May 3, 2006- Iraq -- Three Years and Counting

HON. MARCY KAPTUR
 OF OHIO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2006

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 Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, a little over 3 yearshave passed since the invasion of Iraq,and it seems that we are no closer to victory than we were the day U.S. troops rolled into Baghdad.

So where are we in Iraq?This is a question many are asking. Just this morning, a suicide bomberattacked police headquarters in Fallujah, killing 15 and wounding 30 others.According to AP reports, 13 of those killed were Iraqi recruits and two wereIraqi police.

In Baghdadover the past 2 days, 34 bodies have been discovered throughout that city. Thehands of the men had been bound. All showed signs of torture, and all had beenshot in the head.

Another 12 bodies, all Sunni Arabs, were found in the streets over theweekend.

This is appalling news, Mr. Speaker; and, sadly, it is simply a continuationof the sectarian violence sparked by the February bombing of the holy AskariyaMosque in Samara. The elevated violence has claimed hundreds of lives, and manyexperts and scholars worry if this is deteriorating into a full-out civil war.

We can only hope that will not be the case, Mr. Speaker, but the signs aretroubling, and insurgents are targeting Iraqis as well as U.S. troops. Iraqis are attackingother Iraqis, and no one seems to know how to stop the violence.

It is clear that the administration's pre-war intelligence was finagled orflubbed, and war efforts are being bungled. Constant miscalculations andinability to view the situation for what it really is continues to place ourtroops in harm's way every minute of every day.

Is it any wonder that well-respected military officers out of a sense ofpatriotic duty feel compelled to speak out against Secretary Rumsfeld andothers in this administration, drawing light to the constant bungling?

In March, military General Paul Eaton, retired, said, ``Mr. Rumsfeld has putthe Pentagon at the mercy of his ego, his cold warrior's view of the world andhis unrealistic confidence in technology to replace manpower. As a result, theArmy finds itself severely undermanned.''

Retired military General Paul Eaton: ``Secretary Rumsfeld has shown himselfincompetent strategically, operationally and tactically, and is far more thananyone else responsible for what has happened to our important mission in Iraq.Mr. Rumsfeld must step down.''

Retired Lieutenant General Greg Newbold: ``Secretary of State CondoleezzaRice's recent statement that we made the right strategic decisions but madethousands of tactical errors is an outrage,'' he says. ``It reflects an effortto obscure gross errors in strategy by shifting the blame for failure to thosewho have been resolute in fighting. The truth is our forces are successful inspite of the strategic guidance they receive, not because of it.''

Major General John Batiste in April said, ``the current administrationrepeatedly ignored sound military advice and counsel with respect to the warplans. I think the principles of war are fundamental, and we violate those atour own peril.''

And Central Command Commander General Anthony Zinni in April said, ``I thinkwe are paying the price for lack of credible planning, or the lack of a plan.We are throwing away 10 years of planning, in effect, for underestimating thesituation we were going to get into and for not adhering to the advice that wasbeing given to us by others.''

Mr. Speaker, all of these are troubling remarks. All of those men speak frompersonal experience at ground level. Their concerns and protestations wereignored by higher-ups in the Pentagon and in the Oval Office.

The price for speaking the truth in public? Ask General Shinseki. He gotfired for daring to speak out on the number of troops that would be a needed tomaintain the peace once major combat operations were under way.

So, thus far, we have 2,404 U.S.soldiers who have died in Iraqand another 17,762 injured; 27,000 Iraqi civilians have died, and the worlddoes not even know how many there have been injured.

From my own State of Ohio,107 brave soldiers have died, and 664 have been injured. And the only thingthis administration sees fit to do is throw money at the problem and wait for anew President to figure it out sometime after 2008's elections are over.

Our esteemed colleague from the other body, Joseph Biden, this weeksuggested that he agreed with some experts who have proposed decentralizing Iraq, similar to what was done in Bosnia in themid-1990s. He writes, ``America must get beyond the present false choicebetween staying the course and bringing the troops home now and choose a thirdway that would wind down our military presence responsibly while preventingchaos. The idea, as in Bosnia, is to maintain a united Iraq by decentralizingit, giving each ethno-religious group, Kurd, Sunni Arab and Shiite Arab, roomto run its own affairs while leaving the central government in charge of commoninterests.''

Mr. Speaker, is it not time to at least consider a new direction to stem therising violence?