Victory in Iraq Resolution
VICTORY IN IRAQ RESOLUTION -- (House of Representatives - December 16, 2005)
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Mr. LYNCH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this so-called victory in Iraq resolution, and I do so for two central reasons.
Firstly and procedurally, it is unusual for a resolution which purports to set forth a congressional directive for our military in wartime to be so vague. Notable is the absence of any definition section in this bill. On its face, the resolution commits the Congress and the American people to ``victory in Iraq,'' but no where does it define or attempt to explain what that term means. No where does it set forth the conditions under which an objective observer could determine what number of Iraqi forces must be in place or what functions they must undertake before we begin the withdrawal of U.S. troops which leads me to my second reason for opposing the resolution.
This resolution is essentially a stay-the-course resolution that blindly supports an open-ended commitment to continue to send and keep our sons and daughters in uniform in Iraq and to write a blank check to continue pumping billions of dollars into that country without requiring anything of the new Iraqi Government.
Moreover, this resolution does not allow us to fulfill the constitutional oversight responsibilities of this Congress. It says we need to stay in until the Iraqis stand up. That is rhetoric. We owe the American people better than this.
I am concerned that this resolution may have been offered to position people on either side of the aisle. I support our troops, as we all do, both sides of the aisle. We share that. We also share the heavy responsibility to ensure that our people do not stay in Iraq one minute longer than is required, and this bill does not allow an objective observer or any Member of this Congress to determine when that point is reached, when that point occurs.
With the Iraqi elections yesterday, an enormous success did occur. We have entered that phase of this war that we must ask how much more can we do for the Iraqi people as an occupying force. We must ask whether our presence in Iraq is undermining the stability we hope to provide. At some point, we all have to stop the politics on this issue.
I agree with the gentleman from Ohio, it is not good for America. It is not good for the best Americans, those men and women who are in uniform in Iraq and for their families who are carrying the heaviest burden for all of us.
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