Pete Sessions: “we are indeed dealing with a serious subject that gives us all great pause and concern. I know my colleagues have had a…”

“we are indeed dealing with a serious subject that gives us all great pause and concern. I know my colleagues have had a sign that they have put up: Let us vote. I think it is important to recall that 53 days ago, we voted. We voted in this Congress to authorize and appropriate the funds to execute the surge that General Petraeus is right now executing in Iraq. That is what we did. It was a vote of 80 to 14. Less than 2 months ago, we voted to do that. Many of the speakers tonight saying we must withdraw right now, we must have a new strategy, have forgotten that when we cast those votes 53 days ago, we were executing a new strategy then. Are we now going to have another one? Virtually all of the individuals who spoke voted for that funding, voted knowing that General Petraeus would lead this surge and voted knowing that we would be having a report in September and we could work through that report to decide how we would conduct this war in the future. The Levin amendment is, indeed, a very important amendment. There is nothing small about this. It is critical. It requires our full attention. We must recognize that. I do believe it is inescapable that the Levin amendment calls for a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq. Those troops not withdrawn will be directed by this Congress today by this vote on how they will conduct operations in Iraq.”