Tom Lantos: “Thank you. My good friend Mr. Dreier suggested that there will not be a divisive debate this morning. That divisive…”

“Thank you. My good friend Mr. Dreier suggested that there will not be a divisive debate this morning. That divisive debate has already begun. You need to listen to the words of what my colleagues are saying. I attempted to avoid this divisive debate this morning. I attempted at the end of this session to have this Congress go home with a unanimous vote congratulating the Iraqi people on what they have done; congratulating our military, our allies and the Iraqi forces for making it possible for them to vote. There are divisions on policy, and it is an ostrich policy to pretend that there are no divisions. I may agree with the gentleman's view about a timetable. That is not the issue. The issue is that the last discussion of Iraq in this body will show division, bitterness and divisiveness, and that could have been avoided with a little bit of flexibility and consideration on the part of the majority for the views of almost one-half of this body. I thank my friend for yielding.”