Jay Inslee

Mr. INSLEE

Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to make sure that we include this gentleman in this discussion: Assistant Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told this Chamber on repeated occasions he was dead right sure, not only that we would be greeted as the great liberators of the Mideast, spreading democracy through the Mideast, not only that that would happen but, bonus time, I say to my colleagues, the Iraq oil fields would pay for this whole thing. American taxpayers would not have to put out a dime for this. He came and told us he knew this was going to happen, we would not have to do anything with taxes, taxpayers would not have to pay a dime. If there has been a greater failure of analysis, I do not know what it could possibly be. Now, what has the President done to the man who totally misled the United States Congress? On both sides of the aisle, by the way, he told this to Republicans and Democrats. Nothing. So we have the three people who have gotten us into a war based on false information with lousy planning, with incompetent preparation for our troops, people losing their lives in Iraq who are greeted as the greatest civil servants in human history, and the three guys who told us the truth were fired, lost their jobs. I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for the calculated and exact improvement of my discussion.

Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues and I tonight have come to the floor in a continued series of discussions that we have styled as the Iraq Watch. We, unfortunately, have had to be involved in this now for several months. We do so because we believe very strongly that this situation in Iraq is of such high challenge that the U.S. Congress owes an obligation to be involved in the tough decisionmaking and not just punt to the executive branch of the United States Government. We believe that there are some serious issues that need discussing, and we intend to do so tonight. But before we get to some of the controversial issues that need discussion, I think it is important to note the unanimity that this country has and the total bipartisanship we have in three or four very central elements in this challenge pertaining to Iraq, and I want to list four of those. First, all of us are dismayed and appalled at the savagery of the United States contractor who was executed in a horrendous act that Americans are seeing and hearing about on their television screens tonight. I think it is important for us to recognize the sense of outrage that we need to maintain as a healthy sense, and not to give it up and say it is another act of violence. We need to retain our sense of outrage at their behavior. Second, we have a bipartisan consensus in this country that we are dismayed and disturbed by the occurrences in our prisoner of war camps. Today, as Members of Congress, we join in a bipartisan way, unfortunately, to review the incredibly disturbing still pictures and videotapes which still have not been released of some of the things that went on in the prison camps. There is a bipartisan recognition that those actions damaged our potential success in Iraq and that we in a bipartisan way want to find a way to make sure that never happens again because we have too many challenges already in Iraq to add to those challenges by self-inflicted wounds. Third, we have a national consensus that extends our feeling of loss to many of the innocent Iraqis who have found themselves in harm's way as a result of this action. Fourth, and perhaps this is the most important for us to reiterate, in any discussion of Iraq, there is absolute unanimity across this country in expressing pride and respect for the heroism and the professionalism of our troops in the field in Iraq. No matter what we say tonight about the civilian leadership who unfortunately we believe have made some very grievous errors to our soldiers' disadvantage, it is very important to realize there is total consensus in this country and in the House of Representatives respecting the dedication of our troops, notwithstanding the difficulty in the command and control structure that happened in these prisons. Those are four points of consensus and unanimity that we have in this country that we intend to make sure we note. With that, I would like to turn to some of the challenging things that we need to talk about tonight, if I may, if the gentlemen will give me a few moments. The unfortunate truth is, however, that the professionalism of our soldiers in the field, hundreds of thousands of whom are serving with distinction, has not been matched by some of the civilian decisionmakers pertaining to the Iraqi operation. There, unfortunately, have been a series of substantial errors which have posed challenges to us that now we have to dig ourselves out of. I want to mention 10 of those very quickly in summary form to set the framework for our discussion tonight. There are 10 serious mistakes, errors, of judgment and negligence that have been made by our civilian authorities in the executive branch of this government which are now putting us in a very, very deep hole, of what was already a challenging position. I will quickly summarize those 10 that we will discuss tonight. First, the United States Government told the American people in unequivocal terms that there was, and I think I quote from the chief executive, no doubt but that Iraq possessed and was deploying some of the most lethal weapons systems devised by man before this war. That statement unfortunately has proved to be false. It is one that we should think seriously about as we move forward in Iraq. Second, the executive branch and the civilian authorities of our Nation told the American people in unequivocal terms that there was a clear, convincing and cogent connection between Iraq and the heinous attack on our Nation of September 11. That assertion after months and over a year of digging has not turned out one solitary shred of evidence to substantiate that assertion; and as far as we know tonight, that assertion was false. Why is it important to recognize the falsity of those two assertions preceding this war? It is important to understand both the Iraqis' response and the world's response and now our difficulty in obtaining assistance for our troops in the field because the war started on two basic falsehoods, and this is a recognition that we have to have as we form a strategy to have success in Iraq. The third issue. We were told in very clear terms and this Congress was told in many briefings that we would be welcomed as liberators, we would be welcomed with rose petals at our feet. The savagery that our men and women who are serving in Iraq have seen was hardly a sense of liberation. Why is this important? It is important because it explains some other failures by the civilian leadership in our Nation. It explains the fourth failure, the failure to have adequate troops on the ground at the time the Iraqi Army collapsed. We had multiple truth-tellers who told the truth to the executive branch, what was needed in Iraq; and they have all been fired. General Shinseki told the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense that we would need several hundred thousand troops on the ground to prevent Iraq becoming an infested place of looting and anarchy the day after the Iraqi Army collapsed. He was ignored and then fired. General Zinni essentially said the same thing. He was ignored, then he was fired. We have seen this as a consistent pattern of truth- tellers about Iraq. When Joe Wilson blew the whistle on the falsehood we heard from that Speaker's rostrum during the State of the Union, his wife had her job diminished by secretly outing her as a member of the CIA. The sad fact is advice given to the civilian authority has not been followed. The fifth error. We knew that to bring democracy to Iraq, we need to bring democracy to Iraq. The way to bring democracy to Iraq is to have elections. The first proconsul we had, Jay Garner, said, let's have early elections; we might get the Iraqis to buy into this system. He was fired. He was let go. The successful example in southern provinces of Iraq which has had successful elections is now not being followed, and we have no idea from the plan from the administration when that may occur. We need elections in Iraq. The next error. We have failed wholly to build an international assistance for our troops. This needs to be an international responsibility. American taxpayers should not be the only ones footing the bill in Iraq. In fact, the rest of the world footed the bill for the first Persian Gulf War under the first President Bush. Now the American taxpayer is paying this almost lock, stock and barrel both in blood and in treasure. The next error. We consciously sent, and when I say ``we,'' I mean the executive branch in the United States, consciously sent American men and women into battle without armor. We knew we were sending people into the warren's den of RPGs, rocket-propelled grenades, improvised explosive devices; and we sent them in these little thin-skinned Humvees to drive around for a year and a half, and we have had over 700 lost Americans, many of whom because we did not have adequate armor in the field. Now, yesterday, when we went through the streets of Baghdad, we went in armored personnel carriers and we did not lose anyone, which are impervious to rocket-propelled grenades and a lot of IEDs. We ignored the clear advice that we needed a stronger, more well-armored force in Iraq, and we lost sons and daughters because of it. I will say a good thing for this administration, they are now finally beginning to rush to this battlefield as fast as they can the armor we need. The next error we had, I think it is number seven, we did not even have body armor for these people. We did not have flak jackets.

