Date: 2007-03-07
Speaker: CORRINE BROWN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. I rise today with an apology. Last week. I was in the grocery store in Jacksonville. Florida. A veteran working part time told me about a friend who was at Walter Reed. and he had pictures showing the problems that were occurring there. He walked me to the car and said that there was no way. he would ever vote again for a Republican after seeing what the pictures showed. I couldnt believe what he was describing to me of a military facility. And I told him. "You cant believe everything that you see on the Internet." The next day. the very next day. the story was in the Washington Post. I am going back to that grocery store to personally apologize to that veteran. The fact that an active duty soldier was treated this way is inconceivable. I did not vote for this war. The military is doing the job they were sent to do. There was a flaw in the mission from the beginning. and the flaw lies with us. American soldiers have performed admirably under trying conditions. conditions they were not trained for and conditions they should not be in. We won the war but lost the occupation. Our soldiers deserve better when they get back. We can send 484 tons of money. $12 billion. to Iraq for who knows what. but when it comes to the wellbeing of those soldiers. there is no money. According to the VA. it will cost $1.7 billion to include all veterans in the VA health dare system. What are the priorities of this administration? There are all kinds of justifications. all kinds of sanctimony. frightening the American people into supporting a $600 billion war in Iraq. We have a $3 trillion budget. and we are sending nearly $1 trillion to a country of 28 million people. We are building an embassy in Baghdad of 104 acres. This is six times larger than the. United Nations compound in New York and twothirds the acreage of Washingtons National Mall. The embassy compound. 21 buildings on 104 acres. is the size of Vatican City and will be the largest in the world. It will employ over 5.500 people. The embassy will cost over $1 billion. This is the priority of this Bush administration. 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 for some reason. they just dont get the message. Nearly 70 percent of the American people want us out of Iraq. and 100 percent deplore the treatment the administration is giving the veterans at the time of their most urgent need. I will go back to Jacksonville and apologize to this veteran. I will be able to look him in the eye and say that this will not stand. We will make sure our soldiers come back to the best care this great Nation can provide. I am reminded. in closing. of the words of the first President of the United States. George Washington. whose words are worth repeating at this time: "The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war. no matter how justified. shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their country."