John Carney: “I stand today as a proud veteran in support of this bipartisan resolution which states that Congress and the American…”

“I stand today as a proud veteran in support of this bipartisan resolution which states that Congress and the American people support our men and women in uniform, but do not support deploying over 21,000 additional troops to Iraq. I fear that President Bush's plan to increase troop levels is a mistake. Sending more troops will not reduce the violence. Indeed, in the past 2 years, we have had three surges to Iraq, only to see dramatic increases in violence. Why would we think a fourth surge will be different? Mr. Speaker, 21,000 troop is far less than a half measure of what is truly needed to secure Iraq, but the unfortunate reality is that we no longer have the troops available to do the job properly. Indeed, the Army's strategic reserve is used up. They told us so. We are now less able to respond in other trouble spots around the globe because of this failed policy. Why are we not matching our military surge with a diplomatic surge? Why are we not engaging every nation in the region to end this civil war? A superpower at war uses all means at its disposal to win, including diplomacy. Diplomacy is the only way for us to succeed now, and I urge the administration to launch a diplomatic offensive in the region.”