Barney Frank: “I agree that the great majority, overwhelming majority of Americans serving in Iraq, military and civilian, are…”

“I agree that the great majority, overwhelming majority of Americans serving in Iraq, military and civilian, are honorable people who have gone to great risk. They are among the victims of these outrages. It is a shameful thing that their bravery, their good work, their integrity has been besmirched. We owe it to them to do a full investigation. We heard reference to the six. I hope it is only six, but I am skeptical. Months ago I would have said it would not be six. Had these accusations been made months ago, I would have said, no, Americans do not act like that. We now have to acknowledge, tragically, sadly, heartsickeningly, that we do; and we owe it to everyone to have a full investigation. But we owe something more. We owe the people of this country and the people of adherence to the democratic process. What troubles me about this resolution is the persistence of the Republican majority in a pattern of using the rules of this House and their small majority to frustrate open democratic procedures. We have had a terrible blow to this country. We hope it was perpetrated only by a few, but the incompetence and indifference of superiors clearly contributed to it. We owe ourselves and the American people a full investigation. We are not even allowed under the majority's rules to put forward a motion calling for such an investigation. The other side of the aisle has already decided it is only the six. We are abusing the democratic process here.”