Date: 2007-03-23
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Thank you very much. Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Speaker. NANCY PELOsI. and our entire Democratic leadership for the opportunity for the 30Something Working Group to once again come to the floorand talk about the priorities of the Democratic Caucus and the new direction for America that we are humbled to be able to lead this country in. On November 7 of last year. the American people spoke loudly and clearly. Mr. Speaker. that it was imperative that we move this Nation in a new direction on a variety of issues. not the least of which is the direction that we are going in in this war in Iraq. And I am so proud today to be able to stand here knowing that the vote that I cast personally and that the 217 other Members that passed that legislation off this floor this afternoon cast so that we can now finally begin to ensure that our troops will have the armor that they need. the armor and equipment that they need. a plan to get them home most importantly. and to ensure that we can begin to transition in Iraq so that the Iraqi people will be able to stand on their own. run their democracy and make sure that they can focus on solving the civil war and the strife that is going on in the midst of their country. because that is essentially what we have been doing for them. What we have been doing for them that we can no longer continue to do is inserting ourselves in the middle of their chaos without plans to be able to withdraw. without a single brigade of their army completely trained to stand on their own. It is time and the American people have insisted that it is time to begin to move in the direction where we can shift the mission from combat to training. where we can focus our troops that will remain there by the end of next year on counterterrorism. on putting down the insurgency and on making sure that the Iraqi troops are well trained so that they can continue to move forward with their experiment in democracy. That is what the legislation that we passed today will do. and I am so proud of our caucus and of our colleagues and of our leadership for the work that we have done together. for the unity that we showed. for the courage that so many of our colleagues showed. Mr. Speaker. We have a very diverse caucus. a very diverse group of Democratic Members who for a variety. of reasons. for a variety of soul searching were able to come together from all of the different facets of the philosophical spectrum. to come together today and pass this extremely important legislation. Mr. Speaker. I have been in public office for 14 years. I have only served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 2 years. but that was one of the most emotional experiences and the most difficult experiences that I know I have gone through. And I cast that vote knowing that I had the support of my constituents. knowing and confident that my constituents want to make sure that we can bring those American troops home. I had an opportunity to travel and spend some time with our troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center a few weeks ago before we voted on the resolution opposing the Presidents escalation proposal. I have said this the last few times we have talked about this on the floor. I had a chance to speak to a number of different troops individually. One young man who has stayed with me. and I think Ive thought about him and his family every single day since then. As a mom with little kids. I have 7yearold twins and a 3yearold little girl. Almost every major vote I cast. I cast -with them in mind. There is another generation of Americans who we are going to protect from that vote that we cast today. And this young man who I had a chance to meet with. he had just gotten home from his third tour of duty. Each was a year. His third tour and his 6yearold little boy was in the room along with his wife and his little boy was so excited and just full of vibrancy and life. He shook my hand. It was just so neat to be able to talk. to him. He told me that his daddy was finally going to be coming home for good. forever. in August. He had come down with a really inexplicable illness and was convalescing at Walter Reed. And when the young man told me that he had been through his third tour of duty and that his boy was 6. it was not lost on me that he had missed half of his sons life. a 6yearold little boy with his dad gone for 3 separate years. That is just unacceptable. That is not what the procedures are supposed to require of our men and women in uniform. There is supposed to be at least 365 days of noncombat duty in between tours. The legislation that we passed today will ensure that that will happen. The legislation that we passed today will ensure that our troops have the equipment that they need. It will ensure that $1.7 billion in funding will provide the health care that our veterans need. I listened to a lot of the speeches on the- floor. almost all of them. today. What we continually heard from our friends on the other side of the aisle was almost as if maybe they didnt K> read the bill. maybe they werent paying attention. but more likely they were just being political. I heard comments about how our legislation didnt provide the equipment for the troops. when up until now it is this President. with the acknowledgment of the military leadership. that has sent our troops into harms way without the proper training. We have the least trained. least prepared Army that we have ever had at this point. spread as thin as they possibly could be spread. and then they have the nerve on the other side of the aisle to suggest that it is ius that is not providing the protection for our troops. That is ludicrous. Im not sure whether theyre not listening to their constituents when theyre home or not having a chance like I did and like I know you have to sit down with troops who have been in the line of duty. Maybe theyre listening with different ears or maybe more likely theyre listening with a different heart. because the heart that I listened with knows that we cant allow the pointless loss of human life anymore. not for our men and women in uniform and not for the Iraqi people who are also losing their lives in the midst of chaos. If we are going to focus on the war on terror. we should be shifting our approach to the war in Afghanistan. where we provide a significant infusion of funding. badly needed funding so that we can turn Afghanistan back around. If you recall. Mr. Speaker. after the tragedy of 9/11 and we initially went in to respond to that tragedy. to stand up for America. we went into Afghanistan and we got rid of the Taliban and we made sure that we could restore human rights in that country and we could restore the rights of women to go to school and to walk in public without a burqa and to really shine the light of freedom on a country that lived in darkness for decades. Instead. this President and this Republican leadership shifted our focus. lost our purpose. lost their way. or gave up is really a better way to put it. and invaded Iraq under false pretenses. provided this Congress. many of our colleagues who voted "yes" relying on the information from this administration that it was out of necessity. This wasnt a war of necessity. This was a war of choice. We dont have the luxury of going into wars of choice. Mr. Speaker. when we have wars of necessity like Afghanistan. when we have a situation like we have in Iran. where we have a leader in that country who has threatened the very existence of the State of Israel. our closest ally in the Middle East. where we have nations in the Middle East who truly want to see democracy fail. Instead. we have created an incubator for terrorism in Iraq. I heard colleagues on the other side of the aisle speak today about how we were going to lose the war on terror if we passed this legislation today. Well. the administration has made the war on terror worse. has made the likelihood of being attacked greater by creating the cesspool that exists in that nation. We must take the steps that the legislation that I proudly supported and that you proudly supported today. that that legislation will do so that we can put some benchmarks in place. so that we can make sure. just like the President said on January 10. so that we can establish some benchmarks. make sure that the Iraqi leadership meets those benchmarks. and if they dont. then the blank check and the openended commitment to this pbintless war will end. That is the direction that we are now moving in. I am please d to be joined by my good friend and neighbor from the State of Florida. my colleague. Mr. KENDRICK MEEK.