Iraq War Resolution
Floor Speech
IRAQ WAR RESOLUTION -- (House of Representatives - February 14, 2007)
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Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from American Samoa (Mr. Faleomavaega) for yielding this time to me, and thank the Speaker for convening this very important debate this evening.
Madam Speaker, I come to the floor this evening to express my unconditional support for H. Con. Res. 63. I also come to the floor this evening to thank the leadership, to thank Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the majority leader, and Chairman IKE SKELTON for their leadership on this issue, and thank them very much for scheduling this debate. I am confident that the American people are also appreciative of this debate.
Madam Speaker, 4 years ago, shortly before I was elected to this body, the President of the United States convinced this Congress that dictator Saddam Hussein had in his possession weapons of mass destruction, and that he was prepared to use those weapons against our country. The world now knows that he was wrong, and history will decide whether that intelligence was manipulated or whether it was an honest mistake.
But this evening, Madam Speaker, the invasion we all know, happened. We captured Baghdad, and we arrested Saddam Hussein, and he has now been convicted and executed. But the search for weapons of mass destruction revealed that there were no weapons whatsoever.
Our aim then turned to helping the Iraqi people create a democratic government with free and fair elections, a constitution was ratified, and elected representatives are now making decisions on what is best for their country. The Iraqi Government has a security force in place, and we are assisting in training them to defend their country.
In 4 years of fighting the brave men and women of our Armed Forces have accomplished every mission put before them. They have performed admirably and completed all that is possible militarily possible in Iraq. There is an intractable problem on the ground in Iraq. The tensions between the sectarian groups are centuries old. We all know that, and our continued presence is exacerbating those tensions. It is no longer a military problem, but a political problem best resolved through diplomacy.
It is clear, Madam Speaker, that a continued open-ended military action is not in the best interest of our country. It is not in the best interest of the Iraqi people or the citizens of the Persian Gulf region. We have reached the point where we need to turn Iraq over to the Iraqis. Iraqis know that, so that the Iraqis will know that the U.S. is not an occupying force.
Since the invasion we have lost 3,000 lives. We have heard that for the last 2 days. And so many of those injuries are permanent. The financial cost of this war exceeds $400 billion. The President is now seeking another $245 billion to finance the war over the next 18 months.
Madam Speaker, if those funds were invested in rural America, there is no question that we would improve thousands of lives in our own country.
Our military and their families are tremendously strained. Some troops are on their fourth and fifth deployments. Military personnel costs are skyrocketing. Further strains on our Armed Forces will leave this country unprepared for a wide range of threats that now exist. At a cost to the American taxpayer of nearly $2 billion a week, we simply will not have the resources needed to prepare for the wide variety of future threats that our country may have to face and for our domestic needs at home.
America has a problem and we must fix it. This debate this evening is the first step in a new direction. Our goals in Iraq have been accomplished, and it is now time to begin bringing our troops home. Now is not the time for escalation. Surges have not helped before, and they will not help now.
The time has come to redeploy and reset our force to begin addressing our other challenges around the world and give us an opportunity to repair our relationships with our allies and refocus on the war on terror.
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