House Democrats Debate Iraq Accountability Act

Run time: 01:25 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZxOPz_uJVQ   Posted on YouTube: March 22, 2007 By YouTube Member: NancyPelosi Views on YouTube: 2253   Posted on DU: March 23, 2007 By DU Member: Rose Siding Views on DU: 243

 
Rep. Murphy:
“After the fall of Saddam Hussein, ensuring no weapons of mass destruction and several elections, the Republicans still followed lock-step as my fellow soldiers continued to give the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq without a clear mission, without benchmarks to determine success, and without a clear timeline for coming home. That ends in the 110th Congress. This is a defining moment.”

Chairwoman Slaughter:
“This is a war that is being fought by soldiers who often do not have the equipment they need or the care they are owed, that is not improving the security of the Iraqi people, that is depleting our military and endangering the security of this nation, and that is to this day based on a flawed strategy that desperately needs to be changed.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG55Fjwcj9w&eurl=

Rep. Hastings (FL-23):
“When I voted against using troops in Iraq more than four years ago, I believed then and I still believe today that this was not a war of necessity.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb3RW730r2w&eurl=

Rep. DeFazio (OR-04):
“This bill will end the war in Iraq. This is the first enforceable challenge to the President’s plan to escalate and continue a stay-the-course, open-ended commitment to a war.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRAc2q2IlCM&eurl=

Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (MI-13):
“I wish we could bring them home tomorrow, but there is a process. And this bill begins that process, by using the President’s own benchmarks that the Iraqis would rise up and take care of their own country, their own people. This is a civil war, we ought not be in it.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOhcvbgP4X4&eurl=

Rep. Shea-Porter (NH-01):
“Let’s talk about our troops and supporting our troops — if we were to support our troops, first of all we would take them out of a civil war. Secondly we would care for them while they were here. And third, while they were there we would make sure they had the equipment they needed. We know this administration has failed on all levels.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk_xvOhadT4&eurl=

Appropriations Chairman David Obey:
“Very frankly I’m getting a bit tired of those who are consistently wrong from the beginning on the issue of Iraq. I’m getting tired of them lecturing those of us who were consistently right from the beginning in our opposition to this war.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJDcryFnvK8&eurl=

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (OR-03):
“This bill is not micromanaging the war, it is the next logical step as Congress rediscovers its voice and its Constitutional responsibility as a co-equal branch of government.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhSPwqQVLMw&eurl=

Jan Schakowsky (IL-09)
“Like many progressives, I have consistently voted against funding for this war. We have withstood Republican critics who say we are hurting the troops because we know the way to care for them is to get them out of the meat grinder that is Iraq. This vote draws a clear line between those who want to stay indefinitely in an unwinnable war and those of us who, along with the majority of the Americans, want to end it.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHjAS-84zQw&eurl=

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (CT-03):
“There are too many lives at stake here and personally I have crossed the Rubicon on this war. Regardless of whether this is blocked by a filibuster by Senate Republicans or a threatened veto from President Bush, we must support this bill today. Passing this bill in the House will be the first formal act, the first step toward requiring a new course in Iraq.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWGzXqzz0ao&eurl=

Rep. Meek (FL-13):
“I would hate for my Members on either side of the aisle to be on the other side of this bill because you have a lot of explaining to do when you get back home and the reason why you voted against this bill. You can call Members of Congress, General X and General Y, but the bottom line is: accountability is in this bill.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvrvQPwL5Ws&eurl=

Rep. John Larson (CT-01):
“With all sincerity, no one questions your patriotism or love of country, and yet we hear you come down here and belittle the proposal that we have before us and call Democrats defeatists. When it is you who have surrendered your judgment… because of your blind, myopic allegiance to a failed policy, you have surrendered your judgment to what is the right thing.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV0DEZkwe6A&eurl=