TANNER: PUT PRESSURE ON IRAQI PEOPLE
TO TAKE CONTROL OF THEIR OWN COUNTRY

House passes measure to fund troops, hold Iraqis accountable

WASHINGTON – Congressman John Tanner made the following remarks in the Congressional Record March 23 about the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Health and Iraq Accountability Act, which passed the House of Representatives, with Tanner's support, by a vote of 218 to 212.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1591, the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health and Iraq Accountability Act, which sends the message to the Iraqis that we will not commit open-endedly our blood and tax dollars if they are not willing to step up and take control of their own country.

We have lost more than 3,200 of our best men and women over the last four years and four days we have been in Iraq, and more than 24,000 others have come home wounded. We are spending about $200,000 a minute in Iraq. The Iraqi people need to know that we will not continue to do all the work if they are unable or unwilling to put aside their religious differences and come together to build a civil society.

Madam Speaker, I feel that this legislation has been mischaracterized as a timeline on our troops. The true intention of this measure, as I see it, is to put a timeline on the Iraqi people to meet the benchmarks that have already been established by the President. The bill we will vote on today will not withhold a single dollar from our men and women on the ground in Iraq, and it will not tie our commanders’ hands but simply holds the Iraqis accountable for taking command of their own country.

As chairman of the U.S. delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, I have talked at length with our allies who are helping us fight the War on Terror in Afghanistan, where we are in a very critical year, with the Taliban planning a new series of attacks on U.S. and NATO troops there. I fear we are threatening our work on that very important effort if we continue to focus most of our resources to a deteriorating sectarian conflict that General Petraeus has said cannot be won with military might alone if there is not timely political and diplomatic progress.

I served four years in the United States Navy and 26 years in the Tennessee Army National Guard. During that time, it was my duty to carry out the orders handed me by the civilian leadership. Now that you and our colleagues and I are part of that civilian leadership, it is our responsibility to help shape military policy and hold the civilian leadership at the Pentagon and elsewhere are held accountable for the way they have managed – or mismanaged – operations in Iraq.

To that end, Madam Speaker, I am not willing to keep asking our military families and the American taxpayers to commit their lives and tax dollars forever. The only alternative to this bill is an open-ended bleeding of our blood and tax dollars with no end in sight and no pressure on the Iraqi government to make the changes necessary.

Tanner represents Tennessee’s 8^th Congressional district in west and middle Tennessee. He serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and as chairman of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the legislative branch of the NATO alliance.

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Contact: Randy Ford, 202.225.4714