Clay Higgins: “as this debate comes to a close, much has been said. Certainly not everything. The House is considering a resolution…”

“as this debate comes to a close, much has been said. Certainly not everything. The House is considering a resolution concerning the Iraq war. It expresses the unequivocal support of this body for the American troops serving in Iraq and for their families. This resolution expresses opposition to the President's planned surge, escalation, augmentation. Call it what you will. But, more than anything else, this resolution opposes the administration's deeper commitment to a fundamentally and deeply flawed military strategy. The fact is that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki lacks the authority or the will to confront Shi'a militias. To do so would result in a major confrontation with the militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr, without whom the Iraqi government has little support. These dangerous Iraqi alliances and compelling evidence of a strong Iranian alliance demonstrates how weak the National Unity Government is and how pathetically dependent we are on them for success in Iraq. Mr. Speaker, the American people deserve much better. Surging troop levels in Iraq was tried in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Each time, it failed to reduce violence and only served to inflame anti-American sentiment. Under the President's plan, it is still the American troops that do most of the fighting and, regrettably, will do most of the dying. For any decent outcome in Iraq, the President has to be serious about setting and enforcing deadlines.…”