Thank you Madam Secretary for appearing before our Committee today to speak on the subject of Iraq.  I would also like to thank Chairman Lantos for holding this briefing.

All of us listened carefully to the President last night as he laid out his new strategy for achieving victory in Iraq.

As the President moves to implement his new strategy, the Congress will be heavily engaged in debating and discussing its merits, large and small.

There already has been much criticism.

Some have already come to unshakeable conclusions without offering any alternatives.

We are approaching a national decision, one that will have enormous and fateful consequences for us.

The real issue is not the number of troops but the bigger question of what is at stake in the war. 

What is at stake is to create a viable alternative for the development of the Middle East away from secular dictatorships and Islamic fundamentalists.

Secular dictatorships oppress their people and provide no opportunity for development, thus driving them into the hateful ideology of fanatical fundamentalism.

Fundamentalism is a reactionary movement, hostile to freedom. 

This makes our efforts in Iraq worthwhile, and the question of troops is a military matter in attempting to achieve this goal.

Some do not want to discuss this larger purpose but instead are attempting to politicize the issue by focusing purely on the number of troops, as though fewer troops is always better. 

But fewer troops is not the case when the goal is important to our foreign policy and to freedom.

It is essential that we remain ever aware that our national debate and discussion will not occur within a cocoon.

The entire world will be watching.

Al Jazeera and others will ensure that no weakness of ours nor internal political struggle will go unnoticed.

All are waiting to see what we will decide as a nation.

What the global audience is wondering is:  What will the most powerful country in the world, the friend of many, the enemy of others, do?

Because our decision will have an impact far beyond Iraq’s borders, and will be a major factor in the calculations of our friends and our enemies.

We shall not doubt that, however we might try to disguise it, a withdrawal while Iraq is still in chaos would be regarded around the world as a victory by our enemies.

It is certain that large areas in that country would become secure bases for terrorists operating against us globally.

And they would employ strategies and methods elsewhere that were devised and proven successful in Iraq.

No border would stop them.

They will be emboldened in their efforts to drive us out.

For we will have demonstrated that we will abandon allies, that we can in fact be forced to accept defeat, regardless of its consequences.

Yes, withdrawal is an option, but ultimately a disastrous one.  We must not deceive ourselves.

We may devise some fig leaf to hide our actions, but the world will not be fooled, our friends will not be fooled, and our enemies will not be fooled.

Of course, the U.S. cannot bring about victory in Iraq by itself, regardless of our effort.

Unless the Iraqi government, the leaders of the various communities, and the Iraqi people themselves are persuaded to cooperate and defend themselves and their country, it is difficult to see a path to victory.

But the lack of a clear path is no argument for standing still, and even less to flee.

We cannot stand on the sidelines, hoping that silence will protect us or believe that our words and actions cannot harm our country.

We are at the beginning of a new century.

It has already proven to be a far more difficult one than we had at first hoped.

I am certain that we will undergo many trials that no one can foresee.

But many times in our history, we have encountered great difficulties, many of them far more threatening than that which we now face in Iraq, many of them seemingly unconquerable.

And yet every time, we rose to face them…and prevailed.

Let me end with a quote from Lincoln in a letter he sent to the Congress in the depths of the Civil War:

"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history.

We of this Congress and this Administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves.  No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us.

The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation."

He was correct.  He is still correct.  We can either shape our own fate, or have it shaped for us.

In determining our course, we must remember that destiny is neither preordained nor imposed.

It is a choice, one that we must now make.