Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson issued the statement below during the House floor debate in opposition to the Republicans' Iraq resolution

Many members of Congress and many of my constituents obviously continue to be dismayed that the Administration went to war in Iraq without a clear plan for the post-conflict phase of the operations. Perhaps more importantly, this Administration still has no plan for Iraq other than a vague attempt to stay the course. For the past 3 years Republican leadership in this House has done nothing but rubberstamp this Administration’s failed policies in Iraq This has resulted in continued poor planning, no exit strategy, troops without equipment or protection, and $9 billion dollars that have been lost or stolen.

This Republican Congress has refused chances to oversee conduct and policy behind this war. In fact, this debate today will do nothing towards discussing strategy or planning an end to this war. Instead they choose to continue with this rhetoric while avoiding accountability. To make matters worse year after year we have cut taxes despite the sky rocking costs of this war.

Tuesday night 22 Iraqis were killed in a spate of shootings and car bombings, including children bringing the number to 35,161 of reported Iraqi civilian deaths since the allied invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Three hours ago, Pentagon announced that the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq has reached 2,500.

Yet, still we have a President who wanders around the world pretending that black is white, pretending that war is peace and, most spectacularly, pretending that Iraq’s civil war is still based on misleading information.

Mr. Speaker, high ranking officials in the United States military have gone on the record expressing their misgivings about the Iraq war.

Retired Major Gen. Paul Eaton, who helped revive the Iraqi army, described Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically" and called for his resignation. Retired Lt. Gen. William Odom, former director of the National Security Agency and now a Yale professor, called America's invasion of Iraq the worst strategic mistake in American history. Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, a four-star former commander of the Central Command, describes the Administration as a "true dereliction, negligence and irresponsibility" to "lying, incompetence and corruption," in his recent book The Battle for Peace. Lt. Gen. Bernard Trainor and Michael Gordon have written a history of the invasion of Iraq, Cobra II, which describes a willfully self-deluding planning process. Maj. Gen. John Batiste called for Rumsfeld's resignation on CNN and the Washington Post reported that Batiste, commander of the First Infantry Division in Iraq during 2004-2005. He has opted to retiring rather than continue to work for Secretary Rumsfeld. Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni commented on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld being caught off guard by the chaos in Iraq, "I'm surprised that he is surprised because there was a lot of us who were telling him that it was going to be thus," said Zinni, a Marine for 39 years and the former commander of the U.S. Central Command. "Anyone could know the problems they were going to see. How could they not?"

Army General Eric Shinseki publicly dissented and found himself marginalized. Retired marine Lieut. General Greg Newbold, the former Pentagon's top operations officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired partly out of opposition to the war in spite of being widely regarded as a candidate for the next Marine Corps commandant. He has called the war unnecessary and urges active-duty officers who share his views to speak up. He criticized Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent statement where she said, "we made the right strategic decisions but made thousands of tactical errors,” as an outrage. He said that her statements reflected an effort to obscure gross errors in strategy by shifting the blame for failure to those who have been resolute in fighting. He said our forces were successful in spite of the strategic guidance they receive, not because of it.

Mr. Speaker, the U.S. military has successfully fulfilled its responsibilities and commitments by capturing Saddam Hussein and defeating his oppressive army. It is time we implement a cohesive plan that encompasses a flexible and realistic deadline for withdrawal from Iraq.

I believe that political success for the Iraqi people is still possible. The Iraqis must decide if their mosaic community can withstand the commitment to build a strong unified democratic nation. An inclusive constitution completed by the new Monday deadline will help promote this national unity, but it is not a guarantee. Because U.S. armed forces cannot continue a war that inevitably belongs to the Iraqi people, the Iraqis must implement a strong and civilized political arena where each Iraqi has a consistent and meaningful voice in their government.