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A Vote of Conscience
House of Representatives - March 21, 2007

Mr. Speaker, those elected to serve in the people's House sometimes must decide matters of war and peace, in other words, matters of life and death, and nothing is more important.

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Today we stand at the crossroads of one such momentous decision, and let no one doubt that the lives of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians hang in the balance.

This is a vote of conscience and one of the most important votes I will ever cast in the House of Representatives.

I wish we were debating the language of the 1970 McGovern-Hatfield amendment. It called for directing funds only for the safe and orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Indochina. I enter into the Record at this point the Iraq version of the McGovern-Hatfield that I want to offer. (text of proposed legislation below)

I wish the legislation before us was that direct, but we do have legislation before us and a momentous decision to make.

Over 4 years ago, a vote in this House enabled this President to take America to war. Earlier today I told Speaker Pelosi that I will cast my vote to bring America home to peace. I want to get all of the soldiers out of Iraq tomorrow, but safely extracting over 140,000 U.S. troops cannot be done overnight, and the safety of our soldiers in leaving Iraq must be paramount.

I want to end this incomprehensible war tomorrow, but as a medical doctor, I know that no matter what we do today, this war will go on for decades in the minds of psychologically wounded soldiers and in the bodies of severely injured soldiers.

What we have before us today is a first step, and despite my serious misgivings about it, it is a step in the right direction, which is out of Iraq.

Speaker Pelosi has given America a plan, a timetable and a course of action demonstrating the leadership we have not seen from the President on Iraq. The President has lost the trust of the American people, and he deepens the mistrust at home and around the world every time he speaks about Iraq.

Instead of confronting reality, the President stubbornly adheres to a fiction of his own creation that a military victory will be achieved in a nation in the throes of a full-scale civil war, with an American presence inciting unspeakable violence against our soldiers from all sides.

The Iraqi people have seen their lives sink into misery. Millions have fled their country or been displaced from their homes. Those remaining live in terror that a trip to the market will end their life, and very often it does.

The Iraqi people want us out because they see the U.S. as an occupier. They want the U.S. out because it is their country and their oil, not ours.

This war should never have started, and Americans at the end of the 21st century will still be paying for this Presidential misadventure.

Preying on the fears of the American people, this President devised a war-first policy, unheard of in American history. The President implemented his chilling foreign policy in Iraq. When just cause for a war did not exist, the administration made it up, preying on America's vulnerabilities after 9/11.

They called it a war against terror, but now we know it was a war of revenge and a war to control oil. It was never about exporting democracy. It was always about exploiting the fears of the American people to do what the White House had been planning long before 9/11: Invade Iraq, control its government, and enable foreign oil companies to reap a bonanza of profits by extracting Iraq oil and perpetuating America's addiction to oil.

Speaker Pelosi has given us a plan, not as strong as I want, but one I will support as a bare minimum because it has a timetable and demands accountability from Iraq leaders; bare minimum, but dramatically better than what we have, a war without end from a President incapable of only escalation, not negotiation.

The heroes of our Nation, the soldiers fighting and dying on the front lines, deserve to come home. The Iraq people deserve to decide the future of their own country.

With this legislation, we acknowledge the wisdom and the will of the American people. We realize that the Iraq war is a fraud, and perpetuating it by sacrificing more innocent U.S. and Iraq lives is a tragedy we can no longer tolerate.

I urge my colleagues to vote with Speaker Pelosi and vote for peace.

Proposed McDermott Amendment to H.R. 1591, Modeled on McGovern-Hatfield

After April 30, 2007, funds herein appropriated may be expended in connection with the activities of American Armed Forces in or over Iraq, Iran or Syria bordering Iraq only to accomplish the following objectives:

(1) the orderly termination of military operations and the safe and systematic withdrawal of remaining armed forces by December 31, 2007 and

(2) provision of humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to the people of Iraq.
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Senator George McGovern's Speech in Favor of the McGovern-Hatfield Amendment
September 1, 1970