Date: 2006-09-19
Speaker: VAN HOLLEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

It was stunning actually. because what you would hope for from our national leaders is some teflection. some understanding that the situation that we encountered in Iraq was not what we expected. that it was not what he said it would be. And. -in fact. unfortunately this administration has never come to grips with the huge gap between what they said would happen in Iraq and with what is happening on the ground. That has exposed. I believe. a great credibility gap. So when the administration says. trust us. we know what we are doing in Iraq. all you people who raise questions. dont you worry about it. I have to say. that is what they told us many. many years ago. That is what Vice President CHENEY said more than a year ago when he said the insurgency was in its last throes. So asking questions and trying to figure out a better way is. in fact. the patriotic thing to do. But I think one of the things that is most surprising is the fact that the administration did not really have a postwar plan. They thought things were going to just go so swimmingly in Iraq. that you did not have to plan for really the postinvasion period. In fact. just about a week ago. there was a general from the Defense Department who not only said that they did not have a postwar plan. but said specifically that Secretary Rumsfeld would punish anybody who came up -with a plan. because it would send a signal to the outside world that this would not be as quick and easy as the Secretary of Defense wanted people to think it was. And let me just. I think it is important to read this excerpt: "Rumsfeld Forbade Planning for Postwar Iraq. General Says. This is out of the Saturday. September 9. Washington Post. "Long before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld forbade military strategists to develop plans for securing a postwar Iraq. the retiring Commander of the Army Transportation Corps said." Brigadier General Mark Scheid said in an interview. that Rumsfeld said "he would fire the next person" who talked about the need for a postwar plan. And we wonder why we are in trouble today in Iraq. We wonder when we open our newspapers or look at television sets why we see such a mess. You know. the terrible thing is that there were people in the administration who had worked on a postwar plan. Many people at the State Department had developed different. scenarios for what would happen and how to respond. But instead of following that plan. the Defense Department essentially junked it. and Secretary Rumsfeld not only did not come up with a plan. but now we have a brigadier general who said that he threatened to fire people who came up with a plan. We need to do some more firing. We need to hold people accountable. We need to hold people accountable who made these big. big mistakes. . Now. one of the other things that we have learned recently. and this may be partly due to the fact that they did not have a postwar plan. was the incompetence of many of the civilians that they sent in there to work on the reconstruction phase in Iraq. You know. we recently passed the 1year anniversary of the terrible Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that struck our States in the Southern United States. struck New Orleans. struck Louisiana. struck Mississippi. And we know all too well that the people in those regions were hit twice really. First they were hit by a terrible hurricane. .and then they were hit by the incompetence of a FEMAthat was headed up by people who were not experts in emergency response. but happened to be political favorites in the administration. Michael Brown. we know that his primary credential was he had been the President bf the Horse Breeders Association.