John Yarmuth: “this week Congress has an opportunity to change the course of the war in Iraq by supporting an amendment to the…”

“this week Congress has an opportunity to change the course of the war in Iraq by supporting an amendment to the emergency supplemental that would not only direct the President to immediately begin bringing our troops home but would also force the Iraqi Government to start paying their own reconstruction costs. The amendment calls on the Bush administration to begin redeploying our troops out of Iraq one month after it is signed into law, with the goal of having all of our troops out by December of next year. Another year of the status quo in Iraq is unacceptable. April was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in seven months, and the political reconciliation that President Bush promised when he implemented his troop escalation plan has not become a reality. Mr. Speaker, this is a significant step in the right direction, but for some reason, congressional Republicans want to once again send President Bush a blank check. Blank checks have not worked in the past and they will not this time. We all know that there is no military solution to war in Iraq. It's time we let the Iraqis know that our days there are numbered.”