Emanuel on Iraq Resolution

            “Mr. Speaker, since day one of the war in Iraq, Democrats have provided the President with everything he asked for, yet Republicans have denied the President the one thing he needed: oversight.

            “In a post 9-11 world, the American people need the vigilance and patriotic determination of every Member of Congress to demand answers to the questions their constituents are asking.

            “Instead, the Republican Congress sat and watched the Administration make mistake, after mistake, after mistake. 

            “And don’t listen to just one member of Congress.

            “Consider the words of a Three Star General Greg Newbold, Top Operations Officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff:

            “After a scathing critique of Secretary Rumsfeld, he says:

            ‘The Bush Administration and senior military officials are not alone in their culpability. Members of Congress . . . defaulted in fulfilling their constitutional responsibility for oversight.’

            “General Anthony Zinni, former Commander of the U.S. Central Command – in the Middle East:

            ‘We are paying the price for the lack of credible planning, or the lack of a plan. Ten years of planning were thrown away.’

            “Major General Batiste, who Commanded 22,000 soldiers on the ground in Iraq:

            ‘Rumsfeld and his team turned what should have been a deliberate victory in Iraq into a prolonged challenge.’

            “8 generals have raised serious questions concerning secretary Rumsfeld’s leadership. I dunno, Maybe the Pentagon suffers from the soft bigotry of low expectations and social promotion as a policy. 

            “Maybe these Generals weren’t just qualified.

            “Or maybe, just maybe, they had to speak up because the Republican Congress was silent.

            “This Congress has adopted an approach of see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil with abandon.

            “America was told this would be a quick war and it turned into a long war, this Congress walked away from its oversight responsibility. 

            “America was told 130,000 troops would be enough, but more were clearly necessary, this Congress, the Republican Congress, walked away from its oversight responsibility. 

            “America was told this would be a conventional war, it turned into an insurgency, this Congress walked away from its oversight responsibility.

            “America was told oil would pay for reconstruction, and the taxpayers were left with a $480 billion tab, this Congress walked away from its oversight responsibility.

            “America was told this we would be greeted as liberators, but have become and treated like occupiers, this Congress walked away from its oversight responsibility. 

            “And, when Don Rumsfeld, a man who expressed contempt for the idea of nation-building, was assigned the responsibility of rebuilding Iraq and mismanaged the war against the insurgency, this Congress, the Republican Congress, walked away from its oversight responsibility. 

            “Mr. Speaker, the Republicans want to portray the greatest foreign policy challenge of a generation as simply the choice between more of the same or a new direction and we Democrats welcome that.

            “The debate today is about whether the American people want to stay the course with an administration and a Congress that has walked away from its obligations or pursue a real strategy for success in the war on terror.

            “2,500 brave Americans -- male and female -- have given their lives trying to stabilize Iraq.

            “Last month was one of the bloodiest in Iraq. 

            “According to Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, attacks against civilians increased 80 percent since November 2005.

            “We cannot achieve the end of victory and continue to sit and watch, stand pat, stay put, status quo and that is the Republican policy.

            “Democrats are determined to take the fight to the enemy.

            “In the words of President John Kennedy: ‘we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.’

            “Democrats will never put American service members in harms way without a plan, and without support.

            “For that, you need the sit and watch complacency of a Republican Congress.”