WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States House of Representatives passed H.Con.Res.63, a resolution stating that the sense of Congress is to support our men and women in uniform but to disagree with President Bush’s plan to increase our Iraq forces by 20,000 troops, by a vote of 246 to 182. Representative Xavier Becerra (CA-31), Assistant to the Speaker of the House, voted for the resolution.
Rep. Becerra spoke in favor of the resolution early this morning. Below are excerpts from his Floor speech:
“Nearly four years after President Bush took us to war – that’s longer than our involvement in WWII – it is fair to say that this is not the debate we expected to have, but it is the debate we must have. We owe it to our troops who have fought honorably and valiantly, and we owe it to American people.”
“Mr. Speaker, ‘stay the course’ has failed, and sending 20,000 more troops is no more than ‘stay the course’ on steroids.”
“U.S. troops are sitting today in the cross fire of a civil war. We have no guarantee that an Iraqi Shia solider will defend an Iraqi Sunni civilian and that an Iraqi Sunni solider will defend an Iraqi Shia civilian. Iraqis must decide what future they want. Only Iraqis can save Iraq.”
“We need to redeploy our troops responsibly, to continue training Iraqi soldiers and to refocus our efforts on counterterrorism. And we need a surge in diplomacy, not troops.”
Please click here to visit the “War in Iraq” section of Rep. Becerra's Web site, where you can watch previous floor speeches, read past Iraq-based press releases and learn other unfortunate facts about this ill-conceived, and ill-planned war.
# # # Becerra.House.gov # # #