion and then go to the bill and once we complete action on this past two six three three would have the cloture vote on the motion proceed to the next matter that talked about earlier today that consent was rejected so now mr president i ask consent all post cloture time be altered back in the motion proceed particular juncture was not the decision of the minority and nevertheless having put the iraqi issue back before the senate there are number of members of my conference many of whom who have been to iraq recently who were actually discuss date undeniable progress that has occurred in iraq over the last six months we had a good discussion yesterday i have more members who would like to continue the discussion today there is obviously an opportunity later in the morning of this afternoon to discuss further with the majority leader of the possibility of shortening the time but for the for the moment there are a number of senators on my side of the aisle who are anxious to discuss the progress in iraq happy to have the debate  for the time being  friend let me just say briefly the matter before us they find gold withdrawal amendment as in basically the form that's that it's before us had been voted on four times before each of the times that was voted on in the past one could argue that things were going less well in iraq than they are today the highest number of votes  the feingold withdrawal proposal has received at any point in these four votes as twenty nine votes it will be sure to be voted on defeated wants again and it certainly should be because now we've had  six months or so undeniable progress on all fronts they security situation is dramatically improved even on the political side where i think members on both sides were year they are finally making some progress on the government side as well as the undeniable progress on the security side at this point not just brought about strictly by american troops but also the sons of iraq the e people who have decided to defend their neighborhoods and defeat help us defeat al qaida have grown dramatically and in terms of numbers and commitment so there is as i  indicated a lot of interest on our side and continuing to at least point out the progress that's been made in iraq both in terms of security and on the political side and so we'll have that discussion  later into the morning in the majority leader and i'll have an opportunity at that later in the day to discuss where we go from here mr president the floor during the previous order the leadership time is reserved under the previous order there will be a period of mourning business for sixty minutes with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each with the time equally divided and controlled between the two theaters are there designees with the republicans controlling the first half and majority controlling the final seeks recognition by the president senator from tennessee mr president thank you for the opportunity speak for a few minutes this morning and while i'd like to speak about health care and some of the comments just made about the stimulus package that's going to be debated apparently in the coming days i'd first like to make mention of the tornado damage that's occurred in our  state we have officially thirty two deaths that made that number may rise certainly we've had numbers of people in our state that have gone without housing they've lost their warmly possessions they've lost family members mr president i'd like to say that in this time of grief for many people i think we've also seen something that has been been very uplifting after  certainly other disasters that have taken place in this country in recent times that are in some cases as bad i a sense of concern about whether our government is able to meet the needs of these  and team under the leadership of general basham and then the leadership of the various local agencies that deal with disaster have responded in incredible ways and i want to say mr president that in our stay at think what we have seen as an unprecedented cooperation that has taken place one that i think is going a long way towards causing people to see our government responding in a way very sponsible we've also  seen numbers of people who have given of their selves to help their neighbors we've had red cross personnel on the flight we've had salvation we've had lots of volunteers from various organizations around our state helping those in need mr branson i just want to say to you that it really has called me to feel great feel great about our leadership federally state and locally as it relates to responding to these people in times of need and now i know that this will continue we have sixteen counties right now that are under the federal disaster designation there may be more coming but my hat is off to all those who have been involved in helping people in this time of need mr president  refer just briefly to the stimulus package that was discussed by our majority leader have a great deal of respect for i was one of six things senators who voted against the last stimulus package which i thought was absolutely a waste of much money causing people around america to think that we were possibly doing something to help i noticed that all of the discussion around this crisis if you will that we're having in our country or this correction as some people might call it have focused on credit issues and i found it most interesting that as you might expect here in washington with help on the way we would do something totally unrelated  to the problem and instead sprinkle money all around america and ask people to spend it as quickly one as they could and we have a credit problem i will say that i hope that we might focus on the stimulus  stimulus on an appropriate way something that would create long term jobs and investment not spending by individuals which causes him in some cases even go further in debt but mr president to say that housing package that is getting ready to be before us in my opinion is an unmitigated disaster and i cannot imagine getting the twain judges and and people who borrow money in such a manner as to alter the relationship that people who borrow money have with those who lend them the money and this is one of those things that to me is is unbelievable that we would even discuss altering that relationship certainly on a voluntary basis this is something that might make some sense certainly companies that own money excessively in ways that are inappropriate need to be dealt with but to unilaterally decide that judges can alter the amount of money that people know to me is an unmitigated disaster and i hope that this bill will never see the light of day i hope that will join in making sure about health care and i am glad to see that i know a number of republicans have gathered around the notion of making sure that every american has access to health care i myself have offered off author  with senator byrd from north carolina number have a number of others have joined and i know that senator wyden from morgan has joined in with bob bennett of utah and they have altered a bill but i think we have a tremendous opportunity during this year to help shape the debate on health care legislation and ma sense is that in a very bipartisan way that in this next congress in zero nine we're going to have the opportunity to actually create health care legislation that focuses on the private sector that ensures that people have choice in order to maintain the quality of healthcare that they would like to say but my guess is mr president we have a tremendous opportunity and i just want to say  that i would like to join in with other senators on both sides of the aisle to ensure that we do those things great mechanisms to allow people that cannot afford health care today to be able to afford it but to do so in a manner that preserves choice preserve quality was our preserve the doctor patient relationship that now exists we've been able to do that in other ways dealing with seniors we've been able to do that starting with those people throughout our country that cannot afford health care at through medicaid programs obviously the focus of this effort needs to be again preserving the private sector means of delivering health care but mr president i just want to say to you that i am uplifted us in this body to come together and do something that the american people want to see want to see done but do so in a manner that actually preserves the best of our health care system and i just want to offer up  principal actors in the effort to try to combine the idea as some say universal access to other words private sector four words that usually don't go together and i agree with him if there one agenda item on the republican side of the aisle that we could all agree on this year ago that we would like to start this year it would be every american insured we would like to make it possible for every american family to have access to and to be able ford health insurance and i'd like to speak to that for just a moment first i'd like to comment on the majority leader's comments and the republican leaders  we respect the majority leader's right to set the agenda here on the senate floor he decided to bring up the iraq debate this week and to be brought up why doesn't he want to talk about i mean we were here yesterday we're here today i came down last night and talked about the fact that even though i've had differences with the president on iraq that we're moving in the right direction and we should say that to our enemy and say that to our troops and say that to a war our world that troops are coming out instead of going in that the mission is shifting province by province that we're identifying a long term but diminishing role in iraq and diplomatic efforts are stepped up those are basically the three recommendations the iraq study group which i wish the president had embraced he didn't embrace the report itself but he's headed in that direction and so we're glad to talk about it although i agree it would have been better to talk about the economy and  housing and we're ready to talk about that as well but if we're going to talk about housing and the economy we're ready to take action this year and we have some i would suspect some pretty big differences of opinion across the aisle we were able to agree on a stimulus package first we had to stop forty billion dollars in extra spending but then we were able to agree on the allowing individuals largely to keep their own money two point seven million tennesseans will receive a so called rebate this spring and the provisions that i like so well that i'm going to introduce legislation to make them permanent the small business provisions that in tennessee counties for example cheatham county four hundred different small businesses are eligible for this accelerated depreciation and expensing which allows that small business to keep more money to create more jobs and stimulate the economy in washington county and several thousand small businesses these are good provisions and a good start and i agree we should get on with the next steps to make sure we have a strong vibrant economy i mean this is the economy in the world that produces about a third of the money for just five percent of all the people the world live in our country produce about a third of the money we're in a slow down right now but there are steps we can take that to step it up and we would say on this side of the aisle that that would be a bigger bolder broader pro growth economic plan it would include such things as lower taxes for example making permanent the dividends capital gains in the state tax rate at fifteen percent or lowering the corporate tax rate from thirty five to twenty five so our companies can be competitive with the world and keep their jobs here instead of going overseas or simpler flatter tax giving tax payers the option of filing a one page return with a seventeen percent or so flat rate we would be for doubling funding on the physical sciences so we can keep our brainpower advantage so we can continue to grow jobs ears so they won't go to india and china that's part of a pro growth republican economic plan that would also attract significant in dependence and democratic support we would like to continue to in source brain power by giving green cards to foreign students who are legally here and who want to stay here and work creating jobs here instead of going back to india or ireland or china and creating jobs we'd like to make the research and development tax credit permanent so companies can create more jobs here rather than overseas we'd like to reward outstanding teachers and outstanding school leaders we can debate that we would like to give pell grants to low income kids so they can have more choices of of schools we'd like to and we'd like to implement the american competes act which we agreed on in a bipartisan way we'd like to lower energy costs by more conservation and nuclear power we'd like to lower the cost of government by fewer rules and regulations and as senator corker was talking about we'd like to lower health care costs as i said the words that we could most easily agree on on this side of the aisl there might not be so much objection over there either is every american insure and that's a step by step process to get to that goal we have eight hundred thousand tennesseans without health insurance we have forty four forty seven million americans without health insurance and we're at a time in our nation's history where distinguished journals of medicine such as the institute of medicine report of the new england journal of medicine or the two thousand and seven trust for america's health according report says today's children are likely to be the first generation to live live shorter less healthier lives in their parents that's a health care crisis for our country and at the same time the most rapidly growing part of the federal budget is spending for medicare and medicare caid it's growing so rapidly that we can't sustain it so we need an overhaul of our health care system we need to lower health care costs for the average family so each family can have at least a basic be able to afford at least a basic health insurance policy that doesn't go away when they lose their job on the way to loring health care costs and giving every american access to such a health care insurance policy are several pieces of legislation many of them bipartisan which we could pass this year the kerry ensign so called epe or scribing bill that would provide for electronic transmittal of prescription information from the doctor to the pharmacist that could pass this year in addition to that we could pass the small business health act this year senator enzi has been the leader on this he's worked out a compromise and basically this would allow small businesses to pool their resources so they could offer health insurance to their employees and an affordable rate to do the same thing that big businesses can do senator enzi estimates that that could and insurers to more than a million americans who are not now insured senator martina's has introduced legislation to get rid of to help get rid of fraud in medicare and medicaid billions of dollars  are wasted there it would lower health care cost to pass senator martinez is legislation and senator gregg has offered legislation which isn't bipartisan