Mike Thompson: “Mr. Speaker and Members, it is not only disappointing but it is truly mystifying to me to know why it is the amendment…”

“Mr. Speaker and Members, it is not only disappointing but it is truly mystifying to me to know why it is the amendment that I offered would not be made in order. I think everybody is in agreement that we need to do everything that we possibly can to better protect the men and women who are serving in uniform in Iraq. Everybody knows that the insurgent attacks are up in Iraq. They are up from last year. They are up from the year before. And the fact that those who recruit those insurgents can claim that we are there as occupiers to control the flow of Iraqi oil is a very powerful recruitment tool. My amendment merely is a sense of Congress that says we are not there to control the Iraqi oil. Let's send a strong message to those who are subject to recruitment. Let's send a strong message to all of those who think that this is oil motivated. Let's let them know that we are not there for the oil. Why would anyone on the Republican side of the aisle have a problem with sending that message? We need to send it. We need to send it now. We need to go back and fix this bill to be able to consider, not only my amendment, but the other good amendments that were before us. And we need to make sure that everybody knows it is not about the oil, and do everything we can to protect our men and women serving in uniform.”