Mr. INSLEE. Briefly. Then I need to complete my two more.

Mr. INSLEE

Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. INSLEE

Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, this outrage cuts to the bone, not just because it damages our international relations, but because it damages basic tenets of American values. And when you have such a deep wound, self-inflicted, you cannot have half measures. And this resolution is weak tea when we need strong medicine; and it is inadequate, and this rule should be defeated for that reason. Where in this resolution is there a call for the obvious need for an investigation of the private contractors who are making hundreds of thousands of dollars, who are involved in this outrage, who are outside the chain of command, who are not subject to military justice? Why will the Republican Party not join us in investigating those private contractors and putting this in this resolution? Why is there nothing in this resolution about the need for an international opening up of our system so that we can regain credibility? Why is there not in this resolution an accounting for the Iraqi people of who is in there? And lastly, where is the resignation for Donald Rumsfeld?

Mr. INSLEE

Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to say what is happening in Iraq due to the deception and falsehood by this administration is not only a threat to our soldiers, it is a threat to democracy itself. There is no greater violation of the democratic principle than an administration that does not tell the truth to the American people, and we are not getting the truth. We know we did not get the truth about WMD or a connection to 9/11, but now we find it was months and months before we got to the truth because somebody leaked pictures about this scandalous situation in our POW camps. This is a direct threat to the democratic principle. If you want to know how bad things are going to go, when the government does not tell the truth to the American people, I want to quote something I read today. I was with the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland) at the Library of Congress this evening, and they have an exhibit about Winston Churchill. On page 42 of this pamphlet, it has a picture of Winston Churchill and Lawrence of Arabia taken in 1921 at the Cairo Conference. It says, ``During this meeting, Churchill helped establish the government ethnic composition and political boundaries of Iraq and other portions of the Middle East.'' When the British did that, they told their people they would be there for a year or two and they would help bring democracy to Iraq. Lawrence of Arabia told them they were crazy because they did not understand the ethnic composition of that part of the world. Do Members know the year they left Iraq after getting in in 1922, the British Empire, 1953; 31 years. What is 31 years, that is 2035 if we have a similar misunderstanding as to what is going on in Iraq. The sad situation is this administration has demonstrated repeated failures to understand the challenges we have in Iraq. I want to offer one idea. We have offered a lot of criticism and we have called for accountability of people which is a democratic principle. We have called for accountability of people in this administration who should be removed because of their repeated failures, misjudgment and deception. There is only one way we are going to get out of Iraq, and that is allow the Iraqi people to seize their own destiny, and that destiny may not be perfect according to what the Oval Office wants it to be, but this President has to recognize he cannot run Iraq from the Oval Office. The Iraqi people are going to have to fashion their own destiny. That is why I believe we should call for early elections this summer if possible, as was done in the town of Tar and the village of Shatra, a town of 250,000. They have had elections. They have done it using their ration cards. In these towns, they have already had elections. You bring in your ration card, you stamp it when there is a vote, and you pick who you think should be in charge of your destiny. The Iraqis need to get involved in their country's future. Right now they are dependent on us for everything. They are dependent on us to do all of the dying and spending. We need Iraqis to grasp their own destiny, and the best way to do it is through elections. Those elections may not be as good as the one in Florida in 2000, but it would be a lot better than us picking the people that we are going to shove down the Iraqi's throats in this bizarre situation.

Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield.

Mr. INSLEE. I just want to offer a brief suggestion why that is. How could the Assistant Secretary of Defense not know our casualties? How could you possibly explain that? Well, there is an explanation. This administration has got us into a war and is pursuing a war based on wishful thinking rather than hard reality. Now, wishful thinking is fine in Hollywood. It makes some great dramas, but it is a lousy way to win a war; and it costs people's lives, and that is what is happening tonight. They have wishful thinking: if we just stay the course, the Iraqis will accept the government we are trying to force down their throats. It is wishful thinking that the ID are going to stop and the Humvees are going to stop the attacks on our soldiers. It is wishful thinking that somehow we will find $150 billion a year to pay for this war. They refuse to recognize the hard cold reality that our soldiers are facing every day in Iraq. It is morally, ethically, and democratically wrong; and that is why we are here tonight.

Mr. INSLEE. Who is my constituent, by the way, and we will talk about that in a few minutes. But let me suggest that there is not one failure, there are 10 failures. And before the night is out, I want to list the 10 failures of this executive branch which are significant which have gotten us into this mess. Failure number 1. They told us and the world that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The President of the United States said on August 26, 2002, ``Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.'' That statement was false. Number 2. They told us they had clear and convincing evidence of the connection between Saddam Hussein and the attack of September 11 and al Qaeda. No matter how many times that is said, that statement is false. We have now seen the intelligence briefing. There was no such evidence. That statement was false. Third: they told the American people that we would be greeted as liberators, rose petals strewn at our feet, happy convocations of democracy-seeking Iraqis greeting our personnel carriers. As a result of that failure, Americans died, because they refused to send armor that would have protected our soldiers from these improvised explosive devices along our roadways, and they sent them with thin skin, sheet metal Humvees not as thick as your washing machine that did not protect our soldiers. Now, why did they make that such fundamental error? Why did they not send our armored personnel carriers that we have 11,000 of them sitting in warehouses around this country, why did they not send those? Well, there is a reason. It is because they were so, and I have no other word to put it but arrogant, to believe that their wisdom would be accepted by the entire Mideast when they came into Iraq, and they were wrong, and our people died. Issue number 4: they ignored clear evidence that we needed more troops on the ground after the collapse of the Iraqi Army. General Shinseki, General Zinni, many people told them, when the Iraqi Army collapses, there is going to be massive looting and chaos and you are going to need hundreds of thousands of troops to protect us and the Iraqis, and they ignored it. Why? Because of arrogance. Issue number 5: they refused to say we needed the U.N. Now the President is now saying we needed the U.N., now. Well, it is a little late now when the rest of the world is refusing to become involved. Number 6: they refused to have elections. I am told Jay Garner, the first provost they had, suggested they needed elections. That is kind of what democracy is about. Now, proposedly, the President is going to turn over sovereignty on June 30. What a joke. The only thing these people are going to control in Iraq after we hand-pick these people are who gets library cards. Every single thing else is going to be run by us, and Iraq knows it. I will go quickly. Number 7: No command and control and adequate training in handling these POWs with a massive black eye to the United States of America. When we have tens of thousands of people doing a great job in Iraq, our reputation has been soiled. Number 8: no armor. We talked about that. Number 9: no plan to pay for Iraq. We have over $130 billion of payment of Iraqi expenses, and this President has not suggested one single dollar except deficit spending to pay for this war. Number 10, and this is the one maybe that is the most no-brainer to me I can think of. They sent 130,000 troops into Iraq without body armor, knowing that you are sending them into the war and into the dens of modern combat without modern flap jackets. That is 10, and that is enough.

