Mike Honda: “In any endeavor, one must set achievable goals and benchmarks. As a teacher, I found that it was critical to provide…”

“In any endeavor, one must set achievable goals and benchmarks. As a teacher, I found that it was critical to provide guidance to students whose reports were not proceeding on schedule. President Bush definitely needs some help in his work in Iraq. His initial research was terribly flawed and cut corners in disturbing ways. He ignored the advice of learned experts in his stubborn pursuit of a flawed hypothesis. When he brainstormed an outline for pursuing the war, he never planned for how it would end. His incoherent strategy in Iraq rambles on and on without any movement towards a successful conclusion. I personally would have failed this student long ago. The question we face today, however, is on whether we should set a strategy for redeploying our troops out of Iraq or continue giving the President a blank check to continue an open-ended war in Iraq. I voted against the war and I want our troops out now. Now that Democrats have been voted in as the majority in the House and Senate, we have responsibilities to our constituents to exercise constitutional and congressional oversight in Iraq. To fulfill that responsibility, I stand in support of the Iraq Accountability Act, which would establish a definite date to end this awful war.”