Delivered During the Debate on the House Floor Regarding the Appropriations Supplemental for Aid to Iraq

Mr. Chairman, I rise today to speak about my recent trip to Iraq and to answer some of the questions millions of Americans have been asking every day since the President first announced that he would seek another $87 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Just this Friday I returned from a 5-day trip with eight of my Republican and Democratic colleagues as part of a delegation. We toured the south, the north of Iraq, as well as Bagdad; and I was able to see firsthand the schools that have been rebuilt, the teachers we have retrained, and the hospitals, universities and newspapers that we have helped open. I saw Iraqi police in training; and most importantly, I talked to our young men and women, many of them still teenagers or just in their early twenties, who have continued to risk their lives to bring democracy and the comforts of life we enjoy here in the U.S. to Iraq.

I came back, like so many of my colleagues, believing that there is no question that this should be about us providing for and supporting our troops, and that we do need to assist in reconstructing Iraq and to ensure the safety of Americans here in the United States and those working abroad in our embassies or even simply traveling abroad.

However, it is just as clear to me that we cannot really afford to stay in Iraq, nor can we leave at this time. We cannot stay because the basis upon which we invaded and now occupy that country, in my opinion, was false. Our preparations and understanding of what occupation would require were faulty. Yet, if we were to pull out now, our mistake could subject the region, the world, and especially our country and our people, to grave dangers of terrorism. Iraq under Saddam Hussein was not a haven for terrorists, but the porous borders of post-Saddam and even the failure of the administration to plan for such an eventuality may be making Iraq such a haven now.

The President has put us in a terrible fix. We cannot afford to stay, yet we cannot leave. Meanwhile, we cannot even afford the initial down payment on his flawed policy of preemption. The country cannot afford the $87 billion the President is asking the Congress to appropriate. Indeed, experts say that Iraq this year could only absorb $6 billion. So why is Mr. Bush demanding three times that amount?

America cannot afford the price tag that the President has put on this Iraqi misadventure unless he agrees to rescind the tax cuts to the top 1 percent of Americans, unless he understands that we have got to work in a multilateral situation and brings in a true form other nations to share in the cost of this. Because otherwise, the money that we will be spending will be money that we will be taking from the middle class and working class people of this great Nation and the poor who are already paying for this war, especially with their sons and their daughters.

Let us make it so this is a shared sacrifice by all Americans. Most of all, our men and women in uniform in Iraq need a change in policy.

Mr. Chairman, I vote against this measure. This is a perpetuation of a failed policy and misguided priorities. Even so, the President can turn this around once he makes a choice between troop strength and tax cuts to the wealthiest of Americans. The President can turn this around once he makes a choice between international cooperation and stuffing the pockets of partisan cronies. Mr. Chairman, we know this is just the first installment.