Pelosi: President Owes Congress a Strategy for Success in Iraq

Pelosi: President Owes Congress a Strategy for Success in Iraq

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

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

Washington, D.C. - House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Caucus Chairman Bob Menendez held a press stakeout today after the Democratic Caucus meeting to discuss the need for Congressional oversight for the war in Iraq. Below are Pelosi's remarks:

"This Sunday is Father's Day, and many fathers in America will be away from home. They will be in Iraq, just as many mothers were on Mother's Day, fighting a war of choice, where we sent our young people into harm's way without leveling with the American people about the purpose of the war, without intelligence about what they were going to confront, without the equipment to protect them, and without a plan of what would happen after the fall of Baghdad.

"Today or tomorrow, we will be taking up the defense appropriations bill. That bill will call for another $45 billion for the war in Iraq in addition to the hundreds of billions of dollars already appropriated for that war. This money has been spent in Iraq without question, without accountability, and without success.

"I will be offering an amendment to the defense appropriations bill that will say to the President: 'Within 30 days of the enactment of this legislation, Congress expects an accounting from you as to what the strategy for success is. What are the security and political measures that you are putting forth that can lead us to bring our troops home?'

"I hope the Republicans will not be obstructionists to accountability to Congress, and therefore to the American people for a timetable for a strategy of success.

"Today, in our caucus meeting, we heard from Reverend Jim Wallis, who is a magnificent leader in the faith community. He talked about values and the budget being a statement of values, and how we are ignoring great needs in our country - needs of our children, needs for health care, and needs for seniors because of misplaced priorities on the part of the Republicans - tax cuts at the high end, a war without accountability.

"When we go to the floor on this Department of Defense bill, hopefully it will be a turning point, not in a partisan way, but in a bipartisan way, that the Congress will speak with one voice and say to the President: 'You took us into war without allowing any questions, without giving any real information, and now more than two years later, we need some answers.'

"This is a tremendous issue in our country. Hopefully, we will have bipartisan consensus on how we can have a strategy for success, and you will be hearing much more from Democrats and Republicans alike about our dismay at the approach in Iraq that the Administration is taking."