Oversight Gap in Iraq

OVERSIGHT GAP IN IRAQ

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, former State Department intelligence officials testified yesterday that they warned the administration 3 years ago that the occupation of Iraq would provoke insurgency ethnic strife and the targeting of U.S. forces. But their words then, 3 years ago, went unheeded.

The Post reported today that the hearing ``marked the first time intelligence assessments on postwar Iraq had been specifically discussed in a congressional session.'' No Republicans participated.

Three years after the war in Iraq began, Republicans are still refusing to investigate what went wrong. Ohio families are paying the price.

Many of us have repeatedly asked the President to present a plan for success in Iraq, a winning exit strategy to complete the mission and start to redeploy and bring our troops home. Republicans responded with theatrics and sound bites. More of the same is not a plan. More of the same doesn't bring us any closer to winning the global war on terror.

The troops and the American people deserve better. They deserve a Congress that doesn't look the other way when mistakes are made. They deserve a realistic and forward-thinking plan that brings our troops home.

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