Roger Marshall: “as I thought about today's debate, Tom Paine's words in the crisis came to mind: these are the times that try men's…”

“as I thought about today's debate, Tom Paine's words in the crisis came to mind: these are the times that try men's souls. It is not that the Army is in tatters. Our Army in the Revolutionary War was in tatters at the time; it was just before the Battle of Princeton and Trenton, which were successful and pulled us back together. It is that we seem to be in tatters. I am extremely disappointed that this resolution, the process for the resolution, and some of the whereases in the resolution have invited Members of this House to become angry and to oppose the resolution. The resolution is something that we all should be supporting. I support the resolution. The ``resolved'' part of the resolution is quite reasonable. And it expresses the sense of this Congress and this country that we will be resolved with regard to this engagement. We cannot afford to do otherwise. Mr. Speaker, it is with disappointment that I participate in the debate today, a debate that is designed intentionally to divide us, when in fact we ought to be showing a great deal of unity as a country in support of our troops and in support of the effort in Iraq. We are making progress there. It is a slow go. These kinds of insurgencies typically take 9 to 14 years to deal with. If we hang in there, the Iraqi people ultimately will get control of the security situation in that country. If we fail, our security situation gets worse. Theirs is awful. It is a huge threat to Israel.…”