John W. Olver: “I rise to urge a ``no'' vote on this rule. A little over 2 years ago, the President announced on that aircraft carrier…”

“I rise to urge a ``no'' vote on this rule. A little over 2 years ago, the President announced on that aircraft carrier off San Diego, ``mission accomplished'' in Iraq. Today, we must ask what really has been accomplished with the hundreds of billions of dollars that the United States has spent and will spend. Iraq is in chaos. 1,714 U.S. servicemembers have been killed and 12,855 wounded. In the first half of this month alone, 431 Iraqi citizens have died randomly at the hands of insurgents and terrorists. Multiple car bombings have become a daily occurrence in Baghdad and throughout Iraq. The elected government is struggling to gain control and cannot provide security for its citizens. Just 2 weeks ago, the New York Times and international news organizations reported our Marines' discovery of an enormous underground bunker near the city of Fallujah that was used by insurgents as a hideout and weapons cache. This bunker is the size of four football fields and sports dormitories, with full kitchen, showers, and sanitation facilities. This is just the largest example of the weapons caches patrols find every week. How can we call the mission a success when insurgents can operate so freely as to still utilize bunkers of this size?…”