Date: 2007-01-11
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker and Members of the House. last night the President spoke to the Nation and presented his proposal to the Nation to increase the troop levels an additional 20.000 troops to be sent to Iraq to continue the war in Iraq. What the President didnt do was lay out the plan of how that would be successful. how that would be different than what we are currently doing. and how the results would be different. The President. with his initial decision to invade Iraq. a decision that was his choice. and this was not a war of necessity. this was not a war to protect the vital interests of the United States. or the integrity of the United States or the safety of our homeland. this was a war where the President chose to go to war. At the timehe was considering going to war. he was advised by many. We all know this history of many saying not to do this and also saying that this would not work in Iraq with its history. with its culture. with its religious differences. But the President chose to go anyway. and ke have been there now for 3 years. Over 3.000 young Americans have paid with their lives for this endeavor. and over 20.000 have been wounded. seriously wounded. I have had the honor to visit with many of those soldiers as they have returned to Walter Reed Hospital with lifechanging. lifechanging wounds. It is remarkable that they would survive them at all. a great testimony to the medical care that is available to them. but nevertheless. lifechanging injuries for these young men and women. Now the President is suggesting. with his plan for escalation. that we will send another 20.000. The fact of the matter is that American soldiers have done all that they can for the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people. the Iraqi Government. has chosen not to take advantage of having the Americans in the country to resolve their political differences. to resolve their differences of culture and religion. They have chosen to continue to fight. In fact. we find that our soldiers more and more now are simply the targets within the civil war that is going on in Iraq. and for all intents and purposes there is no reason to suggest that that is going to change. The President has suggested that somehow the current Iraqi Government will have to meet some thresholds. Those thresholds are absolutely contrary to the interest of that government in terms of their survival. It is asking for a betrayal of that government against its Shia base. and it fails to recognize how fundamental. how fundamental the clash is between the Sunnis and the Shia. not just in Iraq. but throughout this region. If the President had taken time before the invasion. he might have been able to understand that. But it is a fundamental clash between these two factions in Islam. Because of the actions of this President. he has unleashed the ability of that clash to present very real rewards and very high stakes for either sides. It is not just the oil in Iraq or the governance in Iraq. but it is really about the ability of the Shia to spread their influence beyond Iran. to spread their influence beyond being a majority minority in Iraq. to spread their influence beyond being a minority in Lebanon or in Syria. and these are fundamental. and they go back a long time in the history in the clashes between Sunni and Shia and how the Shia have been treated in countries where they are a minority whether it is in Jordan or whether it is in Saudi Arabia or other countries in the peninsula. This is very. very fundamental. and the stakes are very high. At this moment our troops are a pawn in that game. in spite of what the President suggests that this is about the security of the region. this is about the blooming of democracy. It is not about any of that any longer. It may have been in his mind when he signed the order to send these troops to Iraq. but the fact of the matter is. it has been overwhelmed by history. by culture. by the nature of the region. all of which he made worse by this. disastrous decision of his to choose to go to war in Iraq. The idea now that contrary to the overwhelming desire of the American people to disengage from this area. and of this Congress that he would go forward. is arrogance that is so dangerous. so dangerous to our country. our standing in the world. and our troops in the region that immediately action should be taken in thisCongress to stop this President from going forward with this very dangerous escalation that will do nothing more than add to the list of casualties by American soldiers in this region.