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Press Release: February 16, 2007

Congressman John W. Olver
1111 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-2101

Tel: 202-225-5335
Fax: 202-226-1224

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OLVER SUPPORTS ANTI-ESCALATION RESOLUTION ON HOUSE FLOOR

WASHINGTON Congressman John W. Olver (1st District) delivered the following remarks on the House floor:

"I support the resolution before us today. In clear and succinct language it says what I believe must be said regarding the war in Iraq that America is engaged in by the choice of President Bush.

"I support our men and women on the front line with all the training, the body and vehicle armor, and the equipment they need to be successful at the task they have been given, and I support them as they return, whether safe and sound or scarred by grievous wounds. Almost 24,000 have been wounded, and many return broken in body or spirit. Many have suffered permanently disabling wounds; thousands of others, not physically wounded, suffer severe traumatic stress disorders, and all will need and must be given the care and rehabilitation they've been promised.

"America mourns the loss of more than three thousand of our soldiers since that fateful first day of May in 2003 when President George W. Bush triumphantly proclaimed "Mission Accomplished." At no time in the 220 years since the founding of our nation has America suffered such casualties during an occupation following war. This occupation has been spectacularly mismanaged yet Americans are asked to suspend doubt and support an already used tactic - placing almost 20,000 additional troops on the ground, around the clock, with our young men and women caught between the combatants in the civil war raging in Baghdad's urban streets and neighborhoods.

"I oppose this escalation. It is four years too late and more than 100,000 troops too few. The tactic itself has been used repeatedly over the last four years with dangerously counterproductive result. Each time this tactic has been used it has left behind greater hatred for the occupation and the occupiers, as well as thousands of new recruits for the insurgency or Al Qaeda. I believe that this escalation will be remembered for the deaths of many more American soldiers and Iraqi civilians.

"President George W. Bush has repeatedly cited the 300,000-strong Iraqi army and police force which we have spent billions of dollars to train and equip. They should be pacifying their capital city.

"As dysfunctional as it is, the Iraqi government, which we created, must decide whether they want all-out civil war or a stable, unified Iraq with oil revenues fairly distributed and with changes to their constitution to assure rights of forty percent of the population who are not Shia-Muslims. We cannot decide that for them. The civil war will continue, and our casualties will continue to mount until we disengage our forces from a direct military role except to deny haven to Al Qaeda. We must place responsibility directly on the Iraqi government.

"At this very late date virtually everyone agrees that peace and stability for Iraq cannot be secured militarily but only politically. Our best chance for a positive outcome to this tragic and unnecessary war is outlined and unanimously recommended by the Iraq Study Group led by former Secretary of States James Baker and former Congressman Lee Hamilton. We should substitute a robust, multi-faceted diplomatic campaign to discourage all of Iraq's neighbors from engagement in the growing civil war and to gain support and assistance for a stable unified Iraq. That diplomatic campaign must involve major powers, regional groups like the European Union and the Arab League along with all of Iraq's neighbors without exception or precondition. The U.S. should always be willing to talk. In every way, talk is far less costly than war.

"In a month, the war in Iraq will have gone on four years, well beyond our participation in World War II. It is time to begin bringing our troops home."