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| Press Release: December 16, 2005 | ||
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| Congressman Olver Statement on H.Res. 612, House Resolution on Achieving Victory in Iraq | ||
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The following statement by Congressman John W. Olver (D-1st District) regarding H.Res. 612, the House Resolution on Achieving Victory in Iraq, was inserted into the Congressional record today: "The parliamentary election concluded yesterday in Iraq is a towering achievement and if this resolution spoke to that achievement I would be happy to vote for it. "But the votes have not even been counted and we cannot yet know whether this parliamentary election will produce elected members proportionately from the many ethnic and religious groups that make up the Iraqi people. That is necessary for the give and take and political compromises that occur in a healthy and mature democracy, to lead to a stable and unified Iraqi nation. I think every member of this House hopes this parliamentary election will lead to a stable free and democratic Iraq for the sake of the Iraqi people and especially the courageous Americans who have died or are now serving in Iraq. "What we do know is the constitution under which this parliamentary election has been held has major flaws. Under the constitution the central government powers are exercised through a weak and perilously divided executive; provisions remain that will further fracture Iraq into smaller regions drawn along religious, ethnic, and tribal lines; and incredibly, the huge revenues from oil, the greatest Iraqi natural and national resource, are reserved solely for the use of the region where the oil is produced. These factors bode extremely poorly for the establishment of a stable, free unified Iraq, and the constitution will surely have to be greatly modified. "Given those problems it is at the very least premature to be trumpeting victory in Iraq whatever that victory may ultimately look like. Over a 15 year period, America has engaged in two wars in Iraq. President Herbert Walker Bush, with the full support of the United Nations and a broad coalition of participating nations, followed his military commanders’ advice by deploying 500,000 troops to liberate Kuwait from the Iraqi invasion. Saddam Hussein was driven out of Kuwait with only 19 American soldiers losing their lives. "In contrast, President George W. Bush, without U.N. support and only a small coalition of the so called ‘willing,’ rejected his highest military commanders’ advice and deployed only 140,000 troops to overthrow Saddam Hussein, occupy Iraq, and establish a free and stable Iraq. Establishing a free and stable Iraq is a noble goal. Yet after two and a half years of war, occupation, and insurgency, our casualties in this ill-conceived and incompetently managed war in Iraq have now passed 2,155 American soldiers killed. More than 2,000 of those deaths have occurred since President George W. Bush declared ‘Mission Accomplished’ 30 months ago. "I fervently hope that this resolution, a year from now, will not show this House with as much egg on its face as that ‘Mission Accomplished’ declaration produced." |
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