Joe Crowley: “I thought we were going to start this debate this evening to talk seriously about the problems we are facing in Iraq and…”

“I thought we were going to start this debate this evening to talk seriously about the problems we are facing in Iraq and begin to talk about our constitutional oversight powers to begin to address this situation. I was wrong. The American people want a change in our Iraq policy, and as their representatives, we have an incredible opportunity to speak to those concerns. But, quite frankly, we won't do that today. As a New Yorker, and as the only Member of this House to lost a relative on 9/11, I am sickened that once again my colleagues on the other side of the aisle continue to try to spin this as an answer to 9/ 11. If we thought that Ann Coulter's criticism of the Jersey girls who fought for an independent inquiry into the 9/11 attacks was bad, today Ms. Coulter pales in comparison to this Republican-led Congress. They still use the victims of 9/11 as a reason for being in Iraq in the first place, when all evidence, all evidence says otherwise. When I hear my colleagues continue to talk and say that Iraq is a stop in the war in terrorism, what happened to the first stop? What happened to Osama bin Laden? Five years later, we have yet to capture or eliminate the person responsible for that action in the first place. But yet we find ourselves in a quagmire in Iraq. I intend to vote ``no'' on this resolution.”