MISSION ACCOMPLISHED ANNIVERSARY -- (House of Representatives - May 01, 2007)
(Ms. LEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)
Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, 4 years ago, President Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, in front of a banner that said ``Mission Accomplished,'' and told us that a major combat operation had ended. Since then, 3,200 United States troops have died in Iraq, and almost 25,000 have been wounded, and countless Iraqis.
The President has said that he will veto a bill very shortly that sets a goal for ending the occupation of Iraq signaling his insistence on an open-ended commitment to a failed policy. Rather than change course, the administration offers only increasingly desperate rhetoric about victory and surrender.
The fact is, you cannot win an occupation just as there is no way that the United States can win a civil war. The American people recognize that this failed policy is making our Nation and the world less safe, even if the Bush administration refuses to recognize this.
Mr. Speaker, the American people are squarely behind our efforts to end the occupation of Iraq and to bring our troops home, and history will record the President's veto of those efforts with the same ridicule as it does his remarks 4 years ago.