Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 2006 and 2007

FOREIGN RELATIONS AUTHORIZATION ACT, FISCAL YEARS 2006 AND 2007 -- (House of Representatives - July 20, 2005)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Chairman, I oppose the gentlewoman from Florida's amendment. This war in Iraq was based on false or falsified information. This war was a mistake. It has been mismanaged with incredible incompetence by the Bush administration. Everything we have been told about this war has been wrong. It has created even more terrorists in the region. It has not made us more secure. It has made us less secure. It has diminished our standing in the world. It has even compromised our credibility as a defender of human rights.

Mr. Chairman, I believe we must begin an orderly withdrawal of our troops now. It takes no particular amount of patriotism or courage for anyone in this Congress to stand up and wrap themselves in the American flag and say, stay the course; nor is it patriotic or courageous to be silent or indifferent when we believe and when we know what is happening is wrong.

It is not our lives on the line. We owe our troops who are serving with great courage much better than we are giving them. And to suggest, as this resolution does, that those of us who oppose this war are somehow ``emboldening terrorists,'' is, to say the least, grotesque.

Let me state clearly, Mr. Chairman, and for the record, I believe it is time for George Bush to end this war. I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

http://thomas.loc.gov