Hon. Joseph M. Hoeffel said "We are at risk of losing in Iraq if we do not get security in that country. We all share the President's goals of creating a stable and peaceful Iraq with a representative self-government, hopefully a flourishing democracy. We all share that goal. But we cannot achieve that goal or any of the benchmarks without security. We cannot reconstruct that country without security, we cannot have a meaningful transfer of sovereignty on June 30 or any other day without security, and we certainly cannot have elections there without security. So we have not accomplished the fundamental task of this occupation. The President keeps saying, well, we are going to turn things over June 30 and get out. Well, the military occupation is not ending, and it cannot end because the country is not secure, and it is not able to secure itself." @ PoliticalQuotes.com

On the recordJune 2, 2004

We are at risk of losing in Iraq if we do not get security in that country. We all share the President's goals of creating a stable and peaceful Iraq with a representative self-government, hopefully a flourishing democracy. We all share that goal. But we cannot achieve that goal or any of the benchmarks without security. We cannot reconstruct that country without security, we cannot have a meaningful transfer of sovereignty on June 30 or any other day without security, and we certainly cannot have elections there without security. So we have not accomplished the fundamental task of this occupation. The President keeps saying, well, we are going to turn things over June 30 and get out. Well, the military occupation is not ending, and it cannot end because the country is not secure, and it is not able to secure itself.

Said by

Hon. Joseph M. Hoeffel

Pennsylvania

Source

govinfo.gov

Editor's note · Context

Discussing the need for security in Iraq during a debate on U.S. military involvement.

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