It's nice when someone thanks me for my service - and I sincerely appreciate it. But what matters more to me is what we are doing for the men and women who wear the uniform today. Mr. Neugebauer's push-button support of the Bush Administration has ill-served our troops. I'll let Eddie Bernice Johnson speak up:
This Republican Congress has refused chances to oversee conduct and policy behind this war. In fact, this debate today will do nothing towards discussing strategy or planning an end to this war. Instead they choose to continue with this rhetoric while avoiding accountability. To make matters worse year after year we have cut taxes despite the sky rocking costs of this war.
Tuesday night 22 Iraqis were killed in a spate of shootings and car bombings, including children bringing the number to 35,161 of reported Iraqi civilian deaths since the allied invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Three hours ago, Pentagon announced that the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq has reached 2,500.
Yet, still we have a President who wanders around the world pretending that black is white, pretending that war is peace and, most spectacularly, pretending that Iraq’s civil war is still based on misleading information.
Mr. Speaker, high ranking officials in the United States military have gone on the record expressing their misgivings about the Iraq war.
Retired Major Gen. Paul Eaton, who helped revive the Iraqi army, described Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically" and called for his resignation. Retired Lt. Gen. William Odom, former director of the National Security Agency and now a Yale professor, called America's invasion of Iraq the worst strategic mistake in American history. Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, a four-star former commander of the Central Command, describes the Administration as a "true dereliction, negligence and irresponsibility" to "lying, incompetence and corruption," in his recent book The Battle for Peace. Lt. Gen. Bernard Trainor and Michael Gordon have written a history of the invasion of Iraq, Cobra II, which describes a willfully self-deluding planning process. Maj. Gen. John Batiste called for Rumsfeld's resignation on CNN and the Washington Post reported that Batiste, commander of the First Infantry Division in Iraq during 2004-2005. He has opted to retiring rather than continue to work for Secretary Rumsfeld. Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni commented on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld being caught off guard by the chaos in Iraq, "I'm surprised that he is surprised because there was a lot of us who were telling him that it was going to be thus," said Zinni, a Marine for 39 years and the former commander of the U.S. Central Command. "Anyone could know the problems they were going to see. How could they not?"
Army General Eric Shinseki publicly dissented and found himself marginalized. Retired marine Lieut. General Greg Newbold, the former Pentagon's top operations officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired partly out of opposition to the war in spite of being widely regarded as a candidate for the next Marine Corps commandant. He has called the war unnecessary and urges active-duty officers who share his views to speak up. He criticized Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent statement where she said, "we made the right strategic decisions but made thousands of tactical errors,” as an outrage. He said that her statements reflected an effort to obscure gross errors in strategy by shifting the blame for failure to those who have been resolute in fighting. He said our forces were successful in spite of the strategic guidance they receive, not because of it.
Mr. Speaker, the U.S. military has successfully fulfilled its responsibilities and commitments by capturing Saddam Hussein and defeating his oppressive army. It is time we implement a cohesive plan that encompasses a flexible and realistic deadline for withdrawal from Iraq.
It isn't enough to just "remember" the fallen and then forget the living. The words of Jesus Christ spoke clearly two thousand years ago when he said, "Let the dead bury the dead." My father and grandfather both served honorably, but I'd sooner see their service forgotten - and mine - than see the blood of my own son spilled for a purpose we cannot win, cannot lose, and cannot withdraw from.
We have a volunteer service - and it's true that these men and women who wear our uniform knew the possibility of war - but our debt of leadership cannot be forsaken for any reason. There is an unbroken chain of responsibility that reaches from the lowest private to the President of the United States - and to the Congressional representatives that are sent to be the people's voice in providing oversight.
Thomas Jefferson said long ago that the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants. This is not the debate at hand. We simply need to know what victory would look like. How will we know progress when we see it? How will we know when our children will come home? How will we know when we have bled our last drop of precious blood?
Rememberance isn't enough. My grandfather told me once that he survived as a POW in Bataan by promising that his children would never have to suffer because he had paid our bloodprice for freedom. Don't make a mockery of his sacrifice. Don't spit on his grave.
Yes, peace is made through strength and security comes from a readiness to defend. But old soldiers, above all others, know the cost of war and pray for the day when rememberance is not due. We work for the day when Johnny will no longer march off to war.
This is what patriotism looks like. This is love of God, Honor, and Country. If you would remember any who served, then remember this first, remember it well - and then act on that memory with the honor and dignity it demands. |
