Date: 2007-05-09
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

one of our favorite members of the 30Something Group. Madam Speaker. hopefully we will get to touch on a few different topics. but I think we need to touch on at the beginning of this hour the subject that really dominates the debate in Washington. D.C.. right now. that dominates most of the discussion out in the coffeehouses and pancake breakfasts and pasta dinners happening across this land. and that is. what is happening in this town? What is happening in Washington. D.C.. insidethe beltway? And that is. why cant government figure out what everyone else has figured out across the country. that we need .to set a new direction when it comes to this countrys policy in Iraq. Now. I am certainly starting to feel that frustration. People thought when they weighed in on the national elections in the beginning of November of last year that they were actually saying something. that when they stood up in record numbers in some parts of this country and made courageous decisions district by district to replace longtime incumbent Members this Congress with relatively new Members. such as myself. such as Mr. ALTMIRE and some 40odd number of our friends on this side of the aisle that became new Members this January. they thought that it meant something. They thought that that voice that they spoke with in the beginning of November was going to be heard down here. And I can tell when I go back to my district. and I just came back this last weekend and I have been back every weekend since we have been down. that the patience of the American people is starting to wear thin. Now. it is not necessarily directed here. I think some people are still in some sort of sense of euphoria that we finally have a Congress that is listening to the American people again. Their anger is directed at the President of the United States Their anger is directed at an administration that just doesnt seem to get it. that refuses every step of the way to step up to the plate and have some type of accountability. for what is happening here. refuses to listen to the American people. And the American people have spoken in the election. and they continue to speak today. A CNN poll that came out just a short while ago said a majority of Americans. 65 percent. oppose the Iraq war. and a full 54 percent disapprove of the Presidents decision to veto the Iraq accountability bill last week. Nearly six in ten Americans. in a recent Gallup poll. support setting a firm timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops out of Iraq. 61 percent of Americans. in another CNN poll. favor a bill that sets benchmarks that the Iraq government must meet to show progress that is being made in Iraq. 55 percent of Americans think it was the wrong thing for the United States to go to war in the first place. That is an amazing number. Madam Speaker. 55 percent of Americans. the majority of the Americans. now today believe that it was the wrong decision to go into Iraq in the first place.Before the time of Mr. ALTMIRE and me. the 30Something Democrats. Mr. RYAN and Mr. MEEK * and Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. liked to point out thirdparty verifiers. It is not just our saying it. Things that we stand here and say have actually been said time and time again by people who know what they are talking about and the American people. Here is thirdparty verification: The American people by large numbers support not only the actions of this Congress when it comes to setting firm benchmarks for the Iraqis to stand up for themselves but also to set firm timetables by which we would start to redeploy our troops. Now. the American peopleFjolna growing hegemony of opinion within our foreign policy community. There are very few times when Republicans and Democrats outside this hall decide to agree on a course forward on something as weighty as the foreign policy issues that confront us in the Middle East. But the Iraq Study Group. five Democrats. five Republicans. Mr. ALTMIRE. came together and told us. it is time to set a new course. It is time to start bringing our troops home. start redeploying them to fights that matter. Record numbers of retired generals. Now. it has become kind of de rigueur to see on a daily basis retired generals from across America to come out and start to criticize the Presidents policy. This didnt happen before in these numbers. This is not the normal course of business for the men and women who have spent their lives fighting and leading American troops to then turn around after they have left their military service and criticize the very government that they have worked for. fought for and bled for all of those years. But that is what is happening today because the stakes are so high. The American public. bipartisan leaders on foreign policy issues and former military leaders are standing up and saying enough is enough. E 2030 We need to set a new course. * Now. there seems to be a very power ful sound barrier that has been built around the White House. Because for as many voices. the multitudes of American people. the multitudes of foreign policy experts. of retired generals. many of which ended their careers on the ground in Iraq. for all of those people throwing the might of their collective voices at the White House. a deafening silence. Madam Speaker. I got the chance to go over and visit our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. and the first thing youre struck by is the unbelievable and unconditional bravery that they show this Nation. The capability of these forces is almost beyond- explanation. and I got the chance to come back and talk to the President very briefly about it in a visit to the White House. Those troops know that the situation on the ground has changed dramatically. that the fight that began as a battle against the autocrat that was Saddam Hussein now has become a civil war. The troops know it because theyre right in the middle of it. We asked our military leaders. how much of the fire that is being directed at American troops is the result of insurgent forces and al Qaeda forces firing at Americans and how much of it is simply a sectarian war that we find ourselves in the middle of? And the answer was the same no matter who you asked. Ninety percent of the fire directed at American forces are Sunni and Shia fighting each other. sometimes Shia and Shia fighting each other. that we are caught in the middle of. This President. for some reason. refuses to understand how things have changed on the ground in Iraq and how things have changed when it comes to the opinion of foreign policy leaders. military leaders and the American public. I think many of us were very proud to stand together. certainly the freshman class and as a caucus. to support our leaderships position to set a new course. and we were dismayed to sse a President who is unwilling to work with this Congress. We will take another shot at that this week by presenting the President with another alternative on his desk once again to set that new direction. And from what we hear today. it will be met with the same resounding deafening silence and indifference to the will of the American people. I am so glad to be joined here by one of my great freshman colleagues. Mr. ALTMIRE from Pennsylvania. who I think shares with me. as new Members. as two young guys who have only spent about 4 or 5 months down here. that sort of growing sense of frustration when we go back to our districts and we hear people who wanted that change feeling like theyre not getting it here because there is an administration that simply wont join that growing unaninity of opinion to set a new course. I would like to yield to my friend from Pennsylvania.