Message From the Senate

MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE -- (House of Representatives - June 15, 2006)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Pennsylvania for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, every Member of this House wants our Nation and our coalition partners to succeed in helping the Iraqis establish a democratic government that respects human rights and abides by the rule of law and to succeed in standing up Iraqi security forces that can maintain order and protect their citizens.

We pray, of course, for the safe return of our brave servicemen and -women who are fighting for freedom half a world away, and we applaud their success last week in eliminating the terrorist murderer Zarqawi. The professionalism, bravery, and sacrifice of our Armed Forces are indeed awe-inspiring.

This year, Mr. Speaker, 2006, should be a year of transition in Iraq; and it is my expectation that the United States will be able to reduce the American troop deployment over the ensuing months and transfer the risks and responsibilities to the duly elected government of Iraq. That is what has been proposed.

Today, it is regrettable that this Republican majority seeks to exploit this critical issue of national security for political advantage. The resolution before us, like the Hunter resolution that was debated last December, was drafted, in my view, for political reasons.

As Majority Leader Boehner explained, its purpose is an opportunity to create ``a portrait of contrasts between Republicans and Democrats.''

For our country's sake, for our troops' sake, the majority should have offered a resolution that sought unity, rather than division.

There are provisions in this resolution, of course, with which all of us agree. I, for one, strongly share the resolve to prevail in the war on terror. However, this resolution misstates, in my opinion, the facts about why the Bush administration instigated our military action against the Hussein regime in 2003. It paints a picture of Iraq today that does not comport with the reality on the ground, and it ignores the fundamental responsibility of this Congress to conduct meaningful oversight of the administration's conduct of this war.

The political motivations underlying this resolution have been laid bare; and, thus, I will be forced to vote ``no.''

The American people will not be deceived by this exercise today which our Republican colleague of North Carolina (Mr. Jones) labeled a charade.

The American people know, as Lieutenant General Gregory Newbold, the former commanding general of the 1st Marine Division, said, ``What we are living with now is the consequences of successive policy failures.''

The administration manipulated intelligence on weapons of mass destruction. It ignored the advice of top military commanders and sent too few troops to accomplish the task; and, consequently, we failed to stabilize Iraq after Hussein was rightfully removed from power.

It fired police and security forces and oil workers, which fueled the instability and initiated war before making alternative plans to shut off escape routes to the north when the Turks would not let us come in.

It had no effective plan to quickly get infrastructure repaired and rebuilt. It failed to properly equip our own troops, as Mr. Murtha has observed, 2,500 of whom have given the ultimate measure of sacrifice in this war.

It grossly underestimated the costs of the war at about $60 billion, which now stands six times larger and more.

And when confronted with concrete evidence of widespread mistreatment of detainees in American custody, the President failed to hold anyone in his administration accountable.

Sadly, and dangerously, according to the Pew Research Center, the global credibility of the United States has sharply declined.

The record of the Republican Congress is, in my opinion, no less disturbing. This proud body, the people's House, has abdicated its oversight role and failed to root out waste, fraud and corruption so prevalent in Iraq today.

Nearly $9 billion in reconstruction funds are unaccounted for. No-bid contracts have been awarded to private contractors such as Halliburton. Detainees in American custody have been abused and, in some instances, killed, and still, still, there is no effective oversight on these matters in the Congress of the United States.

In the face of one of the most important issues before our country, we have been presented with politics as usual.

It is an effort to divide, when an effort to unite was in our country's and our Armed Forces' best interest.

I regret that I have to vote ``no.'' I believe success in our efforts in Iraq is important to achieve, but partisanship only impedes the attainment of that objective; an objective, hopefully, that we all share.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

http://thomas.loc.gov/