Date: 2007-02-14
Speaker: CORRINE BROWN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. I rise today in support of the resolution which requires our support for our brave troops and the American military. yet also expresses disapproval of President Bushs decision to deploy additional troops to the area. My colleagues.. the most serious vote any Member of Congress will ever take will be to send men and women to war. I support the troops 100 percent. Yet when you have your head in the lions mouth. how do you get it out? I did not vote for the war when it came before the House of Representatives back in 2002. I never supported this war. Yet. I do not blame my colleagues who did because their vote was based on false. twisted information provided by President Bush. From the very beginning of this conflict. President Bush has intentionally misled the American public by supplying them with false grounds for going to war. and now he is inventing reasons for us to stay there. As President Bush begins to lay out his case for expanding this terrible war into Iran. we see the false rhetoric. the same war drumbeats in the background. drumming up support for the attack on Iran. Since we have never found a link between al Qaedaand Iraq. we are trying to hide our failure to control the civil war in Iraq by blaming Iran for supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents. There is no proof and no one is certain this is under the direction of the Iranian leadership. Again. the Presfdent is telling the American people this is true. but w~y should we believe him? I know whatthe Bush administration is capable of doing. They will use any means necessary to achieve their ends. even if it means doctoring up the information supplied to Congress and to the international community to wage a war over oil. They have provided all the justifications. all the sanctimony. frightening the American people into supporting a $600 billion war in Iraq. supposedly to deter terror. but in reality it is having the opposite effect. My colleagues. this war needs to come to an end. The American people want the troops home. This was the message sent loud and clear to the Bush administration during the November elections. Yet they for some reason just didnt get the message. Nearly 70 percent of the American people want us out of Iraq. Yet. President Bush continues to ignore that. We have already spent over half a trillion dollars over there. Let me repeat. $600 billion. There was even a period between 2003 and 2004 when our military was carrying huge wraps of $100 bills over to Iraq. Look at this cruise ship. I want you to imagine a cruise ship full of $100 bills. We sent it over to Iraq. Now. let me tell you something. folks. A billion dollars is even a lot of money here in Washington. $100 bills. a billion dollars. Let me tell you what that would pay for our veterans. $1.7 billion would fund over 1.5 million veterans in dategory 8 that we are not funding today. Let me repeat. Over 1.5 million veterans we could serve if we could recoup just $1 billion. and we have sent over about $9 billion that we cannot account for. Folks. I am going to give the Bush administration an F. and I am going to. give the past Congress an F for giving him a blank check. We all have the opportunity to have a serious vote for our troops and a vote for the American people. I say vote "yes" on the resolution.