but deserves to be i hope it can be but what it says is it would put limits on the punitive damages from lawsuits against doctors who serve mothers pregnant women who are having babies what has happened has been that that medical malpractise insurance has gone sky high over one hundred thousand dollars a year because of lawsuits in some states and as a result of that the doctors are leaving the rural areas and the pregnant women are having to drive forty fifty sixty miles for prenatal health care or to deliver their babies because the doctors aren't there anymore and in a few places such as mississippi such as texas i believe kentucky is well steps have been taking to say those laws are damage you can collect but there's a limit on the punitive damages in those states where the rules have been changed doctors are moving back into those states and back into rural areas so that also lowers health care costs so i'm here today mr president to say that speaking as a co sponsor of three different health insurance bills which i hope will move us toward the idea of every american insured senator coburn senator burr senator corker have one of those bills i'm a co sponsor senator wyden and senator bennett have another of those bills that has six republicans and six democrats i don't agree with every part of the wyden bennett bill specifically the mandates from the beginning but i agree with the spirit of what they're trying to do i think most americans like the fact that they're working across the aisle to try to make real the idea that every american can have access to health insurance and that they're willing to include and we would say emphasize the private sector in that solution so we have a whole year here this is a presidential year that doesn't mean we should take a vacation we got off to a pretty good start with the emulous package we got off to a very good start with the intelligence bill unfortunately the house took a vacation without acting on it i'm here to suggest that republicans are ready to join with democrats and take steps this year to ten minutes thank you been here before very simply stated the senate has voted to reject measures similar to this bill at least three times over the past year the only thing that has changed since we have had those votes is that conditions on the ground in iraq have continued to improve as a result of the president's new strategy even the opponents of the surge have had to acknowledge that it is in fact working in the midst of this progress and of al qaida has continued retreat in iraq the senator from wisconsin would have a surrender to an enemy that is on the run understand his concern for the welfare of our soldiers and for those who have sacrificed in iraq but the way we pay tribute to those who have sacrificed into our brave men and women who are still fighting in iraq today is to finish what we started so that we honor them and bring those who are still in iraq home victorious and not defeated if we're trying to reverse the progress we've made in iraq embolden our enemies and the enemies of the iraqi people and ensure that our mission fails probably could not have crafted a better bill than the senator from with what the senator from wisconsin is cray that as a result of the u s troop balance has reached this lowest level since the insurgency began and there's been a large increase in iraqi security forces trained and equipped today that stands at about four hundred forty thousand men in just the last year ethno sectarian related deaths have decreased ninety five percent suicide attacks in baghdad have gone from twelve a month in january of last year to just four last month a sixty six percent decrease attacks have decreased in seventeen of the eighteen provinces in iraq and i e d detonations are down by forty five percent in baghdad itself security and stents country country whatt and in the ten baghdad security districts the coalition forces to disrupt the a q our operations along barnow will be transferred to iraqi security control in the near future bringing ten of the eighteen provinces in iraq under the sole control of iraqis a q at tempted to shift operations to baghdad and the surrounding northern provinces but the alon barr awakening movement prompted other awakening movement same concern local social groups began to spring up all attacks despite disruptions of its networks these successes cannot bind to eighty a q as blandest of a q as abilities are to their resolve in attacking americans kurdish areas in northern iraq where the safest in iraq a year ago but today a q as taking advantage of this safety by stablish ing around mosul and launching attacks against the population this is an area where u s troops  used sparingly and my humble opinion that is no coincidence u s operations for stake you add it all on bar restricted their operations in baghdad and they are now moving to more rural areas with less u military if this legislation passes and our troops must withdraw from iraq a q s will have the freedom to terror as the rest of iraq and beyond the director of national intelligence stated that he is increasingly concerned that is we inflict significant damage only in irak it may shift resources to manning more attacks outside of iraq although the ongoing conflict in iraq will likely up solar most of a q s resources of the next q as leverage this broad external networks including some reaching into europe in support of accidental operations forcing our troops out of iraq would result in a resurgent a q s who could mount from iraq attacks against americans and their allies security is not the only aspect in improving in iraq on the political front the council of representatives is taking steps to institute necessary legislations to help representatives passed three piece key pieces of legislation an amnesty law or prevent your powers of law in the two thousand and eight fiscal budget for the first time or acts main political parties comprised in order  compromised in order to support passage of these bills the prevent your powers will require the council to pass an election law within ninety days and for prevention elections to occur no later than october one two thousand and eight  are encouraging steps in spite of the fact that the eventual law was vetoed yesterday it is encouraging and i am very hopeful that we're going to see the differences reconciled in short order and that law will become permanent by limiting our military actions to specific areas this would ensure that every one of these successes and improvements in security are reversed in the midst of progress in iraq which no one denies and where the strategy that is working it simply does not make sense to tap the hands of the commanders on the ground and force them to implement a strategy which will lead to failure a strategy that in the best judgment of our military leaders our intelligence agencies and from the perspective of countless outside observers is stated will lead to the failure of our mission and the rapid deterioration of conditions in iraq and for the iraqi people mr president hopefully it is evident to people who are watching this debate and have examined the fan go bill that the strategy which inspires the provisions and limitations in this bill is not a military strategy it is a political strategy the tactics being used by those who would enact conditions and limitations on our involvement in iraq such as those contained in this bill are not based on strategic thought or analysis rather they appealed to a political base that has always opposed the war refuses to acknowledge the progress we're making and wants to see our mission failed political strategies for fighting wars such as the rhetoric some are now employing all have one thing in common they all result in failure they are short sighted politically motivated do not serve in a national security objective and most importantly are a disservice to the men and women who have been called into action and are on the ground in iraq mr president we are making progress in iraq the strategy our president and our military commanders have implemented is working we are receiving positive updates from our leaders in the field our leaders are adjusting their strategy in accordance with those developments on the ground as well as the realities back home they're doing this wisely not hastily or in response to opinion polls but in according according to good judgment and a realistic assessment of what will work what won't work and what is appropriate at this point in time the  below will stop our leaders ability to do this it will keep them from doing the jobs we sent them to do and that is to lead to decide to make judgments and to report back to us on their effectiveness most importantly it will keep them from completing the job we've sent them to perform this is unacceptable and for these reasons i urge my colleagues to vote against this bill mr president i would yield back morning business not be counted against any of the democratic time that has been set aside is without jackson senators were and i ride today to speak in opposition to pulling our troops out of iraq based on political timetables conceived in the united states senate i have voted against similar measures in the past i intend to vote against them again this week these bills do nothing more and tie the hands of our commanders on the ground while pandering to special interest here in the united states anti war groups these are the same commanders that are risking violence in iraq is at the lowest since the insurgency began suicide bombings are down seventy percent i e d attacks have been cut in half the surge is working since it began less than a year ago we have succeeded in putting al qaeda on the run wow rooting out the terrorists neighborhood by neighborhood in return iraqis have partnered with u s troops forming their own security forces and stabilizing their own neighborhoods these efforts have served to unite torn communities such as anbar province and pave the way for political reconciliation on the other side has said for months the surge has failed because it is because it is not created an environment for political process in iraq well they are wrong the correlation between the surge and security is obvious in the past few weeks as we continue to see the increased ability throughout iraq the iraqi government has made great political strides on feb thirteenth iraqi council of representatives passed three key pieces of legislation an amnesty law that to await budget and the provincial powers law these political milestones are made possible by sunni shia and kurds to each other and working to find solutions that represent all iraqis this is our commanders and our troops just last july the senate overwhelmingly supported by a vote of ninety four to three a sense of the senate a mendment stating that it is our national security interest that iraq not become a failed state and a safe haven for terrorist well wake up cutting and running from iraq will only benefit the terrorists while jeopardizing our national security and that of the iraqi people make no mistake iraq is the central battleground in our fight in the global war on terror this is not just my opinion has called iraq the central front in this war against america he knows that the premature withdrawal of u s troops from iraq will strengthen his terrorist organization unable to set up training camps in that country although it is been over six years since we have experienced a terrorist attack on u s we must never forget that there are those out there that wish to do is farm on a daily basis and those that wish to do us harm will benefit if we pull out of iraq and leave a failed state behind al qaeda and its allies  multiply in chaos of failed states with no rule of law our respect for human rights instead of debating a cut and run in iraq that has already failed on the floor of this senate we should be focusing on how to provide fenders of our freedom our commanders and our troops with the necessary tools to complete their mission last week i had the opportunity to meet with the new commanding general of the one hundred forced airborne at fort campbell kentucky located on the southern border between kentucky and tennessee the fort campbell community has felt the effects of sects of deployment and casualties over  hundred soldiers from fort campbell have given their lives for their country thousands of good men and women have spent tours of fifteen months away from their families some for some three others too and some one tours of fifteen from the one hundred first airborne in iraq speaking with the commanding general only reinforced my belief that we have some of the finest patriots serving in our nation's terry the brave men and women who answered the call to defend our nation and the family and communities who support them are our most valuable national asset i don't want to see their unbelievable efforts in iraq fail we as a nation have invested too much to hand a big victory to al qaida in iraq this political showed needs to end in april general petraeus will report back to congress on the state of our mission in iraq as united states senators that voted in support of his confirmation we owe him this opportunity to present his report to us instead of cutting him off at the knees right before his report we should show him the respect of listening to his report we  ill ban that has spent i want you to remember this has spent most of the last five years away from his family in iraq to see that freedom in america is preserved i urge my colleagues to join me and giving general petraeus this opportunity and opposing these bills thank you mr president and i yield the floor thanking our troops for their incredible sir it is to our country and the incredible work that they're doing i think that this congress by words and deeds has shown its support for our troops the budget that we passed last year provides the resources to take care of our veterans and the funds to take care of our active military that's what we should be doing but we had now been in iraq for many years several years  ago i was in iraq i had a chance to visit our troops and take a look at what was happening on the ground i saw then that we didn't have the right equipment there that the administration had sent our troops without having the right support i was proud the action the congress t providing the military support and type of equipment that our troops needed but the discussion what is best for our troops is whether we have the right mission in iraq this campaign is now entering its sixth year we've been in iraq longer than we were in world war two we have now spent high half a trillion dollars directly in our war in iraq almost four thousand americans have been killed almost thirty thousand have been wounded sixty seven marylanders of given their lives over four hundred have been injured many of these injuries are life changing i've had a chance to visit andrews air force bases are moans of soldiers come home unable to see first hand the type of injuries that they sustained and they're going to have to deal with that for the rest of their lives we look at the strength of al qaeda our experts tell us they're stronger today than they've ever been so we haven't accomplished our mission this war as dealing with the threat against the united states so let's talk about the facts in this