Congressman Jim McGovern's Statement on the Iraq War Supplemental Funding Bill

Statement

Mr. Speaker -

Five years ago, in a well-orchestrated public relations stunt that featured landing on an aircraft carrier, President Bush proclaimed, "In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."

Just two weeks ago, on the fifth anniversary of Mission Accomplished, the White House could only express exasperation that anyone would even make a fuss that five years have gone by and we're still in Iraq, deeper than ever.

Here's why people are making such a fuss, Mr. Speaker:

- Over 4,000 American servicemen and women killed in Iraq;
- Over 30,000 of our troops wounded or maimed;
- A continuing U.S. occupation of Iraq; and
- A mission that is never-ending, never defined, and completely open-ended.

Ironically, the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln - the aircraft carrier where President Bush declared victory in Iraq - was just deployed last week for another tour of duty in the Persian Gulf.

Today, this House will have a choice to make - whether to continue this war well into next year.

Today, we will choose whether to support the George Bush strategy of keeping the war going until he can safely get out of town.

Once again, U.S. forces are engaged in some of the most intense combat since the height of the insurgency. Once again, they are battling Iraqi militias - not al-Qaeda - in the markets, homes and alleyways of Baghdad.

April 2008 was the deadliest month for Iraqi civilians since last August.

The U.N. now reports that 4.7 million Iraqis have been forced by violence to leave their homes. Roughly 2 million of them are refugees in neighboring countries, and another 2.7 million are internally displaced.

What's worse, we don't even have the decency to pay for this war, which has created a mountain of debt that American taxpayers will be paying off for years to come. This generation's mistake is becoming the next generation's burden.

Currently the war costs $2.4 billion each and every week.

Reports estimate that the costs of this war, even if we bring it to an end over the next two years, will exceed $3 trillion when we take into account rebuilding our broken military and addressing the needs of our military veterans.

Billions for the care of the severely wounded.

Billions for the care of veterans traumatized by the war.

Billions to staunch the flow of suicides by young men and women who have served in Iraq.

And billions more to rebuild and re-equip our Armed Forces.

Why can't the Iraqi government, which is currently running a huge surplus, do more to rebuild their own country?

I am currently holding office hours across my congressional district in Massachusetts.

These are mainly small towns and communities.

Every weekend, I meet a steady stream of constituents who come in and want to talk about the war.

People are so disappointed, so frustrated, so angry that this war is still going on. And it's not just Massachusetts - it's Illinois and Louisiana and Mississippi and every other state in the union.

I know, Mr. Speaker, that there will be opportunities today to support strong conditions on the war and the redeployment of our troops.

We will have an opportunity to vote in support of greatly expanded educational benefits for our military veterans and for a generous response to the emergency global food crisis.

And I thank Chairman Obey for those initiatives.

But Mr. Speaker, I cannot vote for one more dime for this war.

Enough is enough. Before he leaves town, George Bush should bring our troops home.

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