Chris Van Hollen: “today I voted against the 2007 Supplemental War Funding Bill. I opposed the bill not for what it contained--but for what…”

“today I voted against the 2007 Supplemental War Funding Bill. I opposed the bill not for what it contained--but for what it lacked. The bill lacked strong accountability measures for the Iraqi government and omitted readiness standards to ensure that deployed troops are fully prepared and equipped for duty. While this bill represents an important step forward from where we were before the election, it does not go far enough. In the last election, the American public made clear that they wanted a change of direction in this war. This is not change enough. On May 1, 2003, the day the President declared an end of hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, there were 142,000 American soldiers in Iraq. Today there are 155,000. On that day there had been 138 American casualties and 542 wounded in Iraq. Today the number of casualties is 3,476 and the number of wounded is 25,225. The Iraqi people have also suffered. The estimated number of Iraqi civilians killed by violence since May 2003 is between 53,000 and 63,000. The bill voted on today does little to reverse this course. The Congress sent the President a bill that would have begun the process of changing worsening conditions in this war by holding the Iraqis accountable for taking the steps necessary to achieve political reconciliation and greater stability. The bill also provided additional funding to go after Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and al Qaeda.”