Mr. INSLEE. If the gentleman will yield further, this is starting to permeate our whole system. We are finding that contractors are going to leave when the temperature gets too hot. We have got these private contractors doing interrogation and involved in this scandal in our prisoner of war camp. Let me suggest this is part and parcel of the second failure. The first problem we talked about is a failure of command and control. But the second failure of this executive branch is the failure to be honest with the American people as to what this war is costing and their desire to fight a war on the cheap. While our people are losing their lives in Iraq, this administration refuses to be honest with the American people about the real cost of this war. Let me suggest two reasons that I know that is true. Number one, instead of having a military system that is capable of fighting this war and putting the troops on the ground that were really needed, they tried to do it with these private contractors, many of whom are, again, engaged in the political process in this system and are political allies of those making executive decisions about this war. Number one. Number two, as of this moment, in the middle of this war, while our soldiers, men and women are putting their lives on the line, this President has not shown how to pay for this war, and today I am told now proposed another $25 billion of deficit spending to pay for this war. If our soldiers can put their lives on the line, this executive branch ought to say what this war is really going to cost us and how long we are going to be there and how we are going to pay for this war. And just adding it open to the backs of our children just will not wash. Maybe that is the politically expedient thing to do. Maybe when you start a war based on false information, and we now learned it is false, maybe you want to kind of sweep it under the rug, how many billions of dollars it is going to cost the American taxpayers. But it is the wrong thing to do, like it is the wrong thing to do to fight this war on the cheap, to have contractors in there instead of folks in your command and control system. We need to get to the bottom of that failure number two.

Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, it is difficult, while our proud men and women are serving in the field in Iraq, to tell some very unfortunate truths about the failure of the executive branch of this government to live up to their service in Iraq. It is difficult to say the truth, which is there has been gross incompetence, deception, manipulation of the truth, failure to recognize reality in Iraq which has got us in such an unholy mess by the executive branch of the Federal Government. That is not pleasant to say given what our troops face in Iraq tonight. But it is necessary to say it. And the reason it brought hope to me when I was visiting a family that lost a son and a husband in Iraq while serving in an incident where he earned the Bronze Star posthumously, a man who will not be coming home to his children, when I talked to his widow, the one thing she impressed upon me that she wanted me to do is to not fail to blow the whistle on executive branch incompetence which has created such problems in Iraq or at least not responded to them the way they should. And this body, the people's House, has an obligation to blow the whistle on these multiple failures, and they are multiple. And tonight I think we are going to talk about 10 failures of the executive branch of the government, which has been responsible in part for some of the difficulties that we face in Iraq. And the first one I would like to mention is the one that leads in part to some of the problems we face with handling prisoners of war. The public is well aware of what happened here. I heard a conservative commentator yesterday just describe this as the soldiers just having a good time, just blowing off steam. It is that kind of attitude that apparently permeated our command and control structure in our prisoner of war camps, and that kind of attitude has the potential to inflame the Arab world and create more enemies of the war we are fighting against al Qaeda right now. It is a gross mistake. It is a failure of a command and control structure. One of the problems this Congress needs to get right to the bottom of is this scandal regarding private contractors in Iraq. We have heard of multiple scandals involving overpayments to the Halliburton Corporation, multiple scandals involving mispayments and overpayments for oil to these corporations, many of whom are great political donors, I might add, in the United States political system. But there is another one we need to get at, and that is why we have private contractors doing interrogation of prisoners of war in Iraq, who are outside the command and control structure, who are not subject to military discipline, and who apparently were instrumental in this debacle in our prisoner of war system. There is an error and failure that we need to get to the bottom of.

Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, if it was one failure, wars are tough, some things go wrong; and if it was one failure, maybe we would be in the excusing mode. But it is interesting. Of all of the failures that have happened in Iraq from day one, not one single person has lost their job, except maybe recently in this POW camp situation.

