Providing for Consideration of H.R. 4939, Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Hurricane Recovery

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 4939, EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT FOR DEFENSE, THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR, AND HURRICANE RECOVERY, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - March 15, 2006)

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, once again we are asked to provide tens of billions of dollars for the war in Iraq under the pretense that this war, now entering its fourth year, is a so-called unexpected emergency. The Iraq war is indeed an emergency, Mr. Speaker, but it is hardly unexpected.

I support the funds provided in this bill for the continuing hurricane relief and recovery for the people in the gulf coast. I support the funding for emergency humanitarian needs, famine relief and peacekeepers in Darfur, Sudan.

I would like to be clear, Mr. Speaker, I support our diplomatic, humanitarian, economic and military activities in Afghanistan, but I simply cannot support a single dime more for the war in Iraq.

Every day, the American people wake up to headlines describing how much worse the situation grows in Iraq: Iraqi Police Tied to Abuses and Deaths; Chaos in Iraq; U.S. General Says U.S. Troops Add to Instability; 72 Percent of U.S. Troops Want Withdrawal Within a Year.

Mr. Speaker, Iraq is in the midst of a spiraling civil war. On February 26, Pentagon officials said that the number of Iraqi army battalions capable of fighting the insurgency on their own has slipped since September from one battalion to none. The newly formed government is paralyzed by sectarian divisions.

The U.S. has turned its back on rebuilding Iraq. Ironically, the Bush administration has no problem cutting and running on reconstruction for Iraq.

Mr. Speaker, did you know that the only new construction aid in this supplemental is for more prisons in Iraq? Not schools or hospitals or roads, just prisons.

As both the GAO and the Inspector General have determined, there never was any systematic plan for stabilization and reconstruction in Iraq. Now we are paying the price.

Over 2,300 American military men and women have paid the ultimate price, their lives, trying to do their best to implement this awful policy, but it cannot be done, Mr. Speaker. And we cannot allow ourselves to be on the floor of this House next year looking at another so-called emergency supplemental for Iraq and talking about 5,000 or 10,000 American troops who have lost their lives.

It is time to bring our uniformed men and women home. It is time to begin a safe, orderly drawdown of our troops, one that we can control. If the Iraqis are not willing to solve their own problems through less bloody means, then why on Earth should American troops die for them?

Like so many of my House colleagues, once we were in Iraq, I felt we had a moral obligation to help the Iraqis rebuild their nation and form a representative government, but, Mr. Speaker, we are not helping anymore. Our presence is part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Mr. Speaker, it is easy for Members of this House to stand up and say, stay the course because, quite frankly, none of us are risking our lives. None of us are in harm's way. None of us are stuck over there because of the stunning failure and ineptitude of politicians in Washington.

If you want to protect our troops, let's bring them home.

So it is with regret, genuine regret, that I must vote against passage of the supplemental. The House has become addicted to voting for more money for a policy that has gone terribly, terribly wrong. It is time to stop.

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Mr. McGOVERN. I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his courtesy.

I would simply say to the gentleman that the situation in Iraq right now is out of control. There is a civil war. A majority of the Iraqis want us gone. A majority of our troops believe that we should come home.

And I know the gentleman has been there. I have been there, too. Let me tell you something. It is one thing for a United States Congressman to go over and visit in Iraq and be protected 24 hours while they are over there; it is another thing for a American soldier to be put in the middle of a civil war where so many have lost their lives for a policy that has been based on fiction.

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