Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 1591, U.S. Troop Readiness, Veteran's Health, And Iraq Accountability Act, 2007
Floor Speech
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 1591, U.S. TROOP READINESS, VETERANS' HEALTH, AND IRAQ ACCOUNTABILITY ACT, 2007 -- (House of Representatives - March 22, 2007)
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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, the fine chairman of our Appropriations Committee, and say he would know that because he also is featured in the same magazine.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this first counteroffensive to the Bush administration's reckless approach to the global war on terrorism that has yielded an Iraqi civil war, over 3,200 U.S. dead, nearly 25,000 injuries, the evaporation of the coalition of the willing, tens of thousands of dead Iraqis, growing terrorism, hatred of America across the Islamic world, and shock and dismay among America's closest democratic allies globally.
The Bush administration has no answers. In fact, their budgets for this war reveal how lost at sea they are. Every single year they have asked for more in emergency add-ons than they planned to spend in the base budget bill itself.
Yet our brave troops fight on to hold the military edge. And this bill helps us fight harder for them by not asking them to bear the full burden of this war, because it sets a timetable for progress and requires the President to meet benchmarks he, himself, has set.
Our vote today funds our troops but, importantly, signals that victory means one-third military and two-thirds diplomacy and good governance and sets a timetable to get there, not just militarily, but strategically and diplomatically.
If they knew what they were doing, these expenditures would have been built into the base budget, not afterthoughts. Look how out of touch they are with what was required: FY 2001 (Emergency Supplemental); $13.9 billion; FY 2002 (Supplemental): $3.4 billion; FY 2002 (Supplemental): $14.1 billion; FY 2003 (Supplemental): $66.0 billion; FY 2004 (Supplemental): $86.1 billion; FY 2005 (Supplemental): $79.0 billion; FY 2006 (Supp): $69.3 billion.
Additionally, there is the critical money appropriated by Congress that the Administration did not even think to ask for: FY 2005 Defense Appropriations Act: $25.7 billion; FY 2006 Defense Appropriations Act: $50 billion; FY 2007 Defense Appropriations Act: $70 billion.
Despite Congress voting all the funding that was requested, and even adding some additional where necessary, how is that our soldiers across the theatre don't have the right equipment? Just today, I received a call from an uncle of a Marine about to be deployed to Anbar Province:
``His Kevlar vest isn't the right size, he has no visor to properly sync with his laser-guided weapon. The Marines are having to pay for supplies themselves like fire retardant gloves, duct tape, 550 cord, oil lubricants for the weapons, not enough boots, two sets of uniforms rather than the five they should be issued, and they are too big.''
Our vote today funds our troops. But importantly signals that victory means 1/3 military and 2/3 diplomacy and good governance and sets a timetable to get there, not just militarily but strategically and diplomatically.
It falls to the Democrats to pick up the pieces of a failed foreign policy. And that is exactly what we are doing with this vote. No one here is operating under the illusion that we are presented with good choices. Importantly, this vote funds the troops we have in theatre. Although this bill holds the hope of redeploying our troops more effectively no later than a year from now, it continues to impose almost the entire burden of the mission in Iraq on our military. Meanwhile, U.S. policy is exacerbating terrorism and begetting violence that could spill over into Jordan, Turkey, Bahrain, Kuwait, Pakistan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia--all while the Afghan war is becoming more challenging.
Whatever happened to the coalition of the willing?
Where are the neighbors of Iraq?
Where are the diplomats to address the Israel-Palestinian standoff?
In Egypt, 70 percent of the public unfavorably views the United States. In Jordan, U.S. favorability has fallen to 15 percent. In Saudi Arabia, from where the majority--9-11 terrorists emerged, the U.S. is disliked by 76 percent of it citizens. Gallup polls tell us why: America is viewed as not on the side of rising popular expectations for a more democratic way of life. The United States is viewed as a promiscuous culture in moral decay. Abu Ghraib affirmed them in their views.
Granted, no single vote here will quickly repair the damage to our nation's prestige, mend the broken hearts, or put back together the broken lives of thousands of American and Iraqi families.
No single vote will invigorate Iraq's neighbors to promote regional stability.
No single vote will win the war on terrorism.
No single vote will free America from her dangerous dependency on imported oil from dictatorships.
America faces a strategic challenge much larger than Iraq. It requires aligning America on the side of democratic dreams of underprivileged people, not just the super-rich, in the vast undemocratic places where terrorists are being spawned. The Bush Administration's proclivity to support the aristocrats of the world at the expense of everyone else is raining havoc down on our world as Big Oil lines up to pump out Iraq's oil--Exxon Mobil, Conoco Phillips, Chevron Texaco, even foreign companies as Total, Royal Dutch Shell, and BP.
I am not entirely comfortable with this vote.
I imagine no Member is entirely comfortable with spending another $100 billion, on top of $379 billion, on the war in Iraq, a war that has now lasted longer than World Wars I and II combined.
In my congressional district in Northern Ohio, communities are struggling to revive an unresponsive economy. Families are having trouble making ends meet.
In Ohio, we desperately need new roads and bridges and sewers. We need health care and education. But the Bush Administration is obsessed with Iraq. Billions of dollars for Iraq--pennies for Ohio. We are shortchanging our citizens and our children in the name of a failed policy.
This vote, however, marks the beginning of the end of the Bush Administration's colossal foreign policy debacle.
Our vote today will ensure a beginning to an end of this failed foreign policy that decouples our military from a failed foreign policy, of the immense drain on our purse, an end to the injuries to, and deaths of, our brave soldiers. And an end to the growing disrespect of our great country in every corner of the world.
I have opposed this war from the beginning. I said on this same floor in October 2002 that war against Iraq ``will not make America safer, because unilateral military action without broad international support will isolate America further. It will thrust us into the position of becoming a common enemy in a volatile region where anti-western terrorism grows with each passing year. It will not make the region more stable either. The Bush approach will yield more terrorism and instability, not less.''
How I wish that I could say I was wrong in 2002.
But what I feared most has come to pass.
In December 2005, General Abizaid said: ``The battle against Al Qaeda will not be primarily military. It will be political, economic and ideological. If you look at the geography of Al Qaeda, there is not a place to put a military solution.''
Since returning from Iraq, I have repeated what Generals Petraeus and Odierno said to us: ``Victory is one-third military, two-thirds diplomacy and good governance.'' America has focused all of our efforts on our military campaign, while the Commander-in-Chief has failed to support our soldiers with diplomatic and political efforts to wrap around their operations. Instead, these valiant men and women fall victim to a Commander-In-Chief who has not only bungled the war on terrorism, but utterly failed in his role as Diplomat-In-Chief for our nation. He is isolating America. Why should our soldiers bear the heavy burden of winning when the good governance piece is completely absent?
President Bush refuses to listen, refuses to change course. His obstinate attitude is shocking.
I am voting for this supplemental precisely because it turns up the pressure on President Bush and forces him to account for his disastrous strategy. The status quo is not an option.
This war must end. Although this emergency supplemental spending bill is not a perfect solution to this vast problem, the legislation points the way to a long-overdue course correction.
It is important to note: it does so without endangering the courageous and patriotic soldiers serving us in the Middle East. It is an exquisite response to the false choices the Bush Administration specializes in offering to us.
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