Mr. INSLEE

Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to dovetail on this, to reference why this is so spectacularly ironic. About an hour ago one of our Republican colleagues was railing about the only problem with the Federal Government is waste, fraud and abuse, that that is the only problem, and just if the Democrats would stop all this waste, fraud and abuse we would have no problems. I thought that was interesting, because this entire government is run by the Republican Party, a Republican President, a Republican Senate and a Republican House, yet he pointed out all this waste, fraud and abuse in the Federal Government. I wanted to stand up and say, who is in charge of the waste, fraud and abuse? Obviously it is the Republican Party, because that is who is running this government right now. But here is this gentleman wailing about waste, fraud and abuse, when his party foisted down the throats of Congress and the American people this situation where they are giving $46 billion of taxpayer money to the insurance industry, which is totally unnecessary, because we could have given exactly the same benefits through Medicare. Now, I challenge any Republican, any Republican or any Democrat, or any Green Party or socialist or independent, to show me a larger portion of waste, fraud and abuse than the $46 billion of taxpayer money going to the insurance industry, that does not deliver one penny of additional prescription drug benefit to seniors than Medicare could have done, had we not been involved in the shenanigan, not to pay off, but to pay benefits to people who are very, very powerful political forces in this town. This I would nominate for the largest piece of waste, fraud and abuse, foisted on this country by the Republican Party, and it is an abomination. When you think about the generation having this done to them, think about who the victims of this fraud are, it is the men and women who we will be celebrating on Memorial Day down when we dedicate the World War II memorial. My dad is coming in. He was a World War II veteran. This is the greatest generation. They prevailed in World War II, and how do we treat them? We foist this abomination, that can only pass this Chamber through fraud itself, a situation where my colleagues have talked about the 3-hour delay. It reminds me of when we beat the Russians in 1964 in the Olympics in the basketball game. The only way the Russians won was to put time back on the clock. This was a Russian-style democracy, when they put 3 hours back on the clock. But during that 3 hours, what happened? There was a Republican Congressman who reported that he was offered a $100,000 bribe, in essence, to his son's campaign, if he would switch his vote. Does the greatest generation deserve that type of contempt for democracy in this Chamber, which has sullied the name of Congress and Medicare? I have to tell you one thing, I will tell you, my Republican colleagues, this dog is not hunting with our constituents. I had meeting with 200 senior citizens in Edmonds, Washington, many of whom are stalwart Republicans, two weeks ago. I asked for their hands. This is a nonpartisan senior citizens group, just a bunch of folks concerned about this. We talked about this bill in some detail, and I asked how many people believe this bill was substantially beneficial in their lives and that it deserved passage by Congress? Not one single hand was raised of those senior citizens, who were an eclectic group of conservatives and not-so-conservatives and Democrats and Republicans. It is not playing, it is not being accepted, and because it is not accepted, people understand this, and people need to know why their taxpayer money is being wasted in another great incident of waste, fraud and abuse on this $18 million plan to try to sell this to the American people. Why is that waste, fraud and abuse taking place? Well, there is a reason for it, and the reason about it is that this administration understands that the seniors have figured out it is an Edsel, and the seniors know about the Edsel. Maybe some of our younger constituents do not, but it is a turkey. The seniors know it is an Edsel, and that is why these guys are spending millions of dollars of taxpayer money to try to dig themselves out of this horrible hole they have dug us into. It is an abomination. I have to tell you, I am glad we all are here talking about it tonight.

Mr. INSLEE

Mr. INSLEE. I am sure the country will appreciate that. First off, I want to make sure people understand what we have been talking about tonight has been very well documented. The Web site that is indicated before the podium here indicates where you can check out, anybody that is listening this evening can check out the factual statements that we have talked about. You will find 247 misstatements of fact by this administration about Iraq that are documented in this government Web site by the House Committee on Government Reform due to the good efforts of the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman). Anyone can check that out. In conclusion, let me wrap up. What we were saying tonight is a theme. We believe this is an extremely challenging situation for America in Iraq. We believe our soldiers and sailors, Air Force personnel, men and women, are doing an exemplary job in Iraq under extremely trying circumstances; and anyone who has talked to them will agree with that. But we believe it is high time for the administration, for the President of the United States, for the Vice President of the United States, for the Secretary of Defense to stop basing an Iraq policy on wishful thinking and exaggeration. They need to adopt the policy to the number of troops based on realism rather than rose-tinted glasses. They need to adopt a policy on how much it will cost based on hard-headed fiscal reality, rather than hiding the ball from the American people. They need to adopt a policy on the armor that recognizes how severe this problem is with security in Iraq, and starting to tell the truth to the American people is a good way to start to figure out a way out of Iraq.

Mr. INSLEE. We have only got a minute or two and if the gentleman from Hawaii (Mr. Abercrombie) would like to finish just briefly? Let me wrap up if I can.

Mr. INSLEE. Prince Bandar, who learned about it before our Secretary of State. So the fact that we told the Saudis, the President of the United States shared with the Saudi Government, a foreign government, our war plan, that the war was going to start before he told the Secretary of State, the Iraqis should not feel too bad if we do not clue them to who the next government will be that we choose. Let us be honest about this. This is what we are asking and suggesting to the President in a very, very difficult situation. And I do not envy that position of dealing with Iraq as President of the United States. But the first order of business ought to be truth. And this operation from day one has been built on the shifting sands of deception, exaggeration, failure, and simply not shooting straight. Now he needs to be straight with the world and the Iraqis. What happens on June 30 is not going to be a sovereign government. And the reason it is not going to be a sovereign government is because the only force capable of doing anything in Iraq is the United States military. And he is fooling himself if he thinks that is going to fool the American people or the Iraqi people or the world. And we need to be straight about this that this is a multi-year situation the mess we are about.

