HOUSE FLOOR STATEMENT OF U.S. REP. JIM MCGOVERN ON IRAQ RESOLUTION

Contact: Michael Mershon
(202) 225-6101

June 15, 2006

I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma, Mr. Cole, for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself 8 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, we will not be having a real debate on Iraq today.

It will be a pretend debate, one that will have absolutely no effect on U.S. policy.

No amendments. No substitutes. No chance for Members of Congress to actually do their jobs by making thoughtful changes to the bill.

The distinguished Chairman of the International Relations committee testified before the Rules Committee that the resolution before us will at least give members the chance to “get things off our chest.”

Mr. Speaker, I’m not interested in therapy, I’m interested in changing this failed policy.

This process is disrespectful to the men and women of our armed forces, disrespectful to the people we represent, and disrespectful to the traditions of this House.

The Bush Administration is trying to encourage, cajole and sometimes even strong-arm the Iraqi government into being more inclusive – to respect the rights and privileges of the minority, to embrace the democratic process.

Well, I hope the Government of Iraq is not watching today – because the Republican majority certainly has no intention of teaching by example.

We are all committed to a sovereign, free, secure and united Iraq. The important question remains: To achieve this goal, is the U.S. committed to keeping 150,000 – or 100,000 – or 50,000 American military men and women in Iraq for an indefinite amount of time, perhaps even decades into the future?

Under the current policy, the mission in Iraq is never ending. The resolution before us asks us not just to stay the course, but to stay forever.

The reason why so many of us – Democrats and Republicans – want to have a meaningful debate and meaningful VOTES on the war in Iraq is because the Bush Administration has lost our confidence and our trust.

And for too long, the Congress has given the Administration blank checks and unchecked authority. We have abdicated our responsibilities. We haven’t done our job, which is to legislate, to conduct oversight, and to shape the policy of this Nation.

Mr. Speaker, the reality of our policy in Iraq is one characterized by corruption, mismanagement, incompetence, and self-delusion. 2,493 American soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen have died since the beginning of the war – 94 percent of them since the president declared, “Mission Accomplished.”

And despite unanimous Congressional agreements against permanent military base funding, the Republican majority stripped these provisions from the emergency supplemental conference report presented to the House on Tuesday.

In the period leading up to the war, the president said “Imagine a terrorist network with Iraq as an arsenal and as a training ground.” Unfortunately, we don’t have to imagine that anymore – the State Department now reports that Iraq is indeed a terror haven. The very thing we wanted to prevent by going to war was actually created by the war.

Certainly the death of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is welcome news. We didn’t create Zarqawi, but it was the war in Iraq that offered him the opportunity to kill American soldiers and innocent Iraqi civilians and to inflame sectarian hatreds.

But as we all know, foreign terrorists represent only 6 to 8 percent of those committing violence in Iraq. By far, most attacks are carried out by Iraqi Sunni insurgents and by the growing Shiite and Sunni sectarian groups battling each other.

The American-backed effort to arm tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers and officers, coupled with a failure to curb a nearly equal number of militia gunmen, has created a galaxy of armed groups, each with its own loyalty and agenda. Sectarian violence has become almost as serious a threat as the insurgency.

As former commander of US Central Command General Anthony Zinni said in April, “these militias will be a fact of life after we are gone. . . No one seems to have a plan for the militias.”

It’s a disturbingly familiar refrain, Mr. Speaker -- “no one seems to have a plan.”

On the ground, reconstruction is not going well. A plan to build 150 health care clinics has not resulted in much more than empty shells and uneven walls. Power blackouts remain a constant frustration. Only 19 percent of Iraqis today have working sewer connections, down from 24 percent before the war.

While most Iraq reconstruction projects are way behind schedule, there’s one construction effort that’s right on target: the $592 million U.S. Embassy, which will be the size of about 80 football fields.

The recent report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found massive corruption and mismanagement of U.S. aid. Billions of dollars have been lost or squandered through fraud and corruption, much of it by a handful of corporate contractors with special, privileged ties to the Administration – and the near complete lack of systematic oversight of funds.

And still, Mr. Speaker, there is no accountability for this money, and no accountability for this war, not within the Republican White House, and not here in this Republican House.

This is a critical point. Because this debate MUST be about more than simply how long we will stay in Iraq.

Where is the accountability for the corruption taking place in our reconstruction projects?

Where is the accountability for our troops receiving faulty body armor and other equipment?

Where is the accountability for the lack of funding to provide services for all the veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who are dealing with post-traumatic stress and other needs?

Where is the accountability for the creation of death-squad-type militias within the Iraqi police and security forces?

Where is the accountability for the abuse of prisoners and detainees, which is costing the U.S. so much of its credibility and standing in the international community?

It is not the role of the Congress to turn a blind eye to whatever the Administration wants to do.

Quite the opposite.

It is our responsibility to oversee every single taxpayer dollar that is being spent on this war.

The total bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, stands at $450 billion.

If we stay in Iraq for just one more year, we will have spent – off-budget, off the books – half-a-trillion-dollars on this war, a debt that President Bush and the Republican majority intend to pass onto our children and grandchildren.

Leadership, Mr. Speaker, requires courage. It requires taking responsibility. It requires accountability. It demands competence. In every single one of these areas, the White House, the Pentagon, this Republican Congress score an “F” for failure.

Instead, all the American people are getting is a world-class PR and spin campaign coming out of the White House.

Make no mistake. H. Res. 861 requires no accountability from the White House or the Congress on the war in Iraq.

It won’t provide any increased protection for our troops on the ground.

It won’t protect our tax dollars from further waste, fraud or abuse.

It won’t demand direction, let alone a plan, from the president about how and when our troops will return home.

So here we are, treating the issues of war and the safety of our troops with a resolution that carries the same force of law as a resolution congratulating a sports team.

Quite frankly, this process is an outrage, and it should be rejected by this House.

I reserve the balance of my time.