Feb 15, 2007- Kaptur: No Troop Surge in Iraq
Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
With this resolution, Congress puts the Bushadministration on notice we take the first step toward a course correction in Iraq that theAmerican people voted last November.
We also put the leaders of Iraq on notice that our troopstrength there will be redeploying, not escalating.
This House cannot stand by and expect our courageoustroops to win the war against terrorism militarily while the Commander in Chiefloses it strategically and ideologically.
Some have said passage will make bin Laden smile. They aremistaken. He is already smiling due to the devolving chaos in Iraq. He isachieving exactly what he set out to do: forcing us to destroy a nation to saveit, while embroiling our military in an unending Islamic civil war of attritionthat produces more terrorism and anger toward America.
Our mission in Iraq is struggling, but it is notdue to a shortage of supplies or a lack of will or poorly trained forces. Tothe contrary, we have the best military in the world, with every dollarappropriated by this very House.
Our mission is faltering because the President misjudgedthe field of battle. Our troops are poised against a borderless politicalmovement determined to mobilize downtrodden people.
That idea emboldens its adherence to confront the largestmilitary force in the world. That idea enlists the weak to confront thepowerful. It pits puritanical religious followers against kingdoms, against thesuperrich, and against corrupt regimes they deem to be unfaithful. And in Iraq it propelsSunni against Shia.
Despite the heroic efforts of our troops, the paradox isthat the war in Iraq cannotbe won in Iraq.Indeed, the war in Iraqbecomes counterproductive in winning the war of ideas across the region.
We cannot ask our troops to bear the burden of winning aground war when the President's policies have lost the idea war.
We know the truth. There were no chemical labs, aspictured here, when Secretary Powell laid out the case against Iraq before the U.N. and said there werechemical labs in Iraq.There were no such chemical labs. There was no yellow cake uranium from Niger, andthere were no weapons of mass destruction.
We cannot ask our troops to win military victory when theadministration's reason for invasion were falsehoods and debased our Nationthroughout the world.
The intelligence was not faulty. No one should be allowedto blame this on the Central Intelligence Agency. Our intelligence community,including the CIA, tried to tell President Bush and Vice President Cheney,but they refused to listen.
Madam Speaker, though I voted for the NATO mission in Afghanistan, I spoke out strongly against theresolution authorizing President Bush to wage preemptive war against Iraq because Ifeared what would happen:
more terrorism, not less; more instability, not less.
Since that vote I have supported our troops at every turnand will continue to support them. And I do not regret my vote against the warin Iraq,and I do not apologize for my support of our troops. But now is the time totake the first step toward course correction to redeploy them more effectively.
The roots of terrorism did not spring from Iraq. Terrorismsprang from diplomatic and political failures in undemocratic states, from an Afghanistanthat was let fester after the Soviet defeat. Terrorism springs from an Iran whose Shiamajority our Nation has isolated for the last quarter century and tried tothrottle for the prior quarter century.
Terrorism springs from Saudi families who pay to promotethe most radical form of Islam in other nations to hold onto power in theirhomeland, one of the most undemocratic places on Earth. Terrorism springs fromthe unaddressed Israeli-Palestinian standoff. Terrorism springs from a Lebanon wherethe Shia majority has been underrepresented in the institutions of government.
Terrorism springs from a view, fair or not, that the United Statesallies with the rich but not the poor across the undemocratic Islamic world.How can America stand fordemocracy in Iraqbut not in all of the oil kingdoms and theocracies to which this Nation hasbeen unfortunately tethered for our entire adult lifetimes?
How can we ask our troops to bear the brunt of war in themost oil rich region of the world when we have refused to become energyindependent here at home?
Madam Speaker, we cannot ask our troops to bear the burdenof war when real diplomacy has been absent and political coalitions for victoryare missing in action. In the end, war is the breakdown of diplomacy.
Now is the time for a course correction: redeloyment of U.S. forces, benchmarks to measure strategicachievements, diplomatic alternatives such as a soft partition of Iraq enforcedby the world community to quell the rising Sunni-Shia-Kurd standoff.
Chances are the violence in Iraq could continue for years tocome. The danger now is that our actions to date exacerbate it and encouragethis violence to spill over into Jordan,Turkey, Bahrain, Kuwait,Lebanon, and even Saudi Arabia.
This resolution begins to resurrect America'sreputation among the freedom-loving nations of world. America hasalways been a nation that believes in containment, not preemption. We havealways known defense, not offense, is the best war strategy. We have alwaysbeen strong enough to ferret out, wait out, outsmart, and counterweight theenemy.
3,117 U.S.dead; 23,000 injured; hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead; the rejection ofthe world community. These facts should lead us to face a future of a newpossibility.
This resolution opens that door. I urge my colleagues tovote ``yes.''