Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of House Concurrent Resolution 63, to stop the President’s escalation of our involvement in what has now become the Iraqi Civil War.

            I voted ‘no’ in October 2002 when the Congress passed the resolution authorizing the President to invade Iraq. It was wrong to start this war then and it is wrong to escalate it now.

In 2002, I had several basic questions, questions that are still valid today.

            What is the nature and the urgency of the Iraqi threat to the United States?

            What is the mission of our troops?

                        How much international support will we have?

                        Will this military operation in Iraq increase terrorism or decrease terrorism?

                        What is the next exit strategy to withdraw our troops from Iraq?

           Mr. Speaker, we now know that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. And President Bush has since publicly acknowledged that there was no link or connection between Saddam Hussein and the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

The mission of our troops seems to change and expand daily. But their current mission appears to be to act as referees in an increasingly bloody civil war between Sunni and Shiite Iraqis.

As for international support, the American taxpayer has borne the vast majority of the costs, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. American fighting men and women, and their families, have borne the vast majority of the deaths and injuries to coalition troops, over 3,100 Americans killed and over 23,000 wounded. Even our staunchest ally, Great Britain, plans to reduce the number of its troops in Iraq to 4,500 by this June.

Are we safer today than we were before the invasion of Iraq? Declassified C.I.A. National Intelligence estimates indicate that the war in Iraq has become a primary recruitment vehicle for Islamic terrorists. Far from being the central front in the War on Terror, as the President and his people say, Iraq is the incubator and training ground for new terrorists from around the world.

Finally, the President has never clearly stated what is our strategy to win in Iraq, nor what is our next exit strategy.

                        ‘Mission accomplished,’

                        ‘Bring it on,’

                        ‘Stay the course,’ or

                        ‘We will stand down as the Iraqis stand up,’

                        are slogans, not strategies.

             Our generals, our diplomats, the Iraq Study Group, even the White House, all agree that there is not a military solution to the war in Iraq.

Only a political resolution between the warring Iraqi factions can end the current violence. I do not believe that adding more American troops will do anything to help foster that crucial political solution. In fact, it may hinder it. Telling the Iraqi leadership and the Iraqi people that they must solve their own internal problems, without limitless American assistance, has far better chance of success than continuing our current ‘blank check’ policy.

Mr. Speaker, President Bush either did not get or did not understand the message the American people sent last November. Before the end of this year, U.S. troops should be redeployed and their efforts focused on support and training the Iraqi security forces.

                        It is their country,

                        It is their fight and

                        It is their future.

 I yield back my time.