capable conclusion is that president bush was wrong and sending our troops to iraq in the first place i'm proud that i voted against that authorization when but the primary need for american troops is to deal with the civil unrest that is currently taking place in iraq because the vice playing for his allies has been our deepest loss but also the dollars represent missed opportunity half a trillion dollars think about we could have done with that money to take a look at schools in baltimore that should be replaced we could have replaced every school with the money that we spent so our children to go to proper proper education we could have dealt with the energy crisis in this country built to transit systems we need so become energy independent so we're not depended upon foreign oil in the middle east we could have done something about the health care system in this country  dumontier driver a twelve year old died in prince george's county maryland because you couldn't get dental care you could have corrected that for the people of this country we're suffering in an economic downturn right now because we have large debt  accumulating because we're not only spending i have a trillion dollars not paying for it we're borrowing the money making even more dangerous for our economy so i know there's been a lot of debate on the floor about whether the president's surge policy has worked or  worked and i would tell you i think our soldiers are performing as i said earlier in a great manner you put american troops in a country they're going to do their job and they're going to provide the type of help to that country and do its communities that american troops are trained to do the problem is the mission is wrong and the surge has not worked in accomplishing a u s mission that's in the best interest of this country i remember when the president s because we're going to provide stability in the country so that the government can take control and we can bring our troops om that was the mission that's what we are trying to accomplish but we haven't accomplished that let's look at the facts look at the facts violence in iraq continues today majority leader mention the headlines and today's paper violence continues it's a dangerous country suicide bombers operate at will the troop levels which were spose to be reduced in january of two thousand and seven we had one hundred thirty thousand american troops in iraq today we have in excess of one hundred forty thousand there's now a pause in reducing our troop levels we haven't been able to reduce the troop levels and governance in the iraqi government representing the people of iraq they set their own benchmarks we didn't set them eighteen benchmarks only three have been accomplished so no we haven't accomplished the mission the president is stablished for why we needed our troops in iraq but it's take a look at our military and foreign policy experts they tell us that our military today is spread too thin that we aren't looking after the best interests of americans military interest talk to our people who run our national guards and reservists units i had a chance to meet with members of the maryland national guard they have again answered the call people from the maryland national guard  deployed regularly into iraq and afghanistan but i'm told today that we don't have the equipment or national guard to continue with the proper training missions because the equipment was left in iraq we have to replace that and recruitment going to be more against terror and we should have taken care of osama bin laden and afghanistan we done that and now afghanistan looks like it's moving in the wrong direction because we're not focusing on the threat which was terrorism instead we have our troops dealing with a civil war in iraq and there's no dispute disagreement among the foreign policy experts that america has lost its the ownership internationally and galvanizing the international community to help us in a war against terror we've lost that focus our mission is wrong the question though is where do we go from here well if we want to follow president bush's policy will have a permanent presence of american troops in iraq i think that's the wrong policy i believe the people of maryland in this nation believe it's a wrong policy the president's policies basically waiting out the burning out of the civil war you know the four million iraqis are displaced some in the country some outside the country that's not the right answer for the people of iraq and certainly not the right answer for u s policy so we have an alternative senator feingold has brought to us a resolution which i believe warrants our support it's the right mission for our troops and our nation flight terrorism for that that's what we should be doing protect our troops that's what we should be doing helping the iraqis in their training of their own their own military that's what we should be doing it focuses our mission with the best interest the united states we need a political solution not a military solution for the people of iraq feingold resolution acknowledges that we need the help of the international community we work best when we work with the international community and the international community is wondering what we're doing in iraq the final resolution does not place a time limit on the withdrawal of u s troops it's an honorable and orderly process for us to complete a mission in iraq i believe it's in the best interest of the united states i believe it's the right policy for our soldiers and i believe it deserves the support of this body and with that mr president i would yield the floor president wisconsin thank mr president thank senator cardin for his excellent remarks and his leadership on this issue has been very very helpful on a very tough battle that we have to keep fighting friends and we had an interesting debate yesterday on the two bills i have offered with the majority leader i know some of my colleagues expressed concern that we were spending too much time on this issue  for one am pleased that we were able to discuss one of the most pressing problems facing this country maybe now that they've allowed us to have this debate the republicans will allow us to actually consider and vote on these bills while i appreciate the chance to have this debate i would like to take this chance to respond to some of the statements that have been made on the other side i've actually been accused of quote legislating defeat in iraq unquote or other variations on that theme somehow to micromanage the job of the commanders actually mr president we've already accomplished our military mission in iraq removing saddam hussein i'm interested in achieving victory in the global effort to combat al qaeda now we have to make a choice the army chief of staff has been clear that quote the numbers of forces we have committed in iraq now increases increases our level of strategic risk unquote so what does that mean it means we must choose between letting the iraqi people resolve their sectarian disputes on their own or on the other hand exhausting our troops in iraq and losing ground in the global fight against al qaeda center in op said my bill demanding a strategy to defeat al qaeda wasn't needed because we already have a plan to defeat it failed to explain why though mr president if we already have a strategy to defeat al qaeda why is it that al qaeda has regenerated and reconstituted itself and is planning more attacks on our homeland admiral mullen has been quite clear that under our current strategy afghanistan is a second priority where we only quote do what we can unquote do what we can in other words we are so bogged down in iraq we don't have the forces to respond to the situation on the ground in afghanistan mr president if this is a strategy it sure isn't working which is why the majority leader and i want to require the administration to develop a plan that prioritizes the fight against al qaeda and protecting ourselves at home over over an endless war in iraq of claim that we do already have political reconciliation in iraq and we've seen benchmarks legislation in the iraqi parliament yes a db at the cation law as passed an amnesty law has passed and the provincial powers election power law passed yes we have seen movement in the iraqi parliament after waiting for more than four years it is my great hope that the laws recently passed will bring the sunni fully into the political process but as we well know mr president passing the law is one thing but actually seeing it successfully implemented is another particularly given the country's weak national government i think national reconciliation still looks far off the passage of what the administration is calling benchmark laws does not ensure society wide sectarian reconciliation there is still significant concern about how the local efforts we've supported to bring about a decline in violence will actually be integrated into the national framework illustrate this the sunni awakening mr president has taken tens of thousands of former insurgent sunni militia fighters and provided them with u s funding in exchange for helping combat al qaeda in iraq but to what extent we can rely on long term loyalties of these fighters is a very open question we do know however that this policy actually risks increasing distrust between the local sunni's and the national government which of course has led  primarily by shiites and i just like to ask if iraqis have agreed to political reconciliation as senator inhofe suggests well then doesn't that mean that we've achieved the objectives of the surge and we can start bringing the troops home when does the other side think we can bring the troops home they never talk about that five years ten years twenty years one hundred years what kind of success is that after more than four years of waiting for the iraqi government to make progress we have lost nearly four thousand americans with no end in sight and no clear path for reconciliation that incorporates all aspects and elements of iraqi society another argument we've heard then suggested that iraq would collapse or the genocide would occur if u s troops leave of course that assumes that our military presence there is actually helping the situation rather than simply postponing an inevitable day of reckoning if we bring our troops out of this quagmire iraqis and their neighbors would have to confront the crisis head on i am not calling for the united states to abandon iraq but there is simply no way we can fix the mess we've made without a legitimate political settlement u s redeployment would actually put new pressure on iraqis and on countries in the region to engage productively and to make a decision as to whether a full fledged civil war is really in the interest of iraq or its neighboring countries i suspect i really do feel strongly about this having looked at this issue for many years and both the foreign relations committee and the intelligence committee that if these countries were faced with that decision they would actually try harder to reconcile their differences peacefully rather than further ignite tensions some members of this body seem to believe that the war in iraq is between u s troops on the one side and al qaeda on the other that's really not what's going on in fact that's dangerous wishful thinking the recent patterns and violence in iraq actually confirm what the intelligence community has said all along that the war in iraq is sectarian interest sectarian and far from the over simplified us versus them that proponents of an endless military engagement in iraq continue to describe moreover in mixed areas like mosul violence is is actually increasing and in the the increased violence is among shiites and reduction in violence in areas like god bar which is almost entirely sunni or in baghdad where secretary cleansing has already occurred do not represent a diminishment of the underlying tensions that could explode at any time mr president contrary to what we heard yesterday iraq simply is not the central front on the war on terrorism the extent to which there is such a front in this very global conflict it is clearly pakistan and afghanistan no rational reading of press reports independent studies or our own intelligence could possibly conclude otherwise all the administration is focused on iraq al qaeda has reconstituted itself along the afghanistan pakistan border that sounds like a big mistake that sounds like a real strategic error on an international battle against terrorism and you have far too many of our people in our administration and my colleagues somehow believe that iraq is what it's all about what a terrible terrible strategic mistake early this month the  testified before congress that the central leadership based in the border area of pakistan is al qaeda is more dangerous component and just a few months ago the d n i again repeated the intelligence community's community's assessment that over the last two years quote central leadership has been able to regenerate the core operational capabilities needed to conduct attacks in the homeland in the homeland our homeland our country the united states of america the d n i also testified that al qaeda quote is improving the last key aspect of its ability to attack the us the identification training and positioning support of the taliban and providing it with a base similar to the one it used to have used to have across the border in afghanistan over the past year as we all know we've seen an unprecedented rise and suicide bombings in pakistan the taliban is gain ground in afghanistan and while we may be sending an additional three thousand two hundred marines to afghanistan in the near future we've been fighting far too long there with too few soldiers and too few reconstruction funds the price of that neglect is a dramatic resurgence of militants that must be urgently addressed just yesterday a washington post article noted that more foreign soldiers and afghan civilians died in taliban related fighting last year than in any year since u s and coalition forces the extremist islamist militia which ruled most of the country in two thousand and one military officials there expect the coming year to be just as deadly if not more so as the taliban the taliban becomes more adept militarily and more formidable in its deployment of suicide bombers and roadside explosives unquote with the joint chiefs saying in quote iraq we do what we must in afghanistan we do what we can it's no wonder afghanistan is teetering on the edge it has been neglected to the backburner so the president can pursue an open ended war in iraq remind my colleagues that it was from afghanistan as the president not direct afghanistan that the nine eleven attacks were planned and it was under the taliban regime which is once again gaining ground that was able to flourish so freely this is the actual position this is the actual situation in terms of this global fight against those that attacked us on nine eleven it's not all of iraq  again to the director of national intelligence own testimony represents a significant threat to the united states and european interests in the region uncool since its merger with al qaeda in september two thousand and six it has expanded it targets to include united states united nations and other interests and it likely got a further boost with al qaeda leadership