Madam Speaker, like many of my colleagues, I spent part of yesterday commemorating the horrific attacks on our Nation 5 years ago. It was a day to reflect on the courage and compassion demonstrated on September 11, 2001, by police officers, firefighters, medical personnel, and ordinary citizens. It was also a day to remember those who could not be saved and to say a prayer for the families, especially the young children, who were left behind.

For the first few minutes of his prime time speech last night, the President covered all those things. But, unfortunately, he used the rest of his time exploiting a national day of mourning to justify the occupation of Iraq, a disastrous policy and a failure that has led to untold death and destruction and has been rejected by the American people. He has done this from almost the very moment those planes hit the towers. The President once again blurred the distinction between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, even though it has been well established that one had nothing to do with the other.

Actually, the President must believe that the American people don't know the difference between the two men and the two countries. What an insult to the American people.

The fact is, we never finished the job in Afghanistan. Bin Laden remains on the run, even though we had him surrounded in Tora Bora nearly 5 years ago. Far from some paragon of freedom, much of Afghanistan is still dominated by Taliban rebels and warlords, with the opium trade remaining the country's dominant economic force.

From 9/11 on, the President has used his status as a wartime Commander in Chief to justify just about anything he wanted to do, without any oversight or accountability from the Republican-controlled Congress, running rough-shod over the Constitution, wiretapping American citizens without a warrant and setting up secret gulags around the world.

9/11 cried out for genuine leadership, for a unifying figure who could comfort the Nation while acting intelligently, rather than impulsively, in the face of a new security threat.

To this day, however, the President uses 9/11 as a talking point to make a dishonest argument. Time and time again, he has made the decision to choose partisanship over statesmanship, taking every single opportunity to fracture national unity for a short-term political gain.

Worst of all, the President put Afghanistan aside and became sidetracked by his white whale in Iraq, using deception, spin and misinformation to push the Nation into an ill-fated war.

Fast forward a few years and look at the mess we are in: nearly 2,700 American soldiers are dead, and over 20,000 wounded; the occupation is costing our Nation dearly and our children and grandchildren will get stuck with the bill, a bill which is projected to top $1 trillion.

And what have we gotten for our sacrifice? Well, we are now a global pariah, viewed with suspicion by even our closest allies, and despised as never before by our enemies. And we have more enemies. This policy has inspired more jihadists and more anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world. Instead of bringing hope to Iraq, we have ripped it apart at the seams. We lit the match that has engulfed Iraq in a bloody civil war, where thugs and vigilantes control the streets. At least 40,000 Iraqi civilians, and possibly many, many more, have been killed for the cause of their so-called liberation.

Our soldiers are not to blame. They do their jobs, and they do their jobs with honor and with valor. They do their jobs, despite being sent on an impossible mission under false pretenses without the proper training or equipment.

Madam Speaker, it is time to return these young people to their families where they belong. It is time, long past time, that we bring our troops home.