Date: 2007-03-23
Speaker: SAM JOHNSON (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Thank you. Members. NANCY. JOHN. DAVID. I appreciate you all. I rise today in support of a clean emergency spending bill for our troops. but this one is all smoke and mirrors. We must give our men and women in uniform everything they need to thwart the insurgency in Iraq and come home safely and soon. You know. we cant tie the hands of the guys on the ground with time lines or benchmarks. And. worse. we shouldnt be using the emergency troop spending bill as the way to finance the political gimmickry of special interest projects. It is just exasperating that the Democrat leaders have turned the emergency troop spending bill into a pork barrel project giveaway. This bill gives piles of money to shrimpers. spinach farmers. and peanut storage. You know. what does throwing money at Bubba Gump. Popeye the Sailorman. and Mr. Peanut have to do with winning a war? Nothing. The special interest projects added to increase the likelihood of this bill passing are really an insult to the troops who want. need. and deserve our full support. The Democrats are trying to buy the majority vote today one pork project at a time. perhaps because the majority does not support their slow bleed surrender strategy. Since the President announced his new plan for Iraq in January. there has been measured. steady progress. He changed the rules of engagement and removed political protections. Coalition forces nabbed more than 50 suspects and dismantled a bomb factory in Iraq over the past few days. Coalition forces in Iraq detained seven suspects with reported ties to foreign fighter groups. In Ramadi. troops nabbed- four other suspects with alleged ties to al Qaeda. In Mosul. coalition forces captured a former paramilitary leader who allegedly is responsible for setting up al Qaeda terrorist training camps in Iraq and Syria. During another operation. troops. captured a suspected terrorist with alleged ties to al Qaeda car bomb and assassination cells. We must seize this opportunity to move forward and not stifle future success and harm troop morale. More importantly. I want to know. how many of you have ever asked your constituents. Do you want to lose in Iraq? I think if you ask that question. do you want to lose in Iraq. Americans will wholeheartedly say no. We have smart. strong men and women serving in Iraq. and they need our help. and they need the full support of their country and their Congress. Our troops dont need 435 generals in Washington declaring. we will send you money for bullets. but we wont send you. bulletproof vests. Our troops dont need folks in suits sitting in wood paneled rooms on Capitol Hill saying. we will send you armored tanks. but we wont send you gas. Literally. this bill forces our guys on the ground to fight a war with one arm tied behind their backs. That just smacks of defeat. Most of you in the Chamber know that I spent nearly 7 years as a prisoner in Vietnam. more than half of that time in solitary. Well. that was during my second tour in Vietnam. During my first tour. I worked for General Westmoreland at MACV Headquarters. that is the Military Assistance Command Vietnam. While working late at night. we had a bunch of men involved in the first real handtohand combat using bayonets. You may remember that. JOHN. That was war. It turns out someone sent back footage to Washington that would match the opening scene of "Saving Private Ryan." In the middle of the night. the red phone rang and I answered it: I heard an earful that is not fit for this House Chamber. something like. This is the White House. What the heck is going on over there? I replied. Ill wake up General Westmoreland. They slammed the phone down and hung up. That was the control they had over our guys. Starting in 1965. we had folks in Washington trying to tell the generals how to run things on the ground in Vietnam. A generation ago. we saw what happens when you stop the funding and America stiffs its friends. As a matter of fact. we all know just this morning Iran captured 15 British sailors. This bill prevents us from responding from Kuwait to help our strong allies of British in an emergency. We show weakness. and the world knows it. Just think back to the dark day in history when we saw visions of American marines airlifting Vietnamese out of the U.S. embassy. You remember that. That is what happens when America makes a commitment. Congress cuts the funding. and we go home with our tails between our legs. The brave marines who died on that day in 1975 while innocent people desperately clung to life on a rope tied to a helicopter are a testimony to what happens when Congress cuts the funding and we leave without finishing the job. We cant let that happen again. And I dont think any of you on either side in this Chamber wants that to happen. Frankly. we all want our troops to come home. when the job is done. We want to win. Internationally announcing our timelines for withdrawal literally hands the enemy our war plan and gives them hope that they will win if they just wait it out. What world superpower would do such a thing? We are the United States of America. We are the premier military force on the globe. We are the land of the free and the home of the brave. Surely. we do not go around announcing to the world how .we.will conduct and win a war. Surrendering is not an option. and neither do I think abandoning our troops is an option. Look around you. We are all America. Do you want to lose in Iraq? Voting to set a hard exit date for U.S. troops in Iraq and imposing strict standards for deploying forces gives hope to the enemy. and it is a prescription for failure. Worse. forcing Members of Congress to decide on this issue when the bill is cluttered with excess money for spinach and peanuts is abhorrent. infuriating. and illadvised-. My dear colleagues. if you really want to debate the merits of a time withdrawal. give each Member in Congress an up or down vote so we can vote our conscience. The sweeteners in this bill are political bribery. and our troops deserve more than this. Ladies and gentlemen. we cannot abandon our men and women in uniform for .politically charged benchmarks wrapped up in fatcat constituent projects. If we learned anything from the brave Marines who died trying to save innocent people that day at the embassy in Vietnam. and JOHN. you know this. it is that the marines never quit. Neither should we-.