Lynn C. Woolsey: “I rise to make an important and urgent announcement to the House: the conflict in Iraq is still going on, and we are…”

“I rise to make an important and urgent announcement to the House: the conflict in Iraq is still going on, and we are still occupying that country. I have to make this announcement because apparently some people have forgotten all about Iraq or don't think it's an important issue anymore. That's because it doesn't dominate the TV news like it used to. As an example of that, a recent story on CNN began with the words, ``Whatever Happened to the War?'' Well, I hate to spoil everyone's day, but I have to report, with great regret, that the occupation is still going. As proof of that, nearly 300 American and Iraqi soldiers and Iraqi civilians have been killed or wounded so far this month alone. Yes, the bloodshed continues. And after nearly 5 years of occupation, our leaders still have no exit strategy. They have even stopped pretending that they have one. Last year they told us we couldn't get out of Iraq because things on the ground were going badly. This year they're telling us we can't get out because things are going well; and if we get out, they'll go badly again. So if you follow the administration's argument to its logical conclusion, this is what you get: we can't leave when things are good; we can't leave when things are bad. Which means we can never leave. The result is permanent occupation, which is precisely what the administration appears to want. Forgetting about the bloodshed in Iraq is bad enough. But it's dangerous for many, many other reasons.…”