Providing for Consideration of H. Res. 571, Expressing Sense of House that Deployment of Forces in Iraq be Terminated Immediately

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H. RES. 571, EXPRESSING SENSE OF HOUSE THAT DEPLOYMENT OF FORCES IN IRAQ BE TERMINATED IMMEDIATELY -- (House of Representatives - November 18, 2005)

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Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, a little over 24 hours ago, an American military hero suggested to this country that this Congress should debate the policy, the current policy in Iraq. He had some suggestions on how that policy should be changed. He believed, as we believe him, that he was doing this for the sake of our troops, for the sake of our country, for security in the Middle East, and the security of this country.

In those 24 hours, he has come under unrelenting attack, characterizing him as an individual, as a Member of Congress, as to his motives, as to what he proposed, as opposed to what he said he proposed. Those attacks came from the President of the United States, from the Vice President of the United States, from the Speaker of the House, and from so many Members of this body who challenged his patriotism, challenged his character and challenged his integrity because he simply dared to kick open the doors of Congress and suggest that we debate the pressing question of this Nation that the people of this Nation want us to debate. Not that he would win that debate, but that he wanted that debate to take place, and that for that, all of his years of service to this country were openly challenged and mis-char-acter-ized and slandered.

I do not know where we went wrong. I do not know where we went wrong because I went through the debates in this Congress in Vietnam and Central America, and Mr. Murtha and I could not be on more opposite sides of those issues. And many people I served with in the history of this Congress, but never in those debates did people assassinate the character of one another. We challenged the evidence, we challenged the assumptions. We challenged what was said, but we never ever, ever, did this to one another because we respected one another, having differing views coming from different parts of the country with different backgrounds.

Where did we go wrong? Maybe tonight Mr. Murtha gave us another gift. Sometimes when you hit bottom, you change the ways you do business. Maybe Mr. Murtha gave us this. After all that he suffered over this last 48 hours, maybe this Congress will be a better place, because everyone sitting in this Congress knows who knows JACK MURTHA what has been said about him in the last 24 hours could not be further from the truth. That man is a hero. That man is a hero to this Nation. You know it and the whole Nation knows it.

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