announced last november that the libyan islamic fighting group united  leadership its possible reach mr president covers countries like tunisia morocco nigeria mauritania libya and other countries meanwhile it's using its deadly tactics that suggest it is  acquiring knowledge and help from the war in iraq basically a training ground for those that get exploited to attack us ok to has affiliates around the world and saudi arabia united arab t one of these development has been prevented by the war in iraq we cannot ignore the rest of the world to focus solely on iraq is and will continue to be a global terrorist organization with dangerous affiliates around the world the administration claims that al qaeda may be on the run but al qaeda is not abandon its efforts to fight us globally in fact we are watching al qaeda strengthen and develop its affiliates around the world while we remain in iraq can we be to allow them to reconstitute all over the world as they watch us unable to extricate ourselves from a mistake which was of course going into iraq the way we do we need a robust military presence and effective reconstruction program in afghanistan we need to build strong partnerships and its affiliates are operating across north africa and southeast asia along the borders between afghanistan and pakistan and we need to address the root causes of the terrorist threat not just rely on military power to get the job done mr president i'd like to turn out briefly to the impact of the iraq war on our military and national guard and there's nobody in the senate that cares more about this in the presiding officer i'll start by repeating what general george casey the chief of staff of the army said yesterday  congressional testimony quote the cumulative effects of the last six plus years at war have left our army out of balance consumed by the current fight and unable to do the things we know we need to do to properly sustain o volunteer force and restore our flexibility for an uncertain future unquote many u s troops currently in iraq as we all know are now in their third or fourth tours of duty proximately ninety five percent of the army national guards combat battalions and special operation units have been mobilized since nine eleven one point four million americans have served in iraq and over four hundred twenty thousand have serve multiple tours in iraq and afghanistan as i said before nearly four thousand of our men and women have been killed in iraq and over twenty seven thousand have been wounded the army cannot maintain its current pace of operations in iraq without damaging the military young officers are leaving the service at an alarming rate readiness levels for the army are at lows not seen since the vietnam war every active army grade currently not deployed is unprepared to perform its work time mission more than two thirds of active duty army brigades are on ready for missions because of manpower and equipment shortages most of which can be of course attributed to iraq there are insufficient reserves to respond to additional conflicts or crises around the world this failure to prioritize correctly has left vital missions unintended natural disaster response u s border security and international efforts to combat al qaeda are all suffering due to the strain on military forces caused by poor strategy and failed leadership in iraq in addition mr president thousands of our troops have as you well know returned home with invisible wounds such as  b i traumatic brain injury which will have a long term impact on veterans and their families these invisible wounds are not quote counted in the casualty numbers we will be struggling with them for generations mr president i haven't even touched on the massive debt we're running up to pay for this war we are spending approximately ten billion dollars a month in iraq congress has appropriated over five hundred twenty five billion dollars for this war in the debt keeps mounting we heard eloquent floor statement yesterday on this side about how these costs are affecting our ability to address other priorities i won't repeat all of what was said but i do want to note that the war in iraq keeps us from adequately addressing critical gaps in our homeland security and law enforcement while we had ninety two thousand more troops to the army and marine corps the city of new york is five thousand fewer fewer police officers on the beat and they did on september eleventh two thousand and one this year we will spend a fifth of our seven hundred  forty billion dollars national security budget on iraq twice what the federal government spends defending our nation meanwhile the administration wants to cut grants for first responders and the coast guard is struggling with an addict inadequate for si it just doesn't make sense mr president it simply doesn't make sense the american people know that which is why they voted the way they did last november more than sixty percent of americans are in favor of a phased withdraw they don't want to pass this problem to the next president rather congress and they sure don't want another american service member to die or lose a limb while elected representatives but their own political comfort over the wishes of their constituents polls continue to show that voters strongly oppose the war in iraq and that is one of the top issues they'll be voting on a recent washington post a b c poll found that sixty five percent of americans disapprove of the situation in iraq and fifty six percent disapprove strongly  poll also found that this is the second most important issues to voters in november behind the economy and jobs and a recent gallup poll showed a majority of americans fifty six percent do not believe the surge is working and want a timetable to get out of iraq now mr mr president senior senator from new york i ask unanimous consent that the quorum be dispensed with without objection morning business is closed under the previous order the senate will resume the motion to proceed to two six three three which the clerk will report motion to proceed to consider as twenty six thirty three a bill to provide for the safe redeployment of united states troops from iraq i ask unanimous consent the bill be considered as read without objection the motion to proceed is rent mr president senator from new york thank you mr president and today we are here to address the issue of the iraq war and many are saying well why should we address the iraq war again because obviously it is still going on there is still no direction in terms of political progress the shiites the sunni's in the kurds have still their age old amnesties the goals of the iraqi government set for this government set by this government for them have not been met but most of all mr president i think we're here to debate this issue least in my judgment because we are at a turning point in terms of the debate in iraq that turning point the case against this war has been building for a long time and as we debate this bill on iraq we are at a turning point in the argument against the war we have always been aware of the cost in lives both american and iraqi and we have known how severe that cost is and despite the good works of our troops were continually troubled by the tragic loss of life american people are baffled by the lack of political progress and mr president most of all the american people are beginning to comprehend the eye popping figures of what this war is costing our budget and our economy it is becoming clear to all americans republicans democrats and independen that by continuing to spend huge amounts on iraq we are prevented from spending on desired goals and needs here at home so the turning point is this the lack of progress particularly on the political front continues the tragic loss of life continues but the cost of the war and the inability to use those funds to help us here at home the cost of the war in the inability to use those funds to properly go after the most dangerous nexus of terror which is a thousand miles to the east afghanistan pakistan iran is now becoming a clinching argument that we must quickly and sulu change the course the direction of this war in iraq mr president i went to iraq over new years i spent time with our soldiers they're wonderful they're all and spiraling could we have order mr president the troops are all inspiring from the private i met just that a high school who'd enlisted eight months previously and who was in iraq three weeks from queens to the majors and captains had served ten years in the army or the marines and had made the military their life's work they see a greater good than just themselves it's wonderful all the way to the generals i spent time with general petraeus a new year's eve dinner i spent time with general odierno and they are fine intelligent good people when i went to iraq i assured our soldiers from the privates to the generals that one good thing that would come out of this war is that the esteem that we hold both the military and our soldiers in would be greater when the war finished than when it started a far different cry than the vietnam war when one of the more disgraceful times in america our soldiers were often too often vilified for simply serving their country but after i left iraq i came to this conclusion mr president and that is that even if we were to follow general petraeus as game plan which of course involves not just military success and security but winning the hearts and minds of the people over it would take a minimum of five years and have about a fifty percent chance of success of bringing stability not democracy but at least ability to large portions of iraq and that's not the military's fault and that's not america's fault that's because of the age old amnesties with back sunni's shiites kurds and then within the groups themselves that would be very hard to create a permanent stability without a permanent and large structure of troops now i asked you stability in iraq a worthy goal but is it on your top five list for america is it on any americans top five list a few maybe not the vast majority we have many other higher goal that cost the same dollars need the same attention and energy that is now diverted to iraq our education system is declining our health care system doesn't cover people we're paying three dollars and thirty cents for gas because we don't have an energy policy and even if your goals are just foreign policy shouldn't we be taking the time and effort that is all now focused on iraq as well as the dollars and spending more focus on the dangerous triangle composed of pakistan iran and afghanistan of course we must ask ourselves is it wor spending trillions of dollars needed elsewhere on such an uncertain and unpredictable outcome and so the debate is changing the costs of  the simple costs alone are weighing too heavily on the american people the american government our national purpose for a goal while admirable is hardly the most important goal we have in this changing and dangerous an exciting world that we live in the cost of the war has become the eight hundred billion dollar gorilla in the room the backbreaking cost of this war to american families the federal budget and the entire economy is becoming one of the first things after a loss of life people think about a report issued by the joint economic committee which i chair estimated that the total costs of the war will double what the administration has spent directly on the war alone one point three trillion dollars through two thousand and eight and that is a conservative estimate according to budget figures in iraq spending for two thousand the bush administration wants to spend four hundred thirty million dollars a day on iraq for one day of the war in iraq we could enroll an additional fifty eight hundred thousand children in head start per year we could put an additional eight thousand nine hundred police officers on our streets per year we could hire another ten thousand border patrol agents per year we could make  college more affordable for one hundred sixty three thousand students per year we could help nearly two hundred sixty thousand american families keep their homes per year in the fiscal near of two thousand eight we put one hundred fifty nine billion dollars into iraq that doubles our entire domestic transportation spending to fix roads and bridges it warps all the funds we provide to the national institute of health to discover cures for diseases like cancer and diabetes arac spending is seven times our spending to help young americans get a college education the costs are mountainous this changing world where we have to fight to keep america number one we cannot afford such costs as i said despite the great effort that our soldiers are putting into iraq now tomorrow morning mr president we have the joint economic committee i see my colleague from virginia here he's on that committee with me to hold our first congressional hearing of the year and it will be appropriately devoted to the skyrocketing cost of the iraq war i will be on the joint economic committee we're going to have nobel prize winning stiglitz got information out of the government and out of the pentagon after much long work and has new estimates that make our estimates of the joint economic committee seem small three trillion dollars that's the title of his book and he's going to talk about the cost of this war we're going to have national security experts like bob hormats and rand beers discuss their views on how the out of control cost of the war have impacted our economy our reputation abroad our military strength and readiness and the future of our children our j e c report estimated one point three trillion but dr stiglitz and he's talked to the experts from the pentagon has even more massive numbers so we desperately need a change of course in iraq that's what this amendment calls for it calls for limiting what our troops will do to force protection of course to training the iraqi army to fighting al qaida and fighting terrorism but not to be in the middle of a civil war where we continually police the age old mts of the various factions in iraq and mr president history will look upon this iraq war in two ways it will admire the bravery of our soldiers from the privates to the generals and it will be amazed at the mistakes made by this administration in starting and continuing this war far too expensive and the loss of life president mr president i rise today to strongly oppose any senate amendment that would require the immediate and arbitrary withdrawal of u s forces from iraq this amendment is just the latest attempt in a year long effort to constrain the ability of our general and our brave men and women in uniform to fight the more effectively during the past year the u voted over forty times on bills to limit the general's war strategy not one has become law or even come close since this is simply line of votes started in february two thousand and seven is situation in iraq has changed considerably and it is changing for the better while some senators were insisting that the war was lost in two thousand and seven general petraeus was in the process of implementing a strategic readjustment that has produced remarkable progress on the battlefield it has been said on the floor we need to change the direction we are changing the direction we are changing the strategy and mr president