WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- House Republican Whip
Roy Blunt (Mo.) today delivered the following remarks on the House floor
during the opening minutes of debate on the Democrats' Iraq resolution:
"Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to this resolution. General
Petraeus said a resolution like this would discourage the troops, and the
Secretary of Defense said a resolution like this would embolden the enemy.
This Congress should be doing neither of these things.
"What this resolution will not do is take a position on what we should
do as we face the challenge of our generation.
"President Johnson was criticized a generation ago and still today for
choosing bombing sites in Vietnam. He was the Commander in Chief; yet he
should have left those tactical choices to the military. But his actions
made infinitely more sense than this. It's hard to imagine a group less
capable of making tactical decisions about specific troop deployment than
535 Members of Congress.
"The resolution today is about the exact number of troops. Will the one
tomorrow or next week be a vote on which block in Baghdad to target or
which car to stop?
"And, of course, today what we debate is a tactic in the greater fight
we are in. The new Commanding General has determined this surge is the
right course of action. The Iraq Study Group was supportive of 'a short
term redeployment or surge of American combat forces to stabilize Baghdad,
or to speed up the training and equipping mission, if the U.S. commander in
Iraq determines that such steps would be effective.'
"Mr. Speaker, we can all agree that the current situation in Iraq
cannot continue. That is why the president has advanced a new way forward.
"Actions do have consequences. But the resolution the Democrats advance
today is a vote for the status quo. It's a vote for the current strategy
because it's a vote not to change strategy.
"The current strategy isn't working, and as a Southwest Missourian told
me yesterday: 'We are there.' He went on to say, 'It really doesn't matter
how we got there or what we thought. We are in a fight that won't stop if
we leave.'
"The fact of the matter is that Congress does have the power to end the
war -- if it has the political will to do so.
"Almost twenty-four years ago, in November 1983, the Congress voted for
withdrawal from Lebanon by March of 1984. Many of the proponents of today's
resolution voted then to leave. They lost 153 to 274, but the message was
sent, and we left anyway, and when we left, the myth of American weakness
began to take hold in al Qaeda.
"The language of this non-binding resolution doesn't tackle the tough
issues of war. It tries to have it both ways: disapproving the tactics but
supporting the troops. It doesn't say we will fund the troops in the future
or not fund the troops. It doesn't say we will supply troops in the future
or not supply the troops. This resolution says just enough to not say
anything at all.
"Americans should see this move for what it really is -- a political
first step to cutting off funding for the dangerous mission our troops
face.
"The truth is we are in a war against a hostile and ferocious enemy
that will stop at nothing. Imagine how this debate this week bolsters these
radical terrorists whose sole goal is to destroy America because we
disprove, as no society ever has, the dogma of religious totalitarianism
that they use every day to recruit followers and funders and suicide
bombers.
"Our diversity, our ability to live together, and the prosperity and
vitality that are the result have produced the enemies we face today. As
long as we live as we do, they must be wrong.
"This week, this Congress will send the signal to those enemies, and to
those who fight to protect us from them, that America has the will and
indeed the courage to continue fighting these Islamic totalitarians -- or
that we do not take the consequences of failure seriously."
Editors' Note: Please go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFhmgZxKDhU
to view video of Congressman Blunt's speech on the House floor.
SOURCE Office of House Republican Whip Roy Blunt
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Related links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFhmgZxKDhU
CONTACT:
Burson Taylor Snyder or Amos Snead of the
Office of House Republican Whip Roy Blunt, +1-202-226-7022
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