Mr. Speaker, it has been almost 39 months since our troops were sent to Iraq; and today, more than 37 months after the President declared their mission accomplished, they are still there, still fighting a guerrilla war for which they weren't properly trained or equipped, still paying for the tragic blunders of their civilian superiors, and still risking life and limb because of a security threat that never even existed.

If American troops are still in Iraq at year's end, and, unfortunately, it appears they might be, we will have been in Iraq longer than these soldiers' grandfathers fought in World War II. The difference is that that was a much different war, with a clearer objective, a national consensus, a moral core, and a just cause.

Not only has Iraq not made us safer; it has actually harmed our national security, making the United States an international pariah, provoking the range of anti-American jihadists around the Muslim world, and stoking the fires of an insurgency that gets stronger every day, every day that we are in Iraq.

And that doesn't even take into account the staggering human cost, the 2,500th American soldier killed just yesterday, more than 1,800 soldiers gravely wounded, thousands of others mentally and physically traumatized by their combat experience, not to mention the countless tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians who died for the cause of their own so-called liberation.

Mr. Speaker, the sham resolution that the Republicans in Congress brought to the floor yesterday and that we voted on just a few minutes ago is yet another partisan divisive attempt to stay the course and to link support for this war to support for our troops.

We could have debated particulars of a military disengagement. We could have a substantive discussion that results in an actual change in the Nation's Iraq policy. Instead, we did nothing more than a little Kabuki dance that at the end of the day won't change a single thing except to prove that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are willing to distort the facts and use the war and our troops for politics.

There is nothing inconsistent about having the deepest contempt for the war, but the utmost admiration for the soldiers on the front lines. Last fall, I traveled to Iraq and visited with our troops. My conversations with them only confirmed what I already knew, that these are uniquely loyal, intelligent, and courageous Americans. They represent the very finest our country has to offer, and they deserve our unyielding gratitude every hour of every day.

If only they had civilian leaders who were worthy of their service and their sacrifice. If only the people who are running this war had half the honor, half the integrity of the men and women who are fighting it. It is because I support the troops that I have advocated so passionately for their return home. And we can do that, and we can do it without abandoning Iraq.

We must establish a multilateral security force to keep the peace in Iraq while shifting the U.S. role from military occupier to reconstruction partner. This is what the American people want, Mr. Speaker. They want to help Iraq rebuild and become a free democratic society, but they want it done without another drop of American bloodshed. They want their sons and daughters, they want their mothers and fathers, their brothers and sisters, their friends and neighbors back home where they belong.

What we need now is action from Washington, not platitudes and photo opportunities, not inconsequential resolutions that require lawmakers to risk absolutely nothing. The American people are looking to Washington. They are begging for leadership. It is time this Congress and the President of the United States provided some.