The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, there is a great deal of spin coming from the White House on why America needs to stay the course in Iraq, and why we must keep the surge going on and on and on, on how victory is near if we simply escalate the number of troops we have in this region of Iraq or another region of Iraq.
Enough, Mr. Speaker, enough. It seems the President hasn't read his own National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq. If he had, he would find a grim picture of the political and security reality in Iraq, one quite different from his own.
Let me read just a few conclusions from this August 23 report:
One, the level of overall violence, including attacks on and casualties among civilians, remains high; Iraq's sectarian groups remain unreconciled; al Qaeda in Iraq retains the ability to conduct high-profile attacks; and to date, Iraqi political leaders remain unable to govern effectively.
Two, population displacement resulting from sectarian violence continues, imposing burdens on provincial governments and some neighboring states and increasing the danger of destabilizing influences spreading across Iraq's borders over the next 6 to 12 months.
Three, broadly accepted political compromises required for sustained security, long-term political progress and economic development are unlikely to emerge unless there is a fundamental shift in the factors driving Iraqi political and security developments.
Mr. Speaker, just the first few pages of the NIE on Iraq should concern everyone. Also on the President's reading list should be the August 30 draft GAO report on Iraq, which also paints a very pessimistic picture of Iraq. It concludes that Iraq has failed to meet all but three of the 18 required benchmarks for political and military progress. Rather than embrace these nonpartisan findings, the White House has actually denounced the GAO report for holding Iraq to too high a set of standards.
Mr. Speaker, while the White House speaks of how violence has been reduced in Baghdad, it ignores how the number of Iraqi civilian deaths across the country rose by about 20 percent in July. This is not the time to paint rosy scenarios and declare victory is at hand if only Congress coughs up another $200 billion to cover the costs of the war over the next few months.
Mr. Speaker, the President and we in Congress must face the facts. We need a plan on how to leave Iraq in a safe and orderly manner in 2008. We need the President to meet with congressional leaders and map out a concrete plan for how to draw down our forces and leave Iraq over the next 9 to 12 months. It can be done, and it must be done.
We can redeploy troops to Kuwait in the surrounding region. We can safeguard the Kurdish north. We can redeploy troops to Afghanistan. And we can bring troops home to their families, friends and communities. We need the Pentagon to provide a realistic plan for withdrawal, one that is logistically sound and can be achieved over the next year.
President Bush, with great fanfare, recently invoked the Vietnam analogy to support our continued escalation in Iraq. If anything, Vietnam and Iraq prove that wars are a lot easier to get into than out of. If we want to avoid the haste, confusion and humiliation of our final departure from Vietnam, a withdrawal that occurred almost entirely without planning and hurt U.S. military prestige more than any other single action, then we must plan now for our departure from Iraq. If we fail to plan and control the safe and orderly withdrawal of our forces, then we will surely fail our troops once again, holding them hostage to events on the ground beyond their control.
The administration lacked a plan for what to do in Iraq the day after the fall of Saddam Hussein. We must not repeat that mistake when it comes to the welfare and the safety of our troops as they leave Iraq.
For far too long, Congress failed to live up to its responsibilities. We must not continue to send blank checks to the White House.
Mr. Speaker, this House should not consider the President's supplemental request until we come to an agreement with him on how to bring our troops home in a safe, orderly and timely way.
Let me be clear. This means we should not consider on the floor of this House any additional funding for this war until we have a plan to end it.
As The New York Times stated last Friday, ``In Vietnam, like Iraq, American Presidents and military leaders went to great lengths to pretend that victory was at hand when nothing could be further from the truth.''
We don't need more spin, Mr. Speaker. What we need is a plan to end the war in Iraq, and we need it now.