Carol Shea-Porter: “as we continue today to debate a resolution on the floor voicing this Congress' opposition to the President's plan to…”

“as we continue today to debate a resolution on the floor voicing this Congress' opposition to the President's plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq, I think it is important that we stress that Congress is not alone in opposing the President's escalation. First of all, it is critical that we remember that the people of Iraq do not wish us to be in their country. They wish to sort this out themselves, and we need to honor that. But retired and current military leaders in our country have also expressed their opposition to this plan. Retired General Barry McCaffrey described the President's plan as a ``fool's errand.'' Retired General Wesley Clark said, ``Without such fundamental change in Washington's approach, there is little hope that the troop surge, Iraqi promises, and accompanying rhetoric will amount to anything other than stay the course more.'' And this from Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno, the commander of the Multinational Corps in Iraq: ``It's clear that you cannot solve this problem militarily. You have to have the combination of military, economic and diplomatic things that we need to do.'”