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“TIME TO END THE MISTAKEN WAR IN IRAQ” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H7767-H7768 on July 12, 2007.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TIME TO END THE MISTAKEN WAR IN IRAQ
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hall) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. HALL of New York. Mr. Speaker, a recent CRS report shows that the United States is now spending $10 billion a month fighting the war in Iraq. That is over $2.5 billion a week. And what does the American taxpayer get for this $10 billion a month? An army, nearly broken by repeated deployments; a National Guard that is unwilling and unable to respond to natural disasters or terrorist attacks at home because many of our men and women are in Iraq and most of their equipment is; an escalation in Iraq that has resulted in more death and little reduction in violence; an Iraqi government that is unable to govern; Iraqi Security Forces that refuse to fully stand up.
The war in Iraq costs every man, woman and child in New York's Nineteenth District $3,077. For over $3,000 a person, the people of my district have gotten a war that was a strategic mistake and has made them less safe.
Today, the House of Representatives considered another bill for a responsible withdrawal from the war in Iraq. The Responsible Redeployment From Iraq Act requires U.S. troops to redeploy from Iraq by April 1, 2008. After 4 years of repeated failure and little accountability, the new Congress is working to repair the damage done to our military and change the direction of this country.
When the President came to Congress to ask for additional funding for the war in Iraq, I established a guiding principle for determining my vote. Any legislation I voted for would have to contain a responsible specific timeline to redeploy U.S. troops out of Iraq. Furthermore, the bill would have to contain benchmarks that would hold the Iraqi government accountable.
Following this principle, I voted four times in 5 months to provide nearly $100 billion for extra military spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, including extra money to improve our fight against al Qaeda in Afghanistan. These bills also required the Iraqi parliament to meet specific benchmarks to reduce violence and limit sectarian violence. Further, they required the President to follow troop readiness standards established by our own Pentagon. Unfortunately, the President ignored the will of the American people and vetoed the first bill that Congress sent him.
The President blindly insists that America continue down the same path in Iraq. The President's path has left our troops in the middle of Iraq's civil war, weakened U.S. national security, and is devastating our military's ability to fight.
The President refuses to listen to his own State Department's report showing that the Taliban is reemerging as a dominant force in Afghanistan, dramatized by the most recent disheartening sight of young girls being machine-gunned as they left their school, a tactic that is used to try to intimidate parents into not sending their girls to school.
Our men and women in uniform in both Iraq and Afghanistan have performed bravely and worked to achieve every mission their leadership has given them. Our troops have performed heroically in Iraq. But the administration concedes that violence remains high; that the Iraqi government has failed to meet the benchmarks endorsed by the President in January; that political reconciliation is nonexistent.
Finally, after years of silence, even President Bush's allies have realized that the current path in Iraq cannot be sustained. Senator Domenici says, ``There is no reason to wait. I am trying to tell the President that he must change his ways because there is nothing positive happening.'' And Senator Lamar Alexander said, ``The President needs a new strategy.''
It is time our troops had leadership worthy of their service, leadership that will give them achievable missions that improve the security of the American people.
That is why I supported the Responsible Redeployment From Iraq Act that requires that the President publicly justify the number of troops he needs to carry out post-redeployment missions such as protecting embassy staff, force protection, and fighting international terrorist organizations in Iraq. It is time the American people saw a change in our course.
In the time it has taken me to give this speech, we have spent another roughly $1 million in Iraq. $1 million for every 5 minutes we spend in Iraq, for a war that has made us less safe and has weakened our military.
It is time to change our course in Iraq and refocus on the threats in Afghanistan, where the 9/11 attacks were planned and the al Qaeda and the Taliban continue to plot. It is time we end our mistaken war in Iraq.
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