Thompson Condemns Iraq Resolution

Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) condemned the Republican Iraq resolution on the House floor today. Thompson, a Vietnam War combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient, was asked by Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to manage a portion of the floor debate. Thompson called on Congress to bring our troops home as soon as possible.

"Mr. Speaker, this resolution will not ensure any success in Iraq. It will not bring our troops home. It will only signal the death of true, honest debate within the walls of this great chamber.

Today's so called debate is politics at its worst… we're playing politics while US men and women are being killed, wounded and kept away from their families. I remember laying in an Army hospital bed just home from Vietnam while Congress played politics. It was disdainful then and when I think of those brave men and women I've visited at Walter Reed, Bethesda and Ramstein… It makes me sick today. Lets do our job and bring our troops home as soon as possible.

For weeks we have been told and the American people have been promised, by the Republican majority that there would be a debate on this floor on the Iraq war. Instead we get what the news is reporting as “Republican election year strategy.”

This feel good resolution ignores the issues most important to the men and women serving in Iraq, their families and the taxpayers who have already been billed nearly a ½ trillion dollars. It ignores the issues raised by some of our most respected generals and it ignores the lack of accountability and oversight that's led to some of the most egregious and embarrassing examples of waste, fraud and abuse on record. We need to be working nonstop to bring our troops home as soon as possible not to score political points while they are fighting a war. And we need to be working to keep them as safe as possible until they're home.

For starters, we need to send a loud message to the insurgents that we will not occupy Iraq, we will not control Iraq's oil. A message that we want to leave Iraq as much as they want us to leave.

On my last visit to Iraq everyone I spoke with wants the Iraqis to assume more of the security responsibilities faster. Our military has done its jobâ€"often in two, three or four tours of dutyâ€"an unconscionable demand on our troops, an unconscionable demand on their families and an unconscionable demand on their communities. And make no mistakeâ€"it's taking a toll on our military.

Stay the course is not a strategy for success and we're not doing our job by being a rubber stamp for this administration.

Mr. Speaker, this is not an honest debate. While the majority plays politics our men and women serving in Iraq are in terrible danger."