Jay Inslee: “I come to the floor tonight and will be joined shortly by my colleagues who have been consistent in manning our stations…”

“I come to the floor tonight and will be joined shortly by my colleagues who have been consistent in manning our stations in the Iraq Watch. Now, for several months, my colleagues and I in the Iraq Watch have been coming to the floor of the House of Representatives to discuss our policy in Iraq and to ask if we are on the right course in Iraq. I am reminded why we have been doing that when just before I came to the floor in the cloakroom, watching the TV, I saw a tribute to another fallen American hero in Iraq. That is all too regular an occurrence recently and reminds us why we come here for the Iraq Watch, because we are dedicated to the proposition that the men and women who fall in Iraq should not be shuttled off to page 12 and 14 and forgotten by Americans and have this trial and tribulation in Iraq somehow become sort of a back-burner issue. We who have participated in the Iraq Watch are committed to the proposition that we need to be diligent in asking hard questions of our government as to whether or not our government is doing the right thing or making mistakes in Iraq.”