Date: 2007-02-15
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

Ida. Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman. who is also the ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee and obviously. very. very passionate and articulate on this issue. Mr. Speaker. my constituents know that I vote my conscience. I voted against my party and our President when I thought that they were wrong. I have stood up to my leadership when my constituents knew Congress could do better. But. Mr. Speaker. my vote on the resolution before us isnt about my party or about the President. Unfortunately. this vote and this diebate is all about politics and providing some political cover. This vote does nothing to help our soldiers win. What I see here is this liberal leadership pandering to the vitriolic left. wing of the Democrat Party. How do I know this? At the opening of this debate. Speaker PELOsI asked the only real relevant question: Will this resolution make our troops safer? In her remarks. and I have read and reread them. she didnt say how her resolution did that. I have pored over the remarks and the text of this resolution tqfind all the instances where the House will be giving greater resources to the troops. and it doesnt. After I read all 60 words many. many times. I can tell you. not one single word in the resolution offers any more equipment. not any more diplomacy. or any more security for our troops. And guess what? It also does not bring one soldier home sooner. It doesnt demand the Iraqis take the lead in the fight. These omissions make it startlingly clear to me that the answer to Speaker PELOSIs questions. will this resolution make our troops safer. is absolutely no. it will not. The Democrats have this resolution all wrong. To be more specific. there is not a single mention in this resolution of how we will send. more body armor for the troops. not a single mention of new tools to detect IED explosives. not one word. dedicated to uparmored Humvees. and. Mr. Speaker. not one mention of the method to fund the health care needs of those veterans who will come home. Not one word. I invite the Speaker to come back into the Chamber and tell this House where is the additional money to make our soldiers safer and our Army stronger. because if she cant show me the substance in these 60 words. then they are nothing but rhetoric. and this resolution cannot and will not help our troops. This week the House is debating a useless resolution thats only purpose is to weaken and divide. The Americaq people are not stupid. They can see through this charade for exactly what it is. It is a toothless effort to provide political cover for Democrats. As a matter of fact. the Orlando Sentinel. certainly not a conservative newspaper. has said that this is an empty measure. It says the pointless House Resolution on Iraq fails to set goals. It goes on to say. The U.S. House launched a welcome debate this week on the Iraq war. It is too bad 3 days of points and counterpoints will end in a vote on a pointless resolution. This isnt thoughtless policy. it is political cover. -Believe me. the Orlando Sentinel is. by far. not a very conservative newspaper. My constituents know that over these 3 days we -have debated a resolution with no teeth. no enforcement. and it is deliverei in a way that has no guts. no character and provides no leadership. Mr. Speaker. if this debate were about. policy. we would be talking about changing or creating law. If the Democrats believed what they were saying. this House would be debating spending and funding. not wasteful rhetoric. If my dolleagues on the other side of the aisle were genuine. we would be talking about benchmarks for Iraq. the Iraqi Government. and strict guidelines for appropriations. I have heard some on the other side of the aisle say that this debate is about preventing an escalation. Is the Democrat majority so powerless that it cannot stop a deployment? Before I got elected. Congress authorized this war. and with the force of law. this Congress could stop it. Congress concern should be fol- our troops. not the Presidential and political ambitions of the Democrat Party. It is rare when I stand on the floor and say that the Senate actually got it right. but I must commend them for their more thoughtful and less politically attuned resolution. because their resolution states the longterm security interests of the United States are best served by an Iraq that can sustain. govern and defend itself and serve as an ally in the war against extremists. That statement acknowledges the battle that we are waging and the eventual victory that we must achieve in the Middle East. The 60word resolution before this Chamber makes no such statement or recognition and sets absolutely no benchmarks. My sole concern is for our troops. The litmus test for my vote is whether or not this resolution makes our troops safer. Mr. Speaker I believe every Member of this House should ask themselves the following questions: Will this resolution protect one of our soldiers? Will this resolution make one piece of armor thicker? Will these empty words make a single IED less lethal? Will this resolution stop one sniper or one suicide bomber from attacking our troops in the field? Sadly. the answer is no. This resolution is not being debated in a vacuum. We must ask the question. Could this resolution encourage our adversaries? Could this debate put one of our soldiers in further harms way? . Might some Islamic terrorist believe that the more of our troops that they kill. the quicker the U.S. will withdraw our forces? If the answer to these questions is even possibly "maybe." then I cannot vote for this resolution. We should not risk encouraging those who would attack our troops just for the empty gesture of partisanship. Lets call this for what it is. This resolution puts our troops at risk for the Presidential aspirations of some Members of the opposite party. Many Members have noticed that on the llth day of every month I wear this pin. This was given to me by firefighters. It is a depiction of firefighters putting up our flag in New York City after it was attacked. This is why we have very brave young men and women out there fighting today. I am not a blind supporter of the Presidents policies. And if we wanted to make this debate about policy.- I would be there to work with them. The President knows -all well my strong reservations about some of the policies in Iraq. But. Mr. Speaker. it has not been a perfect war. I stand here today to let our troops know that I will hold the Presidents feet to the fire to ensure that our soldiers have the tools for our victory. That is what our soldiers want. In the South. we have a wonderful saying and it goes like this: "Git er done." Our soldiers want to get it done and come home. Andour President wants the same thing. And this Congress should also demand the exact same thing. Lets get out there and "Git er done." [From the Orlando Sentinel. Feb. 14. 2007]