we are going in the right direction mr president i got back from iraq two days ago i thought for myself the enormous military gains that we have achieved in that country while in baghdad i put on a suit of body armor i traveled in an m where vehicle with our troops through the streets of baghdad and and i was able to go to a police station where we have invested troops there i met with general petraeus embassador crocky crocker and troops from di's air force base fort hood the red river army depo and others from the texas national guard because of the leadership of our commanders and the courage of our servicemen and women there is new reason for optimism in iraq the numbers speak for themselves the murder rate in baghdad has plunged by eighty percent al qaida has been routed in every neighborhood iraqi forces has have formally taken control of security across much of the country violence is at the lowest level since two thousand and three roadside bomb attacks have receded to a three year low discoveries of weapons caches have more than doubled in the last year the iraqi security forces have grown to four hundred forty thousand trained and equipped at the police station where our armed forces are embedded with the iraqi police i could see that the iraqis are taking more responsibility for their security the sons of iraq are an example of that growth and responsibility the sons of iraq which are now over ninety thousand strong essential he serves as neighborhood watches and man checkpoints by providing forces for protecting key infrastructure and information about al  sons of iraq have enabled coalition forces to target al qaida precisely this ensures that the right people are targeted and it helps avoid collateral damage both of which are helping to strengthen confidence in the iraqi government the transition in responsibility from the u s military to iraqi authorities is a major step toward decreasing the presence of the united states in iraq there are other reasons to be hopeful about the future of our military gains are beginning to contribute to the political gains recently the iraqi parliament passed three laws that should begin bringing  fully into the governing process and achieving national reconciliation first parliament passed a law that bolsters the power of the provinces to provide bros and utilities to the residents second it has passed a partial amnesty for political prisoners eighty percent of whom are sunni in an effort to reduce the conflict and promote peace a month different sects finally it approved a forty eight billion dollars national budget that allocates government revenue eighty five percent of which is from oil to the provinces allowing more local control and less dependence on the central government altogether the recent military and political news out of iraq provides further evidence that our strategy must be determined by events in theater not timetables set  politicians six thousand miles away in the past year so much has changed in iraq yet here on the senate floor it seems that nothing has changed at all we are still voting on imprudent bills for premature withdrawal when in fact we should be providing a vote of confidence in our troops the mission of our troops is vital to our security if we abandon iraq prematurely it will become a sanctuary for terrorists to be able to launch attacks against the american people there is a real danger that iraq could become a star the light of iran the iranian government has a long record of providing a sponsorship of terrorism and arming the insurgents who are killing our brave soldiers in iraq and for the about the practical realities of such an it were sponsible act of congress i am told that it would take over a year over a year to retrieve our arms a quick meant and technology i would ask those who are voting for this resolution would they leave our arms there for the terrorists to be able to use what about our advanced technological equipment what about our surveillance equipment what is the security threat to the troops left behind if the reduction in strength leave them without enough protection and those who are voting for this resolution are they concerned about this enemy this enemy that has no rules of engagement an enemy that is not the armed forces of any country an enemy that executes hostages in front of television screens are they concerned that this enemy would be em boldened by an adversary that would just abandon its commitment are they concerned that they might attack harder especially if they could seize our weapons to use against us or make us leave faster so that we would leave the weapons and technology i would as the supporters of this resolution what about the oil revenues what if al qaeda is able to get access to the millions that it is producing for iraq if a rat collapses and the terrorist take hold with the oil revenue how far could their hands crimes go how far c they be spread i've heard the arguments about the cost of the war and the cost is huge what about the cost of another terrorist attack on the united states of america what about the cost in lives and treasure of another terrorist attack on this country have we forgotten already the cost of nine eleven around two thousand lives in america billions to our economy and the game which is to clean up new york city mr president are we not thinking of the consequences of this kind of action this resolution may be an attempt to make a point but mr president this is the united states senate i truly believe that we should be more responsible we are the leaders of our country we should think of the consequences the worst that could happen not just the better if we're able to pick up and leave even though it would not be the honorable thing for the greatest nation on earth to do maybe maybe it would be flawless but we need to think through those consequences and we need to know what is the worst case if we are the leaders of this country this resolution is not the act of a thoughtful informed group of leaders i urge i urge my colleagues to stop voting on this kind we have so much that is going for the better and iraq is it is bad because we would like of course not i would love to have our troops walking out right now i met with hundreds of them this weekend i know they are committed but i also have met with the parents and their spouses of those who have lost their lives who have given the ultimate sacrifice in iraq and afghanistan and they have said to me do not leave with the job and because then i will feel that my son or my daughter or my husband lost his life or her life in vain mr president we cannot do that to those who have served so honorably and we cannot walk away from our commitments we are the united states senate we should be able to take actions that are responsible that are thoughtful that will not put our troops and worse harm that will not leave our equipment to be taken over by the terrorists that will not leave the country that could turn into a terrorist haven and take revenue and spread their terrorism and their heinous crimes to other places in the world and to our country we are here to protect our people mr president and it is our job to act responsibly and i hope we will do so by rejecting this resolution thank you mr president and i  motivated it i think as the senator from wisconsin fully understands and as we have discussed and i wanted to add my comments with that perspective in mind because i i don't agree with a lot of the comments that are coming from the other side with respect to why this amendment should be defeated i cannot support personally an amendment that involves a retrenchment on an appropriations measure i don't believe that the best way for us to address this situation is to cut off funds or to stipulate series of conditions that might be over inclusive or under inclusive depending on the situation on the ground in iraq but at the same time i would strongly disagree with the notion that a withdrawal from iraq at this time is premature i believe with the right national leadership first of all we never should have gone into iraq but secondly that we could have begun a withdrawal with the right national strategy more than four years ago what if we had been engaged in sense shortly after the invasion is an occupation not a war it has been a military holding action in a context of history a military holding action takes place in order to enable the political process and unfortunately we have not seen that sort of political leadership from this administration that's a totally different concept than the one that seems to make it in to argue bates here  this present i've written a lot of books in my life i've made my living before i came to the senate writing and thinking writing histories writing novels and there are many times when i watch this debate and i think about how this is going to look through the of history how are people going to look back at this period of years in terms of how our national leaders really work conducting themselves and one of the things that sticks in my mind is that we tend when we debate iraq to look at this issue almost as if iraq was an island in the middle of an ocean disconnected from the rest of the region or even the rest of the world and that's ironically how we ended up in iraq in the first place because once we started debating whether we would go into iraq we changed from this debate about the dangers of international terrorism and started focusing more and more specifically simply on saddam hussein on the conditions inside iraq which obviously was a country that was not even directly threatening us and most of us sitting on the outside who had years of experience in national security could see that even as this debate narrowed into iraq rather than international terrorism and we're doing it again we're doing it again when we talk about the success or the failure of the surge or where we should go from here with respect to this blocker that blocker this set a city or that city or this specific unit of the military troops we have in my view fallen into what could be called a double strategic mousetrap on the one hand we have gotten the greatest maneuver forces in the world bogged down occupying the cities in one country that was not even threatening us while the people that we are supposed to be going after the forces of international terrorism which my colleague from texas did mention no no international boundaries work the seams of our national law are able to maneuver at will we're seeing that very clearly before i went to iraq in november i was getting my briefings the comments and the briefings from the pentagon worried that terrorism activity had been reduced inside iraq and i mentioned i've been doing this for forty years from the time i was a young marine and if i were the forces of international terrorism i don't think i'd be in anbar province right now either i think i think i'd be heading to afghanistan and pakistan then that idea that suggestion that question was basically dismissed in the briefings and within a few weeks benazir bhutto was assassinated by al qaeda and we're seeing heightened activity in afghanistan such as less than a week ago a suicide bombing at a dog fight near kandahar where more than one hundred people were killed by al qaeda that's that's what a strategic mousetrap is when you're going up against people who know what they're doing and who are very dedicated to what they're doing you get yourself bogged down in one spot where you can't get out and then they have the maneuverability and the second strategic mousetrap that we can clearly see right now involves how we are addressing the rest of the world both in terms of our military posture we burned out our military we're not focusing properly on the strategic issues that face us globally particularly the situation that we face with an ever evolving china the need to go to regrow our navy these sorts of things and our national economy is going into a tailspin when i look at this region i see a region in chaos we can talk about whether you can go to the market in baghdad are not and were ever the united states military has been sent it has done its job historically all this combat about vietnam i had the honor of serving in vietnam in the twentieth anniversary of the fall of vietnam the communist government admitted that it lost one point four million soldiers dead on the battlefield this elusive guerrilla force one point four million soldiers dead we did our job that doesn't address the larger issues in which the military performs its job and it doesn't address that issue in iraq today either we're very proud of what our military has done i'm proud of my son he served as an enlisted infantry marine in ramadi during some of the worst fighting but let's look at the region this region is in turmoil from lebanon to pakistan anyone who has been involved in these issues intimately understands that and people are betting against us not in terms of our military operations but as a leading nation  we were preparing to go into iraq it cost twenty four dollars for a barrel oil yesterday the market closed above one hundred one dollars a barrel oil we were getting ready to go into iraq as i recall gold was less than three hundred dollars an ounce it's almost at a thousand dollars an ounce today the dollar is in jeopardy our budgets are in deficits our infrastructure  is diminishing to the point that we have to worry about whether we really can be a leading nation in terms of technology the sorts of things that always made us great roads bridges all of these issues do tie together and when even when we start arguing about how this surge has affected the conditions inside iraq if we are going to be on if we are going to look at the situation as it really is rather than simply as one political side or another wants to make it we've got a lot of things going on in iraq a lot of moving pieces that don't exactly add up to to the possibility of great success in the near term i have heard people from general petain to train us the people on the other side talk about how the surge overplayed its hand out there and the sunni's made a deal with our side the sunni insurgency made a deal with our side that they hated al qaeda more than they hate us we don't know how long that's going to last they don't like an occupying force and the second is as i said earlier  pretty smart they're fluid they're mobile while we're tied down if you go up to the turkish areas areas near turkey the kurdish areas which have been sort of the bulwark of our strength in terms of relations we see that the turkish parliament has has approved military activity by their military inside iraq and they have begun an incursion more than a week ago where they've been operating inside northern iraq imagine what the other side would be saying right now if the iranians were conducting military activities inside iraq we have a re that has been filled with chaos from refugees extorting refugees internal refugees by some counts more than thirty percent of the pre iraq war population refugees either outside the country heavily burdening syria by the way more than a million refugees and syria but also inside an eighty percent of those internal refugees in iraq right now are women and children so we need to be able to address this honestly and we being we need to be able to agree that the way out of this isn't simply