Date: 2007-02-16
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

I thank the gentleman for yielding. and I thank him for all of his hard work in struggling on this issue and our troops and force strength. Mr. Speaker. But I rise -in strong support of this bipartisan resolution regarding the Iraq war. I rise in strong support to this resolution to say to the President. no more. I rise in strong support of this resolution to say to the President. your policy is wrong. Yes. you have tried the surge before. and the surge has not brought peace to Iraq. It has not brought an endto the insurgency. It has not brought an end to the sectarian war that is going on in that country every day. Yes. this is the fourth time that the President tried this policy. and it has not worked in any of those times. When we pass this bipartisan resolution. the President should pause. Because. at that moment. the President will not have the support of the United States House of Representatives. and. at that moment. the President will not have the superintendent of the people of the United States. The President better think long and hard about he really believes that he should commit these troops. and continue to commit these troops. without the authority of the people. without the authority of this Congress. Mr. Speaker. Members of the House. American men and women have been fighting in Iraq. and they will soon begin their fifth year. In 5 years. they have done all that we have asked them. But what we have asked them to do cannot be accomplished by the military. . We have known for some time that Iraq now requires a political solution. and it requires the Iraqi government. the Iraqi people. the Iraqi society and the communities to take hold of their country and to decide whether they want a future of continued sectarian violence or whether they want an orderly society. They must make that decision. The President has had it wrong for many. many months. for many years. He has continued to say that. as the Iraqis stand up. we will stand down. Mr. President. you have it wrong. As we begin to stand down. they will begin to stand up. The fact that our military troops are on the streets of Baghdad and Anwar Province and elsewhere enables people to continue a level of violence that randomly and wantonly takes the fives of men. women and children. innocent bystanders. for almost no good reason at all. no good reason at all. It allows that to continue because each knows. if it gets out of control. the American troops will ride to the rescue. the helicopters will come. and the missiles will fly. We are the enablers of the continuation of this violence. Once they have to take responsibility for their actions. once we leave. this is no longer an insurgency. This is crime on crime. Iraqi against Iraqi. Somebody has got to take the responsibility for that. and that will not be us. We will not be able to bring it to an end. The Iraqi government will be. The time has come for our troops to leave. The time has come for us to understand that we cannot cure what is wrong in Iraq. But for these troops that are there and for the troops that are being sent in spite of the will of the American people and the will of the Congress. we ought to understand that they should be fully equipped. We should not repeat the history of this administration in this deployment where men and women were sent into the theater without proper vehicle armor. without proper body armor. without proper interpreters and without proper training. .Many Members have come to this floor for many hours now and said. what is the message you are sending to your troops? What was the message the Congress is sending? What was the message this Congress sent to the troops when the President allowed them to go to war without enough troops to secure the peace? What was the message this Congress sent when it allowed the troops to go to combat without proper vehicle armor? What was the message that the Congress sent when it allowed our troops to go into combat without proper protective armor? What was the message this Congress sent to the troops when it allowed this President to continue this failed course with no adjustment over the past 4 years? And what was the message that we sent to the troops when it allowed the President to effectively draft American volunteers by continuing their tours. shortening their time at home. shortening their time with their families and sending them back without proper training. shortened training and without proper equipment? We cannot do that to the troops. The message of this resolution is we are not going to do that. We are not going to do that. We will make a pledge to you that we will not let you fight and die forever with no plan to get you out. with no exit plan for you. with no change in the policy that has led tragically to so many deaths and so many wounded. That is what this resolution is about. That is the message we must send to the troops. and that is the message we must send to the Iraqi people. that they must take responsibility. This surge is not an electionday surge. This isnt a constitutionalday surge. This is a surge for the purpose. this is an escalation for the purposes of doortodoor combat. street by street. block by block. house by house. Yet today we see General Schoomaker saying in the paper that these troops that are getting engaged in this upclose battle in the midst of the Iraqi people will not have enough interpreters. They will not have civil affairs soldiers. They will not have enough translators. So now we are putting them again where they are at greatest risk. and this Congress is agreeing to go forward and repeat history and put them at risk when it is not necessary.