Join the "Healthcare NOT Warfare" campaign!
PDA 2006 Election Video
» 56K modem
» broadband
Stop Funding War Video
» All
formats
Click here for the Congressional Schedule
![[Improve and Expand Medicare! Send your FREE Fax!]](http://www.1payer.net/ads/1payerfaxad.jpg)
Rep. Jim McGovern made this speech on the House floor around 5:00 PM, Wednesday, January 10, 2007, before the president's televised address:
M. Speaker, tonight we will once again listen to President Bush as he describes yet another strategy for the War in Iraq. By all accounts from the media, the president will tell the nation that he intends to send more U.S. troops to fight and die in Iraq.
This is not “stay the course,” M. Speaker, this is escalation.
And at a bare minimum, Congress must find the wisdom and the courage to require and vote upon specific new authorization to escalate the number of troops in Iraq.
This is what Senator Kennedy from Massachusetts called for yesterday.
He has introduced legislation that prohibits any federal funds from being used to increase the number of U.S. forces in Iraq without a specific authorization of Congress by law for such an increase.
It’s the very minimum we can do, M. Speaker, for Congress to finally take some responsibility for this war and exercise some accountability.
What do you do, M. Speaker, when a president fails to listen to the military advice of his generals? When he consistently changes generals when their experience and best counsel does not match his own preconceived ideas?
What do you do, M. Speaker, when a president ignores the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group?
What do you do when a president, whose idea of an exit strategy is to kick the ball downfield, is determined to dump this mess on whoever will be the next President of the United States?
This president lost the mid-term elections. He lost because the American people voted against the war and they want a new direction.
This is George Bush’s war, and he should end it on his watch.
And if he’s not going to listen to his own generals, the counsel of the Iraq Study Group or the American people, then Congress must confront him and begin to deny him the means and the ability to carry out the next disastrous step of his policy.
It is my view that too many in Washington are consumed with saving face rather than saving lives. Political expediency, political cover and political posturing must not be the guiding principles in how we proceed in Iraq.
Instead, we must be focused on the men and women we have put in harm’s way. And everyone in this chamber should be haunted by the fact that Congress has acquiesced too many times in one of the worst foreign policy blunders in U.S. history.
Over three thousand American military personnel have been killed in this war. Are we going to stand here next January and talk about the four or five thousand who will have died?
Well over 22,000 American troops have been wounded, some injured for life. And over tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children – dead.
It’s long past time for this Congress to accept responsibility for having given this president a blank check and a free pass for nearly four years. And it is simply false to argue that placing any restrictions on funding for this disastrous war somehow short-changes our troops.
Redeployment from Iraq does not short-change our troops.
Bringing them home to their families does not short-change our troops.
I’ll tell you what short-changes our troops –
Making them serve two, three or possibly even four tours of duty in Iraq – that short-changes the troops.
Failing to provide the veterans of this war with health care – that short-changes the troops.
Increasing by more than five times the backlog on veterans’ disability claims so that those injured in Iraq and those suffering from PTSD don’t get the help they need when they return home – that short-changes the troops.
M. Speaker, there is no military victory to be had in Iraq.
It’s time George Bush ended his war and brought our uniformed men and women home.
To do that, we must change the dynamic in Iraq. We must end our occupation, let the Iraqi people determine their own destiny, and engage the countries of the region and the international community while we withdraw.
We can start by voting not to escalate this war.
Even if that means conditioning or withholding funds.
And I, for one, will not vote for any so-called emergency supplemental appropriations bill that escalates the war in Iraq and fails to offer a clear plan for when our troops will be coming home.
The American people get it. They are far ahead of the politicians in Washington. They want leadership. They want us to do what’s right. They want us to end the war.
Watch “Stop Funding the War” video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeKsXxu69mk
PDA National News RSS Feed