TANNER ON IRAQ:

HONOR TROOPS' SACRIFICES BY DEMANDING ACCOUNTABILITY, COMPETENCE OF CIVILIAN LEADERS

In House Debate, Says Iraq Is
Distracting from War in Afghanistan

Watch Speech

WASHINGTON -- American troops and taxpayers deserve clearer answers, more accountability and more competent civilian leadership in the Iraq war, Congressman John Tanner said Tuesday during House of Representatives debate on Iraq.

The House was debating H. Con. Res. 63, a bipartisan, non-binding resolution stating that Congress and the American people support and protect U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan but oppose sending additional troops to Iraq, as President Bush has proposed. The House is expected to vote on the resolution Friday.

Tanner is a veteran of the U.S. Navy and the Tennessee Army National Guard, from which he retired in 2000 at the rank of Colonel. He serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and as chairman of the U.S. delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Tanner's full remarks follow:

I am delighted to be here with the other Democratic members who are veterans to talk about this resolution. I want to start off by saying what (Congressman) Allen Boyd said. I was on active duty during the Vietnam years. The problem here is not the stomach of the troops. The problem is the competency of the civilian leadership that has gotten us into this mess.

This resolution supports our troops and calls for a different strategy by our civilian leadership with respect to Iraq. When I was on active duty, when I was in the military, I followed orders. That was my job. My role here in Congress is to try to help formulate some sort of competent civilian leadership strategy so the troops can be successful. We have not seen that in four years. The war began in Iraq in March of 2003. Since then, we’ve lost 3,124 people dead and over 23,000 wounded, and it's not a bit better today than it was the day we started.

The war has cost Americans almost $400 billion with another request for $285 billion more, with no end in sight. Competent civilian leadership for our men and women in uniform on the diplomatic and political front must be demanded by Congress and the American people if we are to properly honor the sacrifice of the dead and the wounded and their families.

Instead, what do we have? We have unbelievable reports that the Pentagon can't identify 170,000 guns issued to Iraqi forces in October of 2005. Some of our soldiers are buying their own body armor. Up-armored Humvees are sitting in Bosnia-Herzegovina while we needed them in Iraq. It goes on and on, and David Walker, the comptroller general, says he believes that almost 30 percent of the money spent over there has been wasted, stolen or otherwise unaccounted for. I think any patriotic American ought to come to this floor, if he or she has the opportunity, and ask questions about the incompetence of the Pentagon and civilian leadership thus far.

I believe any viable Iraqi strategy to be successful must contain clearly defined goals to hold the Iraqi leaders accountable for their own security. (Congressman Leonard) Boswell, a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, said as much earlier. Our men and women in uniform have performed magnificently. They’ve completed every task assigned to them, but impressive military might alone is not enough if the Iraqi people cannot or will not make progress in securing their own country and establishing a civil democracy. Western-style democracy works because we have a theory called separation of church and state. When people don’t go to the same church, they can nonetheless get together Monday through Friday to build a civil society. If these folks are unwilling or unable to do that for philosophical or psychological reasons, then we can only try to force a square peg into a round hole for so long. It has been going on for four years and they are seemingly incapable.

I say what we need to do is rethink our strategy and that a pullback to the perimeter is preferable to prolonging a costly and deadly military strategy toward a political goal that is out of reach. Whether or not this new strategy works, I'm glad to see that General (David) Petraeus will be commanding our men and women on the ground. He has proved himself a strong military commander, and I wish him well; it's not his strategy that I question.

Here's why this resolution is important to me. Not only do the majority of the Iraqis in every poll that has been taken over there say they’ll be better off if we leave, or get out, or pull back or however one wants to talk about it. But what it's doing in Iraq to our effort in Afghanistan. I'm going to be leading a delegation to Brussels next Saturday to talk about Afghanistan. We are losing our momentum in Afghanistan, because of the Iraqi whirlwind that is sucking everything into it in terms of our military supplies, our military approach and so forth. Almost everyone who’s looked at this situation agrees, from the Baker-Hamilton report to everybody else, that we need to radically change our strategy.
 

Listen to these words from the Council on Foreign Relations. They say the United States' interests in the Middle East and Persian Gulf region can be more effectively advanced if the United States disengages from Iraq…. Indeed, the sooner Washington grasps this, the sooner it can repair the damage that has been done to America's international position. Speaking of Afghanistan, they also say, Iraq is siphoning so many resources that we could end up failing in Afghanistan as well. The report warns that Iraq is all-consuming and makes it difficult for the United States to address other priorities.

That's exactly what we're talking about here, a different strategy for (Iraq), for our troops to be successful, an accountability from (the Iraqis) as to their own security so that we can concentrate with 26 other nations in NATO, who are helping us fight the war in Afghanistan – a war that we can win, a war that we must win and a war that is as every bit as important, if not more, in the war on terror than Iraq has ever been.

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Contact: Randy Ford, 202.225.4714