through the performance of our military it is that we need national leadership that will put a formula together so that we can remove our military there is no true strategy if you cannot articulate articulate and point and when you look at one things that i keep going back to is what general dwight eisenhower said in the days the dark days of the korean war when we were stuck in a stalemate when he was thinking about running for president and then running for president enters what he said and you might compare those with the comments we hear out of the present administration he said the korean war was never inevitable it was their youth the answer to that appeal has been what any american knew it would be it has been sheer valor valor on all the korean mountainsides that each day bear fresh scars of new graves now in this anxious autumn from these heroic men comes back an answering appeal there's no wind no whimpering please it is a question that addresses itself to simple reason it asks where do we go from here when comes the end is there an end to these questions touch all of us they demand truthful answers neither glib promises nor gloom glib excuses will serve they would be no better than the glib prophecies that brought us to this brought this to pass the first task of a new administration will be to review and reexamine every course of action open to us with one goal in view to bring the korean war to early and honorable end and i would suggest that that is the prospect that faces all of us what do we need to be focusing on i agree by the way this is not something  that is going to get us very far in the next couple of days other than to air our concerns we need to begin a g i bill for the people who have been serving since nine eleven i would invite the people from the other side of the aisle to support  this we keep calling these people the next greatest generation they deserve a g i bill at the same level of those who served during world war two when they got all that tuitions paid for they got their books bought for them they got a monthly stipend i introduced that bill my first day as a senator last year we have more than thirty co sponsors let's come together let's make that happen let's get these people first class future they deserve we need to focus on this executive agreement that is now being negotiated between this administration and the maliki government where they are saying they will consult with the congress but this type of an agreement long term agreement going to security issues is in fact a treaty no matter what we call it it is a treaty that they are negotiating and we in the senate should advise and consent on that treaty we need to focus on the wartime contracting commission that just became law where we can root out fraud waste and abuse and his billions of dollars of no bid and instant contracts that were put into iraq from twenty zero three forward in other words let's create the environment we can get the right kind of diplomatic solution and remove our combat troops from iraq and let's focus on the future present with the prez the senator from new hampshire i recognize that much of the debate of the past two days has been about our status in iraq and about what we should be doing in iraq relative to the polls of us senator feingold the two proposals and clearly the issue of how we fight terrorism and how we confront the threat of islamic fundamentalism and it's about purpose of destroying western culture and specifically targeting america and americans is probably the overriding issue which we as a nation must address but right behind that issue is the question of what type of nation are we going to pass on to our children relative to the fiscal strength of our nation and we confront an issue there which is as significant for the prosperity of our children as the issue of terrorism is going to the security of our country we are faced with a situation where as a result of the pending retirement of the baby boom generation three specific programs medicare medicaid and social security will grow at such exponential rates that they will essentially bankrupt our nation if we don't do so this chart reflects those reprograms the red line here and their rate of growth this black line across to reflect what is this story clee been the amount of money that the federal government has spent and all government has a story cle spent about twenty percent of the gross national product of america these three programs by the year twenty third when the baby boom generation is fully retired and is receiving its benefits the cost of supporting that generation through medicare medicaid and social security will be so high that if you put it in the context of what we traditionally spend in this government we will have no money available to do anything else as a government will have no money for national defense no money for education no money for laying out roads no money for environmental protection and it doesn't stop there because the costs incurred continue to go up they continue to go up at such a ray that by about the year two thousand and thirty five we have essentially we'll have a situation where proximately twenty eight percent or more of the gross national product would have to be spent just to support these three programs and then of course you have the additional obligations the government what does that lead to well if that were allowed to occur it would lead to a situation where our children and our children's children would be paying so much in taxes to support the costs of maintaining these three programs for my generation the baby boom generation that they essentially are child would essentially have no opportunity to send their children to college to buy their first home to live the prosperous and fulfilling lifestyle that we have today in america because it would be all those dollars those discretionary dollars would be a being absorbed through taxes to support these programs to put it in a different context with numbers which are almost in comprehensible but which need to be pointed out we are told by the comptroller general's office that the unfunded liability of medicare medicaid and social security is sixty six trillion dollars that means after you figure in all the money you pay for social security taxes and all the money you pay for health insurance taxes the tax medicare taxes now if you figured in all that money there is still a responsibility and obligation on the books that isn't paid for it amounts to sixty six trillion trillion with a t dollars now i don't know what it trillion dollars almost incomprehensible turn to try to make it a little more comprehensible if you took all the money paid in taxes since our country was sworn in as we beg that's forty two trillion dollars that's all the money has been paid taxes we have a liability on the books that exceeds all the money paid in taxes throughout the history of our nation but in another context if you take all the assets of america everybody's home everybody's car all your stocks all your small businesses and you add them up all everybody's worth value net worth that amounts to fifty nine trillion dollars so we have a debt on the books that exceeds our net worth as a nation that's called bankruptcy and that's what we're headed towards unless we address now this week under a direction from the congress sent up a proposal to try to address the biggest part of this problem which is the cost of medicare in when we pass the part d drug benefit for senior citizens there was language put in that bill remember that bill was passed in a bipartisan vote strong bipartisan vote that said that if medicare started to have its financial resources its support the dollars that paid for medicare come out of the general fund at a rate that exceeded forty five percent of the overall cost of medicare then the trustees if that was projected to occur for two years over seven year period the trustees were directed to direct the president to make a proposal to bring the cost of medicare back under control it's called a trigger that's what is referred to and why did we put that in or why was that language put in it was put in because medicare was always conceived to be an insurance program even though it gets a fair amount of support out of the general fun the general funding general tax thereby pays their taxes income taxes corporate taxes those taxes are used to operate the government generally to pay the defense budget to pay the education budget to pay the environmental agency didn't pay the different activities that government undertakes as the general fund those funds were not supposed to be the funds that supported health insurance first seniors medicare was supposed to be an insurance program as is social security where the funds are collected from people working under the h i i tax which you pay when and which is withheld and those funds are what are supposed to support medicare if you start taking money out of the general fund it's generally acknowledged that you're too many generals out but it's generally acknowledged that you're basically creating a income transfer vent a redistribution of wealth in that where you're money from basically the general operation the government and you're putting it into the support of people on medicare who are retiring that was never the goal of medicare and so recognizing that but also recognizing that they were at a brand new benefit was putting put on the books that was fairly significant the drug benefit it was decided to put in place this law that said we want to keep medicare as an insurance primarily an insurance event rather than an event which basically is supported a cost that is basically supported by the general taxpayers of america who need to support the regular operations of government defense and education and things like that so th well we have now had the trustees evaluate the medicare fun and they've concluded that in a seven year window under the present projected spending patterns medicare's support the dollars necessary to support medicare will require a call on the general fund that will exceed forty five percent of the general expenditures of the medicare that's a serious issue and it goes to the larger serious issue of this unfunded liability question because medicare makes up thirty four trillion dollars of the unfunded liability remember the prior chart where i point out that there's sixty six trillion dollars month funded liability all of that sixty six trillion dollars the majority of it is the obligations on the medicare so it's medicare spending that is driving the problem which we confront which was pointed out in this chart which is that we're headed towards a government that our children cannot afford and which will bankrupt our children lest we do something so this proposal that was put into the party drug law and which the in which the trustees direct the president is actually to propose changes in medicare spending which will allow us to make the medicare program affordable and continued to be an insurance program is a step back and a fairly significant step is followed correctly down the road towards reducing this outyear threat of fiscal of a fiscal meltdown and so it is critical that we heed the the law that we passed and specifically the statement and the execution of the statement that has been made by the medicare trustees that the trigger must be exercised and the administration has the obligation to send up way to accomplish the same things now under the law the administration sends up its proposal which is done which proposal is required to bring the medicare system back into balance so to say so that it's not taking more than forty five percent of the general fund and that bill is then required to be introduced by the majority the minority on the house and and the senate side and the chairman of the finance committee is introduced the bill i believe last night with myself as ranking member on the budget committee is the primary sponsor on our s that doesn't mean that it's agreed to it just means that on the law it has to be introduced i happen to think what the administration sent up makes sense but what cannot be denied is that this problem is very real i was extremely surprised for example the hear senator kennedy say that the proposal sent up by the administration is dead on arrival and the administration is trumped up a phony crisis in medicare well you tell me  law to protect the solvency of the medicare trust fund tell us that the laws being violated and the changes must occur that that is a phony crisis what is unfortunate is this bury the head in the sand approach is being taken by the majority party as reflected by senator kennedy in facing this issue this issue must be face we need to act now what is the administration suggested we do they suggested three basic things in order to bring this in line first and i just can't understand why anybody opposes this proposal they have said suggested that under part d people which is the again the drug benefit under party people pay a portion of the premium of the cost of the drug benefit but high income people pay a very small portion of the cost of the drug benefit compared to what they can afford to pay they pay about twenty five percent of the cost of the benefit of the premium of the drug party d rug benefit so somebody like warren buffett who qualifies for the party benefit and i'm not picking on him specifically bodies a national figure of some note in the obviously has a fair amount of assets he is actually being subsidized his premium under part d in order to purchase drugs is being subsidized by john and mary jones who work in a restaurant in nashua new hampshire were by  parker who worked on a in a gas station in epping new hampshire their taxes are actually subsidizing warren buffett insurance is ability to buy drugs which is totally wrong and so what the administration is suggesting is that for people individuals who have incomes over eighty thousand individual and joint tax payers who have incomes over one hundred sixty thousand dollars or approximate that amount fairly wealthy people american standards they should pay more than twenty five percent of the cost of their drug premiums and i think they've suggested they pay fifty percent or maybe sixty percent but they're not the entire premium they're still going to be subsidized by john and mary jones who are probably making a lot less than one hundred sixty thousand dollars working at the restaurant in nashua new hampshire that's their first propos the second proposal they put forward is that we should have an i t proposal something that basically means using technology to communicate more effectively the cost of health care and create a more integrated system where you can get more effective information on what health care costs in order to try to drive the other purchasing practices and we all know that this is going to improve significantly improve the delivery of medicare and all health care if we do this and it's something that should should be done and therefore is appropriate the third thing that i've suggested is that we limit basically frivolous lawsuits that are driving up the cost of health care and actually driving some doctors in the area of o b g y n baby doctors out of the practice who essentially adopt what's known as the california plan for medical liability insurance again a very