Mr. Speaker, this morning the President of the United States said this about Iraq: ``My message to the enemy is don't count on us leaving before we succeed. Don't bet on American politics forcing my hand because it's not going to happen.''

Except, Mr. Speaker, it is completely unclear what constitutes success under these circumstances. Saying we will stand down when they stand up, well, that is just a talking point that gives the American people no clear guide as to when they can expect this war to end.

By leaving this question vague, by defining success entirely on his own secret terms, the President is allowing himself an open-ended commitment and a blank check in Iraq. As for his hand being forced by American politics, what the President calls American politics is actually a majority of Americans, American citizens outraged at the loss of life, the hundreds of billions spent, and the global credibility we have squandered.

Our people see 2,499, as of yesterday, U.S. troops killed; more than 18,000 U.S. soldiers gravely wounded, and thousands of others mentally and physically traumatized from their experience in the war. They see us losing the equivalent of one battalion every month in Iraq.

And they want answers.

All these sacrifices, and for what? None of it is making Americans or Iraqis safer. In fact, the presence of nearly 150,000 American troops in Iraq has become a rallying point for antiAmerican extremists in the Arab world.

This war becomes a bigger catastrophe with every passing day. And yet the President and the Republican majority have no plan to end it. From the President we get the usual platitudes and this week a photo-op in Iraq. And in this body, what is supposed to be the people's House, we are embarking on a pointless debate on a nonbinding Iraq resolution that is long on rhetoric and short on constructive solutions.

It is time we listened to the American people. It is time that the Commander in Chief stepped up by offering a solution instead of dismissing Americans' anxieties as ``just politics.''

I have outlined a plan that will end the occupation in Iraq while helping Iraq build a free and democratic society. We must engage the international community, including the U.N. and NATO, to establish a multinational interim security force for Iraq. The U.N.'s Department of Peacekeeping Operations is particularly well suited for this task.

We must shift the U.S. role from that of Iraq's military occupier to its reconstruction partner by working with the Iraqi people to rebuild their economic and physical infrastructure, and we must work with the U.N. to establish an International Peace Commission comprised of members of the global community who have experience in international conflict resolution to oversee Iraq's postwar reconciliation process.

They, our troops, have served admirably. They have sacrificed more than enough. We can return them to their families and we can do it without abandoning Iraq. This is what the American people want, Mr. Speaker. They want an end to this war. They are not certain exactly how or when, but it is our job to execute those details. They are looking to us for leadership and it is time the President of the United States, as the Commander in Chief, provided it.