Mr. INSLEE. I do not think the Iraqi new ``sovereign,'' whatever they are, should feel badly because our Secretary of State did not find out about the war until the ambassador of Saudi Arabia did first.

Mr. INSLEE. Would the gentleman yield? He said something that really triggered a thought, and it is disappointing. He said, ``The administration needs to be more forthright to tell us its plan.'' Well, I have some really bad news for the American people tonight: there was not a plan for the security of Iraq the week before the invasion, there was not a plan for the security of Iraq the week after the invasion, there was not a plan for the security of Iraq when the President declared the mission accomplished in May, 2003, and there is not a plan for the security of Iraq tonight that has a good chance of success. Now, why do I say that? And this is very, very frustrating to me. Because 7 days before the invasion of Iraq, we, on a bipartisan basis in several meetings, begged the administration to show us the plan for the security of Iraq after the Iraqi Army folded, which we knew was going to happen at some point. And the administration officials essentially said a week before the invasion, we are giving serious thought to that. Well, I just do not think that is good enough. And that is one of the reasons Iraq exploded into looting because the President did not listen to General Shinseki when he told him, and this is the fifth mistake, that we need hundreds of thousands of boots on the ground to prevent Iraq from going up in flames after the Iraqi Army collapses. And our soldiers today, tonight in Fallujah are paying the price for that mistake, that we did not have enough boots on the ground the day after the Iraqi Army collapsed. And we continue to suffer as a result of that. Now, why did that happen? Again, the deadliest kind of plans in warfare are those based on wishful thinking. And this plan, if you could call it that, from day one has been based on fallacious, false, wishful thinking. It is wishful thinking about the amount of troops we are going to have to have, it was wishful thinking about what type of armor we are going to have to have, it was wishful thinking about how much it was going to cost, it was wishful thinking about whether we would find the weapons of mass destruction, it was wishful thinking that once we got rid of Saddam Hussein there would no longer be an ally of al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is in Iraq. They are in there now, al Qaeda is in Iraq big time now. They may not have been there before the war; but, by gum, we made it a great place for them to do business today, and they are there.

Mr. INSLEE. I think they know, especially with the deficit, the cost of this war; and he is not willing to talk about his tax cuts to pay for it because he doesn't want anybody to make a sacrifice in this war except the soldiers, sailors, Marines, and Air Force who put their lives on the line. They put their lives on the line, George Bush ought to put his tax cuts on the line. They know what sacrifice is. And, yet, this President won't shoot straight with the American people to show how to pay for this war.

Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, the gentleman has brought up a point with Iran which, unlike Iraq, is developing a nuclear program and is a potential threat on a nuclear basis. When I was in Israel a couple of years ago talking to the Israeli defense force, they were concerned, and rightfully so, I think, about the nuclear capabilities of Iran, not Iraq. But the pickle we are now in, we are in a situation now where we have difficulty dealing with Iran because they have the potential to inflame the Shiite allies they have in Iraq to get them whipped up, if you will, and foment violence. Now we are in a more difficult position in Iran. But I would like to return if I can for just a minute to another economic issue, since the gentleman brought up economics. There is a fourth mistake this administration has made which has severely hampered our effort, and that is this administration has not leveled with the American people about what the Iraq war costs, and this costs us a giant deficit because the President will not come forth and tell the truth about what this is costing the American taxpayer. How do I know that? It is real simple. The President of the United States sent us a budget, and in the budget it is hundreds of pages thick, thousands of numbers, thousands of numbers, all kinds of numbers. But there is one number that he did not have the willingness to put in his budget so Americans could see what it was going to be. That was the cost of the Iraq war. Can my colleagues believe it? The President of the United States purports to have us adopt a budget, but he leaves out the cost of the Iraq war. How could one possibly, with a straight face, leave out something that this year is going to cost us at least $100 billion and next year probably half to three-quarters of that at least, if not more. How with a straight face could he do that, unless he really did not want the American people to know how costly this endeavor is? This President needs to shoot straight with the American people and tell them what it is going to cost, which is hundreds of millions of dollars coming out of their April 15 taxes. And if it is worth doing, he needs to say so. But this duplicitous thing of trying to fight a war on the cheap is wrong. Winston Churchill said, ``All I have to offer you is blood, sweat, toil, and tears.'' This President said, don't worry, be happy. That is not the situation we are in today, and the President needs to belly up to the bar and show us how he intends to pay for this instead of ballooning the deficit, which is what he is doing, and putting the cost of the Iraq war, which is going to go on for years and years on the backs of our children, with a $500 billion deficit that he thinks Americans are not smart enough to figure out. Well, I think he is wrong.