rational approach none of these ideas that the administration has put forward are radical none of them are even targeted in a way that would significantly affect very many beneficiaries in fact the entire proposal they put on the table ninety four percent of medicare beneficiaries won't be affected by any of these proposals ninety four percent only six percent that's the wealthiest six percent those people with incomes over eighty thousand dollars or one hundred sixty thousand dollars those folks on the having to pay a portion of their party premium would be impacted they should be impacted and so that proposal has been put forward three ideas all of them reasonable all of them an initiative which we should be able to accomplish and which would if undertaken actually reduce this insolvency in medicare dramatically i think the estimates are that over the seventy five year life you might take as much as eight billion dollars out of this is solvency number if you did these proposals which the administration is suggesting that's a huge number over seventy five years and it would actually make a be a major step in the right direction but more importantly i would respond to what the law says we should do so i certainly hope we are going to sit on our hands here i see the chairman the finance committee here he said he's going to act and i hope that his colleagues will follow because that is the type of leadership president mr ations three proposals aren't the beginning in the end of the process i mean anything can be on the table to try to get this resolved but the fact is we need to resolve the trigger has been told we are over the forty five percent are projected to be going over the forty five percent we need to act not only because of that but because of more importantly this out year problem we have no right as policymakers to pass our generation's problem onto our children which is exactly what we're going to do if we don't act here our generation is the one that's creating the issue here because of the man's we're going to put on the system because we're such a large generation we're in the position of government to expenditures and budget exposure down the road and file want to make about his presentation is that the increase in talent is due not so much because of some security that's not the big problem next problem main reason why medicare is going up such rapid rate and medicaid is also going up is because health care costs this country are rising as such rapid rate so i think it's important not to address not just the symptoms that the public sector and about half that's in the private sector and the projections are by the congressional budget office nonpartisan organization that all the private health care costs are going to increase very significant over the next twenty years and medicaid costs are going to also increase significantly the medicare much more rate of increase in the private sector the less because the private sector tend to control costs a little better medicaid rate of growth  not quite as high as medicare growth because medicare states pay for part of the medicaid costs and states are going to work control of their state budgets that are the real problem is increasing health care costs in america spend twice as much per capita  health care costs the next most expensive country and i don't know that we're twice as healthy as the next most expensive country we have great health care in america our technology is the world's drugs the envy of the world but we have a system which health care costs are so much higher than the cost of companies in other countries eighteen percent of our total health care costs are ministre to other countries about four or five percent you just lots of ways to get at this problem the question is what's the solution how do we get health care cost better or more under control i daresay that whatever is like the president is going to be forced to and should not today to make a major health care proposal touches on some possible solutions it's critical for us to address the underlying questions what are the underlying causes of health care cost increases and i don't have the time here to go into all the things that i think we need to look at it will be focusing on in the finance committee again this year this is a very deeply personal issue for me mr president but eight years ago i was living montana and the living room of gala ben stead and there are several for about ten minutes or so if i may to discuss what i think is an important topic for the country and the senate has allowed itself to discuss progress in iraq or the lack thereof depending on  basically telling the world in our enemies we're leaving iraq and the people left behind would have a very limited function in terms of what they could do a complete change in strategy it would be saying to the betray a strategy  failed it didn't work and we're going to replace the materia strategy with the feingold strategy now as much as senator feingold and that is a great deal to be honest with you because he takes his job very seriously like the rest of us but he's willing to do and say things that very few people won't do or say and i think that makes the country a better place sometimes i disagree with him and this is an occasion where i find the feingold strategy replacing that betray a strategy would be a disaster for the country the region and our national security interest and i say that with all due respect one of the central thesis of senator feingold another says for this measure is that iraq is a side bitch are not part of the war on terror and our presence there is making us less secure not more and that we've taken our eye off the ball well i would argue that the enemy does see it that way it is not a belief think intention and has been for a very long t that iraq has become the central battlefront in the war on terror and that happened when al qaeda decided to go into iraq after the fall of baghdad and undermined this attempt at moderation in iraq try to drive us out and year ago this time i was worried that they were going to succeed for about three three and a half years we got it wrong in iraq we didn't have enough troops we had a training model that was not delivering quality in numbers in terms of the iraqi army the insurgency was thriving there was a lawless period you had the abu ghraib episode that allowed to go on a recruiting drive all throughout the mid east and thank god we change strategy this time last year  president and all those particular senator mccain who spoke loudly and clearly that we need to change strategy it wasn't a debate about changing in iraq everybody wanted to change some wanted to just leave and worry about the consequences later senator mccain and there's no we need not only to stay we need to put more troops on the ground and come up with a way to suppress this insurgency because without security they'll never be reconciliation and  i think the results are in and they're overwhelming and they exceeded all expectations i had in terms of success for the surge but to the central point if you believe as i do that this is one battle the central battle  in regard to a global struggle is not an isolated event it is a battle you can't afford to lose if iraq fell apart broke into three parts became a chaotic state the national security implications for our nation are nor must they start with the following al qaeda would be on every street corner in the mid eighty's saying that we beat america and ran him out of iraq now what would that do in terms of chilling effect on moderation in the region who would be the next group of moderates to stand up and say come help me fight against extremism america after our behavior of leaving in iraq and those who helped us who tried to make iraq a better place a new place they would surely get killed if we had a left iraq withdrew and gave the battle space and and bar to al qaeda totally they would have killed everybody tried to help us and it would have taken decades to get over the consequences of that mistake you cannot leave people behind to these slaughtered terrorists and expect to ever win this war now here's what bin laden said in two thousand and two about iraq i now address must be to the whole of islamic nation listen and understand the most important and serious issue today for the whole world is the third world war it is raging in the land of the two rivers the world's millstone and pillar is baghdad the capital of the bin laden didn't get the memo that iraq is not about a global struggle clearly from his point of view it is the defining battle in terms of his goals and ambition for the al qaeda movement the reason al qaeda came into iraq is to make sure that we would lose that moderation would fail their worst nightmare is for a mother to have a say about her children and if we can pull this off in iraq where the different groups the sunni the shias in the kurds can live together and of the rule of law have a central government and local governments that work together and allow people to raise their children without fear and prosper together and a woman have a say about our children that is an absolute nightmare for al qaeda they see the outcome in iraq is very important to their agenda i hope we're smart enough to see the outcome in iraq in terms of our own national security said a thousand times you can't kill the terrorists and win this war killing terrorists is a part of this war the war is an ideological struggle the high ground in this war war is the moral high ground that's where abu ghraib hurt so badly that's why we have to at every turn showcase our values being different from our enemy when we capture an al qaeda operative it becomes about us the rules that william ploy in the capture of the of an al qaeda member or any other terrorist showcases who we are and we can't use as an excuse they do terrible things and they don't believe the same things we do therefore we're going to just blow the rules up they like them that's the one way to lose this so i'm proud of my nation standing by moderation in iraq i am sorry to the american people and all those who go into iraq many and that we got it wrong so long but wars are that way the model we had after the fall of baghdad allowed the enemy to grow and become stronger and it made it difficult to reconcile the country which is in our national interest a year ago about this time a new general took over with a new strategy thirty thousand troops are interjected into the battle space but it's not about thirty thousand troops this general understood how to when we took the troops out behind the walls and they started living with the iraqi army and police forces in neighborhoods and we took a neighborhood block by block securing people in a way that they felt comfortable enough to talk to us about their future about their hopes and about their dreams and over time they helped us this infusion of military might into anbar where al qaeda was roaming freely allowed people who had tasted the al qaeda life to say you know i don't want to live this way the sunni awakening was an effort by a very brave shaikh who is now dead to break loose from the al qaeda agenda and came to the american coalition forces and said i would like to align with you because this is not the way i want to raise my kids this is not the hopes and dreams i have for my people in anbar well they killed it and if you go to anbar there's photos of this guy everywhere they killed him but they didn't kill his dhea as a matter of fact  at his funeral and they're after the people of bandar have pill this shake as a model of the future as a hero and al qaeda really overplayed their hand they try to intimidate everybody around them they're trying to intimidate us do it my way or die do it my way or watch your children die in front of you away or we'll burn your children right in front of you live my way religiously or lose everything you have including your life you know what the good news from the search beyond all other news is that a muslim population had a chance to experience this out kate alive and said no that to me is the single most important event that's happened in the last year that muslims would turn on al qaeda and fight them and say you're wrong this is not what the this is not the way we're going to live our lives and they've done something about it the shake is given his life many others nambiar of giving their lives to make sure al qaeda doesn't win and you know because we had no military presence along with the new attitude of the people who live there to beat these guys they're not ten feet tall they're thugs and history is full of people like this who have had ideas that certain groups are not worthy of living the nazis had their view of who could live and who could die and it was based on racial stereotyping prejudice there's been other episodes in history where religious prejudice and bigotry determine who lived or died in the way you beat these people is not for good people to come home and leave the battlefield to the enemy is for good people to rally around the values that make this world a place worth living in and fight these people and the way you win this war is that you align yourself with people who are willing to take on the terrorists and the extremists and fight back against al qaeda and that's what  occurred in anbar we put tanks around every leader we could find and told them we're not leaving we're here with you the sun our rock is a organization that sprung up from the population where almost eighty thousand people now belong to this organization where they patrol the streets at night to make sure our keda doesn't come back and bar is a completely different place al qaeda has been diminished  anbar and they're moving to other places in iraq they're not defeated yet but they're certainly on the run and for america not to appreciate what's happened here for this congress not to celebrate what happened or does happen in the last i think is sad we should be using this thirty eight hours to say to general petraeus thank you to baster crocker thank you to all those under your command thank you for having the courage and the wisdom to turn this around and wait knowledge that you are turning it around we know you go a long way to go yet but thank god you've turned the corner and we have turned the corner and the corner that i wanted to see turn was when the people of iraq would stand up to the extrem west so it is clear to me that iraq is a central battlefront it was clear to me for about three years we were losing it is abundantly clear to me now that we are winning and the iraqi people have stepped up to the plate and produce results that are astonishing and it comes and it has come from a new strategy this produce better security than the attack levels have been decreased by sixty percent since june of two thousand and seven now how did that happen this new strategy of general petraeus of getting military power power out in the neighborhoods staying on the insurgency giving them no rest involving the citizens to fight back is paid great dividends it's still a dangerous place but what a dramatic change seventy five percent drop in civilian this since the beginning of two thousand and six from january to december sectarian attacks in this have decreased over ninety percent in baghdad security districts now how did that happen we had a plan to