Pelosi: Long Overdue for the President to Put Forth a Plan to Bring Troops Home From Iraq

Pelosi: Long Overdue for the President to Put Forth a Plan to Bring Troops Home From Iraq

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Contact: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. â€" House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi spoke today on the House floor on her amendment requiring the President to submit a report to Congress detailing a strategy for success in Iraq that would allow U.S. troops to come home. Below are Pelosi’s remarks:

â€Å"Mr. Speaker, this Sunday is Father’s Day, and many young fathers will be away from their families. They will be in Iraq, just as many mothers were on Mother’s Day. These brave young fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, and many others, are fighting a war of choice in which we sent our young people into harm’s way without leveling with the American people.

â€Å"They were sent into war without intelligence about what they were going to confront, without the equipment to protect them, and without a plan for what would happen after the fall of Baghdad.

â€Å"I have visited with soldiers in Iraq, many of whom are on their second tour of duty there. I conveyed to those brave soldiers, as I have to the wounded in military hospitals in the United States and overseas, how grateful the American people are for their valor, their patriotism, and the sacrifice they are willing to make for our country. They have performed their duties with great courage and skill, and we are all deeply in their debt.

â€Å"Disagreement with the policies that sent our troops to Iraq, and which keep them in danger today, in no way diminishes the respect and admiration which we have for them. Sadly, the level of their sacrifice has never been matched by the level of the Administration’s planning, and now the American people agree this war is not making America safer.

â€Å"This unnecessary pre-emptive war has come at great cost. More than 1,700 of our troops have lost their lives, and thousands more have suffered lasting wounds. Since the war began more than two years ago, Congress has appropriated nearly $200 billion, and the United States has suffered devastating damage to our reputation in the eyes of the world. The cost in lives and limbs, the cost in dollars, and the cost in reputation has been enormous.

â€Å"Republican Senator Robert Taft of Ohio had this to say about our duty in a time of war: ‘Criticism in a time of war is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government.’ He was a Republican, it was during World War II, and what he said was right.

â€Å"Each passing day confirms that the Iraq war has been a grotesque mistake. We are here today considering a rule for a defense appropriations bill that will provide another $45 billion for that war, in addition to the hundreds of billions of dollars already appropriated. And the end is not in sight. This money has been spent in Iraq without question by Congress, without accountability by the Administration, and without success.

â€Å"Congress did not discharge its responsibility to oversee those policies at the start of the war, and it has not done so since. The American people, particularly our troops who serve in harm’s way, deserve better.

â€Å"If we defeat the previous question on this rule, we can consider my amendment, which says to the President: ‘Within 30 days of enactment of this legislation, Congress expects an accounting from you as to what the strategy for success is. What security and political measures have you established that will bring our troops home?’

â€Å"Specifically, my amendment would require that the President, within 30 days of the enactment of the defense appropriations bill, submit to Congress a report identifying the criteria that will be used to determine when it is appropriate to begin to bring our troops home from Iraq. It does not require the troops to be brought home by a particular date; it requires only that the means for judging when they can be brought home be shared with the Congress.

â€Å"This is not new language. Under the leadership of Congressman Jim Moran of Virginia, a more expanded and detailed list of criteria were set forth in the Supplemental appropriations bill which was agreed to in a bipartisan way last month. I hope that the Administration will honor the bipartisan request in the Supplemental. This appropriations bill, which has more money for Iraq, is an appropriate place for us direct that the information be provided.

â€Å"Regrettably, the Republican majority on the Rules Committee refused to make my amendment in order. Therefore, opposing the previous question on the rule is the only way that we can force this issue on the defense appropriations bill.

â€Å"I urge my colleagues to take this critical step and vote ‘no’ on the previous question, and ‘yes’ to accountability for a safer America.