Mr. INSLEE. And we would hope in the future when we do have these consultations that we do this in a bipartisan manner, because we have to all have the information, Democrat and Republican alike, so we can try to fashion the proper response. Let me go to the third mistake, if I can, we were talking about. I must say after briefings today by Dr. Rice and listening to the administration and listening to the press information, this is an error that I will next address that still exists in this administration, and that is the error that they have a strategic initiative that is based on the wishful hopes that there is just a few finite number of individuals in Iraq, and that if they are eliminated, this problem is going to be solved. This administration still looks at Iraq as sort of this virginal, potential flower Garden of Eden of democracy that just happens to have the Corleone family in it, and if they can just get rid of the Corleone family, everything is going to be hunky-dory. Listening to Dr. Rice's briefing today, I was astounded to hear that things were going so swimmingly in Iraq, that if we just eliminate a few more people in Fallujah and maybe a couple in Basra and three in Baghdad, things were going to be okay. That is the most wildly out-of-touch viewpoint about the challenge that we have in Iraq and dooms our policy in Iraq to failure. If you think about the administration's theory, their plan, if you can call it that, their view is, well, when we get Uday, things are going to be okay. We got Uday, and things were not okay. If we get Saddam, things are going to be okay. Well, we got Saddam, and we have lost 264 Americans since then. Now, if we just get a few people in Fallujah, things are going to be okay. Well, unfortunately, that is not the situation, because one of the most prescient things said was stated by Mr. Paul Bremer when he said on January 1, and, I am sorry my quote does not have which year, but it holds for any year, he said, ``As long as we are here, we are the occupying power.'' It is a very ugly word, but it is true: ``As long as we are here.'' Unfortunately, Mr. Bremer was correct, and that is why this administration is wrong not to equip our Army in a way that will make it prepared for that type of conflict as long as we are there and to develop a strategic effort to recognize that we will be seen as an occupying power by a significant portion of that population as long as we are there. This administration's theory is if we just eliminate a few more people, we will no longer be seen as an occupying power, but rather as the liberators that we wish to be. It is a policy based on a falsehood which is based on mistake number four. Mistake number four is that there is one principal rule of warfare, that you should not start a war based on falsehood. Unfortunately, that is what this executive branch of the United States Government did. If I can spend just a few minutes, and then I will yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Delahunt) in that regard. That is a significant thing to say, but it is, unfortunately, the sad truth. On March 17, 2003, the President of the United States, George Bush, said, ``Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.'' That statement was false, and that statement formed the entire foundation of the war that this President initiated, and it was false. But, unfortunately, it was not the only falsehood that we heard. On March 16, 2003, the day before, the Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney said, ``And we believe he has in fact reconstituted nuclear weapons.'' That statement was false, and it was an underlying principle of this executive starting this war. On March 23, a week later, 2003, Kenneth Adelman, the Defense Policy Board member of the executive branch of the government said, ``I have no doubt we are going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction.'' That statement was false. Now, this administration I think somewhere in the year 2050 will still be saying, ``It is out there in the turkey fields somewhere. We know it is there.'' It is now over a year after we have had control of Iraq and have not found a single weapon system that this administration started a war that cost hundreds of Americans' lives over. Not one. Not an ounce. Not a gear. Not a paper. Nothing. This is while our soldiers and sailors have paid the ultimate tribute at the behest of the Federal Government. On March 30, 2003, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said, ``We know where they are,'' referring to weapons of mass destruction. ``They are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad, and east, west, south and north somewhat.'' That statement was false. Unfortunately, these statements were false even given the intelligence we had then. We have subsequent to the initiation of this war had access, and obviously we will not disclose any secure information tonight, but in the public realm, it is clear that our intelligence indicated there was lots of doubt, at a minimum, what the situation was in Iraq. These airplanes that the President told us had been built by Saddam to fly over the Atlantic and spray germ warfare over Baltimore and Washington, D.C., which is a terrifying prospect, and one if it was true we ought to be concerned about, there was only one problem: the United States Air Force before the war started, according to published accounts, stated that that is not the reason these balsa wood, duct tape affairs were put together. They were put together, they tried to come up with something they could take Polaroid pictures of the enemy. They were not meant for spraying germ warfare, and our own intelligence indicated that. But that is not what the President told us. It was something else.

Mr. INSLEE. That is correct. It is a failure, because we need to be a team in this regard.

Mr. INSLEE. I could be mistaken, but I do not recall any. The way this one happened is she agreed to brief the Republican colleagues, and only later as an afterthought, at our request, apparently, offered to brief the Democratic colleagues. We have suggested that we have bipartisan briefings, because we are in this pickle together, and we have suggested this.

Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I have come tonight to discuss the challenge for America in the Iraq war. Some may know that a group of my colleagues and myself have been discussing this challenge now for several months on the floor of the House, once a week. We style this the Iraq Watch. The reason we come to the floor, sometimes as late as midnight, is that this really is a challenge and it demands that Congress be involved and not sit on the sidelines of this issue. This issue is too important, it is too deadly, it is too contentious for Members of Congress to simply take a pass and have responsibility only rest in the executive branch, the President's branch of the United States Government. So we have come once a week to talk about how to pursue a meaningful, commonsense, successful policy in Iraq. Hopefully I will be joined by some colleagues a little later in the evening. I would like to start by just giving a background about why this is so important and why it is so important for Members of Congress to address the Iraq issue and not walk away from it. The answer is simply an example many Members of Congress have had, that I have had, of visiting a few weeks ago with a family in Bremerton, Washington, who the father and the husband was serving in Iraq proudly as a sergeant in the United States Army a few months ago. He was involved in a sweep mission near the Tigris River. A boat overturned, he went to aid, to try to save an Iraqi who was serving in forces with the U.S. Army. Unfortunately, he drowned while doing his duty. Like so many others in Iraq, a hero. We now have lost since the war began 725 Americans, since the capture of Saddam Hussein 264 Americans, since May 31, 2003, and the President declared that the mission was accomplished, 585 Americans. We have had, total wounded, 4,151 Americans, many with very, very severe injuries, many which I have visited in Walter Reed and Bethesda. Our losses demand that the U.S. Government pursue a policy that is not based on half truths but all the truth, not on partial planning but full planning, not on a policy based just on wishes and dreams and hopes and even faith but based on meaningful plans, strategic decisions that are based on the hard realities in Iraq. Unfortunately, the truth is, and it is hard to say, that our policy in Iraq has not fit the extent of the heroism put forth by our proud men and women in Iraq who have served with great valor and distinction in extremely trying circumstances. Their valor, their professionalism, their integrity has not been matched by the Federal Government's decision-making. We are going to discuss tonight in several ways why that professionalism in Iraq has not been matched by professionalism and wisdom here in Washington, D.C. I want to talk about several of those mistakes which have cost us grievously. By the way, I want to say one thing up front: these people say, well, this is not the 50,000 people we lost in Vietnam. Try telling that to the family that I visited and the two kids whose dad will never come home. One American life lost due to incompetence, neglect, exaggeration, deceit, failure to plan is too many; and that is what has happened in Iraq. So, if I may, let me address some of the mistakes that our country has suffered in Iraq due to failures of this nature. Number one, this administration sent into combat, into mortal combat, into the lion's den our soldiers and sailors with inadequate security protection for themselves. Today as we speak, almost 1 year after the President of the United States declared that the mission was accomplished, we still do not have armored Humvees in an adequate number in Iraq to protect our sons and daughters and husbands and wives. That is inexcusable. It is inexcusable, because we obviously were going to be involved in urban combat going into Iraq. We obviously were going to take RPG, rocket-propelled grenades, AK-47s, which can penetrate this tiny little thin skin of sheet metal on a Humvee; and we did not, the people who were vested in the executive power of the United States Government, did not do adequate planning to protect our soldiers and sailors from an obvious threat in the dens and warrens of Baghdad, Fallujah, Basra. Today they are still not on. Why did that happen? You know of the travail and travesty, that we sent our soldiers over there without flak vests either. We are now told that finally after a year that has been remedied. By why would the executive branch of this government send our soldiers and Marines into dangerous urban combat without armor to protect them? Why would they do that? Well, it is because of mistake number two. Mistake number two was the one where the executive over and over and over again told us in the Congress, told Americans, and apparently believed, for reasons that stretch my powers of imagination, that we would be met with nothing but rose petals and champagne and the welcome mat from grateful Iraqis for occupying their country, and that this country, if you can call it that, which is a collection of tribes thrown together after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, would come together in this joyous reunion of brotherhood and sisterhood and welcome us with nothing but open arms, an occupying army from a Western nation, the greatest Western nation and the greatest democracy that has ever lived, but one that is totally foreign to Iraq. This was wishful thinking at its highest. It was the arrogance at its highest of those that did not have a clue what was going on in the culture and sent our boys and daughters into this combat without this protection; and, as a result, we have lost now hundreds of our finest people in this country. Now, thankfully, finally, the executive has admitted its mistake and they are trying to remedy this issue, and they have now issued these contracts trying to put these retrofitted armor plates on our Humvees. But it is an example of what happens when an executive makes a war- power decision based on arrogance. People die. And that is what has happened in Iraq, and it is what happens when you make a decision based on not understanding the nature of the threat. So let me go to mistake number three that still exists today. Now, today we had the pleasure of talking to Dr. Condoleezza Rice, who finally came and briefed the Democratic Caucus. We think the briefings should be bipartisan, because this is a bipartisan challenge and there are no Democrats or Republicans in Iraq. There are only Americans.