Iraq War Resolution
IRAQ WAR RESOLUTION
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Mr. SNYDER. Personally, Mr. Speaker, I wish this resolution of disapproval articulated our disapproval of the administration's failure to accomplish certain chores in preparation for our fine troops undertaking this new mission under General Petraeus.
Everyone, including the President, now acknowledges mistakes over the past 4 years, but those well-documented errors are not the mistakes I am talking about. Now, today, mistakes are being made. Now, today, high-ranking officials in the administration fall short in their performance.
Why, after 4 years of the Iraq war, is the Secretary of State unable to get the appropriate reconstruction, economic development, and other necessary personnel to Iraq? Why did the State Department recently have to request the Defense Department to help fill in these necessary positions? Why have the efforts of political reconciliation been so ineffective? Why has the American diplomatic effort in the region been so ineffective? Where are the trained police and judges who will need to deal with all the detainees to be arrested in Baghdad? Why aren't an adequate number of property detention facilities not available for these future detainees that are sure to come from an aggressive effort to decrease the violence in Baghdad?
General Petraeus, clearly one of America's finest military leaders, during his recent opening statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee, felt an obligation to plead for the help and commitment from other U.S. government agencies commensurate with what our troops give 24 hours a day, day after day, week after week, month after month.
I have had references being made to Winston Churchill, but I remind those speakers who make such comparisons that we are not a parliamentary system. If we were, the Secretary of State and other high-ranking officials would be gone because of their failures. We are, thankfully, the American system; and in our responsibility to support our troops, we know we must not just equip and train them. We know that all agencies of American government, the nonmilitary agencies, must pull their load if our fine troops are to be successful.
So we now have a situation where our new commander on the ground, General Petraeus, says he needs the additional troops. On the other hand, he says he needs all the other agencies of government to step forward with, in his words, ``an enormous commitment.'
It is clear this commitment of other agencies is not yet being made. Regardless of the result of this vote today, our troops will still be in Iraq needing the commitment of all government agencies.
The House leadership has stated that this resolution today is the first step of other legislation to come. This other legislation to come must address the issues of the shortcomings of other agencies of U.S. government, the nonmilitary agencies of U.S. government. Our troops deserve the help.
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