Enough is Enough

Floor Speech

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, the new military strategy in Iraq is simply not working. President Bush misled Congress and the American people when he led our troops into Iraq. To this day, he continues trying to mislead us, most recently with reports that violence is down in Iraq since the surge of the United States troops. This is absolutely untrue, and I am utterly shocked at the audacity of this administration and many of my Republican colleagues to so boldly manipulate the facts to serve their own political agenda.

Overall, violence in Iraq has risen since the troop surge. That's right, violence has risen.

Newly released statistics for Iraqi civilian deaths in August show a 20 percent increase since July. The President and the Pentagon are picking and choosing which numbers will be included in death tolls to give the appearance that the violence is down.

According to information from the Iraq Study Group and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, they do not count deaths of people who have been shot in the head from the front. They do not count deaths of Shiite or Shiite violence which is on the rise in the oil-rich south, nor do they count the intra-Sunni violence in the Sunni Triangle.

Mr. Speaker, it is reported they are not even counting deaths from car bombs. We read about deadly car bombs in Iraq nearly every day, and these deaths are not being counted by this administration.

I'm also greatly concerned about the Defense Department adjusting its figures for sectarian killings in the 5-month period before the surge began. There's a major discrepancy between the data on the March 2007 report and the June 2007 report for this period. The original number of approximately 5,500 deaths was increased to 7,400, offering the appearance of significantly decreased violence since the troop surge began.

I must ask, why is this administration working so hard to create the appearance of success in Iraq? Is it to justify the more than $368 billion we have spent since the inception of Operation Iraqi Freedom? Is it to rationalize the staggering $10 billion a month we continue to spend in Iraq while we put the lives of our brave soldiers at risk?

During every month of 2007 there have been more U.S. military fatalities than in the same month of 2006. How can anyone possibly say that this new surge is working?

Mr. Speaker, I was hopeful that the administration had perhaps begun listening to the cries of the American people to bring our troops home when reports over the last couple of weeks indicated that General Petraeus was considering a draw down of our current troop levels.

Unfortunately, we learned today that our hopes of redeployment of our military servicemembers will continue to fall on deaf ears, as General Petraeus announced earlier today that he has no intention of scaling back our troop levels in Iraq. In failing to do so, this Nation's attention will remain distracted from adequately protecting the home front, building an adequate health care system, reforming Social Security and decreasing the deficit.

Mr. Speaker, President Bush loves to talk about the success of the al Anbar province where he made a surprise visit for a photo opportunity on Labor Day. But there are many conflicting opinions about why violence has decreased, whether or not this is the result of the troop surge, and whether the success in this region is indicative of success in other more complex regions of the country.

Many believe this success may be the result of multilayered issues. It may be an indication that ethnic cleansing has been completed in many neighborhoods and that there are just not as many people left to kill. It may be the result of militants moving to other regions of the country where violence has increased. It may be the result of Sunnis befriending the United States simply as a means to accomplish a larger goal of stepping back into power. It may be the result of Sunnis finally rejecting the routine abuse by al Qaeda. It may be a combination of all of these.

Regardless, we cannot ensure that any success in al Anbar is a result of the troop surge, nor can we ensure that this success can be transferred to other parts of the country. In fact, the overriding component of ensuring success in Iraq is political reconciliation, as pointed out by the GAO and the Jones Commission before the House Armed Services Committee this week.

Military and security progress cannot be made without political reconciliation, which will open the door to resolving the underlying issues that have caused sectarian violence in Iraq.

President Bush has yet to discuss the failing grade given by the GAO to Iraq on political reconciliation.

Mr. Speaker, ignoring reports and underreporting violence is not the answer. This administration has misled the American people for far too long. Enough is enough.

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