Jim Costa: “I rise this evening to welcome this much needed debate, on perhaps one of the greatest challenges facing our generation…”

“I rise this evening to welcome this much needed debate, on perhaps one of the greatest challenges facing our generation, our country, this war in Iraq. I intend to support this nonbinding resolution not because I believe it is perfect, rather in fact I feel it is probably imperfect. But I am supporting it because I hope this will be the beginning of a rational, bipartisan dialogue for a new direction to be employed together with the House of Representatives, with the Congress working together with the President. For after all, Mr. Speaker, we are the people's House. The choices that we have before us today are more than simply cut and run or stay the course. For after all, we know a long time ago that was nothing more than a sound bite, and the American public understood that it was nothing more than a political sound bite. We are a wonderful country. We have tremendous resources, ingenuity, and we have credibility notwithstanding our difficulties today throughout the world. And therefore, as the world's greatest super power, we have resources and means in which we can offer alternative choices to bring together people, not only in the Middle East, but allies throughout the world that supported us in the past.”