secure the capital city by getting out behind walls going into neighborhoods providing firepower and assistance in the iraqi people have done their part coalition forces cleared approximately six hundred fifty six weapon caches in two thousand and seven over twice what we found in two thousand and six how people are telling us where the weapons are because they want a new country they see us as a solution to their problems not the problem and they're coming forward telling us things they didn't tell us last year because they think it's momentum they feel like they're safer and they don't want to go back to the ole ways and they're helping us help them iraqi security forces in the last year are responsible for security in ten of the eighteen iraqi provinces one of the biggest stories in this year has been the improvement of the iraqi security forces particularly the army the national police have been a a real problem even they're beginning to turn around one hundred thousand new members of the iraqi security forces many of them being able to operate independent from us for a total of a half a million people in uniform the iraqi people have stepped up to the plate they're helping themselves in a way that i admire the casual rate among iraqi it is three times that of our american  coalition forces for every american death we mourn but the reenlistment rates among american soldiers military members have served in iraq and afghanistan is through the roof what did they see that we don't makes us safer to home and it's hard is to this difficult and they keep going back because they know that the outcome in iraq affects us here at home and god bless them for doing it and just just  involved in the most successful counterinsurgency in military history all of those who've taken part in this will go down in military history we should be celebrating as a nation but i think is one of the biggest military achievements in the history of the world but we can't quite do that i don't know why al qaeda is diminished but not defeated but their own their way to be defeated now the big debate has been will make the iraqi politicians get their act together if we threaten to leave them there they'll start doing business in a better way i've always felt that if you threaten to leave iraq every moderate will be children every extremist will be and if you want to bring back life to a diminished enemy let them read some headlines somewhere in the world america begins to withdraw as is feingold resolution would suggest or as senator obama clinton would have suggested you would literally breathe life into a defeated diminished enemy it would be music to their ears and for every moderate who is sacrifices lost family members as judges as warriors as policeman his army members it would be heartbreaking i cannot believe that people don't understand the consequences to the world if the american congress said we're going to leave iraq in a set period of time i can't believe that we don't understand how that would resonate throughout the world it would be music to an enemy that is really on the run it would rip the heart out of those who brought this about and you won't political progress in iraq to go forward will tell our kate a we're going to leave and see what kind of progress we get in iraq the politicians and baghdad have been frustrating to deal with sorta like here home but you know why i'm here to say something i don't think i would say last year well done cation law has passed and what does that mean it means that the shias in the kurds have welcomed people back from the sunni bath this party that ran the government under saddam back to their old jobs made them eligible for their old government jobs and they're saying to their sunni backed those neighbors let's build a new iraq let's not look backward can you imagine a hard job that must have been to have grown up in iraq and the people who ran the government under saddam hussein a major live miserable you've got a chance to be on top you can start all and make a miserable then there's suddenly after a lot of dying you realize wait a minute we've got to go forward not backward that the bath of the cation law is a huge step toward reconciliation a forty eight billion dollar budget was passed politicians in the congress can relate to one thing money were always fighting to get our fair share for our state in our districts the forty eight billion dollar budget that was passed has money allocated to every region of iraq and reconstruction can now go forward in the ministries delivering the money r r r r better than they've ever been but with a long way to go the fact that sunni shias and kurds would share the wealth of the country with each other seems to me does the jest that they view our rock as a country and to give money to someone who may have been involved in trying to kill your family just months ago is a very difficult thing to do but they've overcome i think in great measure the biggest impediment that every country eventually asked to overcome and that is forgiveness there's a long way to go in iraq but we're a lot closer to getting there than we were last year and the all of what we're going to lose is for washington t screw it up the provisional powers law it passed the parliament and went to the council of presidents it will allow local elections in every province beginning in october and i predict that if that law becomes reality sunni's will vote in large numbers and they boycotted in two thousand and five the central government run by the sh came to the conclusion that we're going to decentralize power we're going to let each province elect their local leaders instead of trying to micromanage everything from baghdad you know what that means democracy unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business on another subject for up to ten minutes is your objection without objection so that i have two minutes to finish my thought home church is without objection s supreme court is the unique and novel issue and to me it gives great hope because they are resorting to the law rather than the gun and this constitutional democracy playing out in front of us is something we should celebrate misty there are thousands of people in the jails of iraq now mostly sunni's that have been tied to the insurgency the parliament passed a law that will allow a committee of sunni shias and kurds to go through the files of people in jail and say to some of those who've taken up arms against the government go home my brother and less build a new iraq that is a stunning development how did all this ha iraq is war weary people are tired of living in fear we've given them better security we've put out kate on the run who's been trying to stir up trouble ever since baghdad fail people have a sense of economic and political hope they've never had before all rather news are up i have doubled or production is up fifty percent the economy is moving forward at a very fast pace all of this is d that opinion to resolve to this surge into bravery of the iraqi people and the american military and coalition forces who brought it about to my friends and colleagues in congress we're going to win in iraq finally we've got a model of the latest a stable functioning government rejecting terrorism align with us in the long tara and the only way we'll lose now is for washington to lose  will and undercut this model hopefully understand what this debate is about is about winning and losing a battle that you can't afford to lose  again i thank you for staying in the chair for a period of time mr president to this morning we learned of the death of william f buckley junior i want to come to the floor and reminisce a bit about bill buckley who i have been privileged to know for more than forty years to pay tribute to a devoted and patriotic american a remarkable remarkably creative and eloquent man of letters a person with a with the next drug mary sense of humor and a kind of spirit to him that infused anyone around him a person who believed in the power of ideas and love the exchange of ideas he lived a remarkable life with great effect for this country that he loved in a tremendous impact on people who read his novels his books read his columns in the national review or watched him for so many years and that wonderfully thoughtful cerebral provocative t v program firing line which was  open not just to conservatives like bill buckley to but to people with all shades of opinion who are willing to engage him bill buckley w f be on the on the field of ideas a remarkable man  i was privileged to get to know him more than forty years ago when i became the editor of the l of course editor wasn't good enough titled i was called the chairman of the board of the l daily news and chosen he told me that he had informed bill buckley of this and one of his regular memos back and forth to buckley and i was fascinated by this began a communication with bill buckley at that time he took a wonderfully warm kind of brotherly interest in those who were at the elderly news as he had been in the early fifty's he invited me in a couple of our friends from the news to come to his house in stamford connecticut for a dinner or two which wears stimulating thrilling evenings our friendship went on i'll come back to that but buck life is an extraordinary life but he came out of yale he became very well known for a book he wrote about what he thought was the hostile environment at yale toward people of faith toward people who are conservative etc et reading once that he had said in the founding issue that the publication would derive from original ideas of the moral order bill buckley was a was a person who studied history studied literature learned from it also was infused with a deep and profound commitment to his roman catholic faith and that i think was the origin of the moral order which he gave expression ideas mattered and they did the national review in some sense gave birth to the modern american conservative movement he he thrilled at the but you know it wasn't always a a republican movement it really his was it was a matter of of ideals and ideas and philosophy conservatism incidentally he rejected extremism to his everlasting credit he took on the extremist of the john bir society which wasn't popular for him to do at the time he did it i i'm just remembering words of buckley's in the in talking to the fact that he was a conservative ideologically not always favorable to republican candidates i remember reading about an editorial he wrote in the national review and pursing general eisenhower for president while everyone else was echoing the slogan we like ike  prefer it was so it was a relative judgment that he made he was thrilled of course much more by the can courtesy of former member of this body distinguished member senator barry goldwater and then most of all elegant eloquent exercise in in being involved in in the marketplace of public ideas perhaps most famous perhaps not the most substantive thing he said in that campaign was when they asked him what he would do if he was elected bill buckley famously said i will demand a recount and that's a good message for all of us when we approach campaigns  well i continued to to be involved with him and in communication in many ways my wife and i had the privilege of spending wonderful evenings with him and his late wife patricia at their home in stamford connecticut  these were classic evenings good great food some drink and good spirited conversations cigar and brandy to follow a but always open to ideas and always with a with a ready willingness to laugh in fact he passed away earlier today apparently in his study in his magnificent home on w in stamford connecticut probably working on a column or some other piece of writing i feel particularly grateful to him for the for all that i learned from him all the good times i had with him and some sense you might say that i would not be a united states senator were not for bill buckley although he probably would some would say that probably buckley would not say that when i ran for the senate in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight thinking of indorsing you do you think that would help you so i said well that's very good of you then he interrupted it says please understand this is the only time i am likely to endorse you in your career so i said it probably would or you have in mind will he actually he wrote a column very good column in the national review and i think in a syndicated column he also with the puckish this that was part of him started something he called buck pac which was a he set a pac open to anyone in connecticut whose name was buckley and who was committed to the defeat of the incumbent senator at that time they printed bumper stickers in the like can help out in the campaign i said to him after i won that election and i went by very credit for this one by less than one percent of the vote and i said you know i don't know i'd go so far as to say you played a rabbinical role for me in this campaign what do you mean by that so i said your indorsement of me in the columns you wrote said to republicans in connecticut who really didn't like the incumbent senator it's kosher to vote for lieberman and he l and i remember that well there's so much i could say about his contribution to our country too to his openness to ideas to his sibylla t one could disagree with bill buckley as i did quite frequently and never lose respect or affection dare i say love for for a wonderful human being we would all benefit  from that i perhaps will close this impromptu in tribute to bill buckley mourning his loss today by will offering condolences to his family chris buckley a son was a wonderful writer his sister and that confuses me as well as others with the multisyllabic words that he uses just as his father did his sisters priscilla buckley of shar connecticut where the family has long lived patricia buckley bozell of washington d c carol buckley of columbia south carolina his brothers judge james buckley of sharon connecticut and everyday buckley of camden south carolina and a granddaughter and a grandson i pray that they will be strengthened by their faith and and comforted by the good memories and pride of an extraordinary person and bill buckley i think probably most all i will end with a quote from president reagan on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the national review in one thousand eighty five reagan said that when he first picked up his first issue of national review he received it in a plain brown wrapper still anxiously awaited his bi weekly edition but no longer in a plain brown wrapper but but this is what reagan said of book that you didn't just part the red sea you rolled it back dried it up and left exposed for all the world to see the naked desert that is state ism and then as if that were not enough you gave the world something different something in its weariness it desperately needed the sound of the laughter and the sight of the rich green up plans of freedom and of quote i think to cheer for giving me the opportunity to bid farewell in this senate chamber to a great american and a dear friend william f buckley j r i pray with confidence and the face that bill buckley head that his soul will be taken up truly in the funds of eternal life i thank the chair and yield the floor under the previous order the senate stands in recess