It is hilarious that Republicans decided to turn the debate the Democrats forced on Iraq into a pathetic political war cry. They got up and rambled and said a whole lot of nothing about how Iraq is the central front on the war on terror. What makes it so much more black humorous, is that they think that slapping a bumper sticker that says “I support our troops†and passing a useless resolution that supports the war will achieve victory.
Unfortunately this resolution is not funny to our troops on the front line. They have to deal with the thousands of dead Iraqis we are blamed for. They have to deal with the thousands of dead brothers and thousands more of their wounded brethren. They make the ultimate sacrifice and we sit here like idiots and say I support our troops. What are we doing for them? Are we bringing them home safe to their mothers and fathers? What the hell are they dying and losing limbs and the ability to speak for?
I ask this of all you Republicans who went to church and listened to your pastor talk about war being necessary. I ask this of all you Democrats who laid silent while the rest of us marched in the street BEFORE THE WAR to keep these boys and girls alive. I ask this of the rest of you who are the worst of all, who will spit on your soldiers by trying to forget that we will likely lose this war. This isn’t the Super Bowl, this is 150,000 men and women (at a time) in a combat zone dying for politics, killing men, women and children. When will all of us wake up and realize we are being distracted from this simple fact?
Shame on all of us!
I am thankful that I voted for my Congressman, Henry A. Waxman (D. Ca). He is a man who is not afraid to stand up and fight. When I read what he said in the Congressional Dialogue, I was not only thankful, I was proud. I read what the Republicans said about nothing, and than I read what Waxman said and it is balls on! He names names, talks about the fraud and corruption that is costing us taxpayers billions and lays out clear and obvious allegations. I can’t believe that Republicans sat up there in Washington and heard what Waxman said and would still be cheerleaders in an operation that is responsible for the death of innocent men, women and children (including our soldiers).
Are Iraqis any less important? When I hear what Republicans say about winning the war on terror in Iraq, I think to myself, you are even more foolish than the U.S. politicians during Vietnam. They try to muck it all up but the facts are simple:
Before Iraq War: no terrorism (because Saddam was a “brutal dictatorâ€)
After: Terrorism runs rampant
Before Iraq War: Kurds had autonomy
After: Becoming isolated by the growing civil war and Turkish expansion (our ally).
Before Iraq War: Shiites and Sunnis were not killing each other with open militias
After: Civil War
Before Iraq War: Saddam was a disgraced leader on the world stage
After: another disgraced idiot with a soapbox to preach from (like Milosovich)
Before Iraq War: Holy sites in Islam were not damaged
After: The holy city of Najaf, numerous Mosques, holy sites desecrated
Before Iraq War: Oil production was low
After: Even lower!
Before Iraq War: America reserved it’s right to strike pre-emptive
After: Now the world knows we will attack without evidence, and that we have no ability to attack (e.g. Iran, N. Korea etc.)
Before Iraq War: Halliburton was not doing well
After: Record profits!
Before Iraq War: Gas was below $2 a gallon
After: uhm well…
Before Iraq War: The world liked America
After: We’re hated, our sales are even down. Even our allies buy elsewhere.
Before Iraq War: America had some innocence left
After: We sold our souls
WAKE UP AMERICA!!!
HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO REPEAT MYSELF?!
Take your American Idol and shove it up your ass! This is reality and you are losing your soul one dead Iraqi at a time. When will we figure out that our money is killing mothers and children, not to mention our own soldiers? When will we realize we are living the best damn lives in the world, and do we deserve it? When will we realize we are all pawns in a global game that is slowly making the rich richer and middle class decline?
WHEN WILL WE REALIZE OUR SOLDIERS ARE DYING TO MAKE BUSH LOOK GOOD?
WAKE UP! I’ve seen people send petitions to send illegal immigrants back from where they came from. Do you really think eliminating cheap labor in this country won’t send shock waves through the American economy? How stupid can you be!
I’m tired of seeing the truth. You all need to see it too. I’m tired of lame Republicans showing up and attacking my character because they’re not intelligent enough to debate the issues. I’m tired of Republicans. I’m not even a Democrat and I’m tired of Republicans. I haven’t heard one intelligent thing come from a Republican’s mouth since Ronald Reagan left office, and can any of you honestly tell me Reagan would be happy with expanded government, war profiteering and inflation?
I yield the remainder of my time to the distinguished Congressman from California, Mr. Henry A. Waxman, he is a good man with hard facts. If you want to see what your Congressman said in the debates check out this site If you don’t know your Congressman check the Congressional search.
The following has been taken from Congressional Record:
I recognize the gentleman from California for 13 minutes.
Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, before we went to war, President Bush and other administration officials made three promises to the American people: one, we would find weapons of mass destruction; two, we would be welcomed as liberators; and, three, the reconstruction of Iraq would pay for itself.
Well, all three promises proved to be false. Today I will focus on the reconstruction effort in Iraq and the massive waste, fraud, and abuse that have undermined our efforts.
Stuart Bowen is the Special Inspector General for Iraq reconstruction. He often talks about the reconstruction gap which is the chasm between the President’s promises and reality.
Mr. Bowen is absolutely right: the gap is enormous. But it is dwarfed by the incompetency and corruption gaps in Iraq. The consequences of mismanagement and corruption are serious. Waste, fraud, and abuse have flourished. The taxpayer has been repeatedly gouged.
Iraq is not being rebuilt. We have lost credibility and are now viewed in Iraq as occupiers, and our troops did not get essential equipment when they needed it. We have now spent $50 billion on Iraq reconstruction, including $30 billion from U.S. taxpayers.
Let’s look at what we got for the money. Despite spending $2 billion, Iraq’s oil production is still well below prewar levels, running about a half million barrels below 2003 levels. We have invested $4 billion into improving electricity generation.
Not only is the administration 2,000 megawatts short of reaching its goal for peak output, but generation is actually below prewar levels. And we spent $6 billion on oil production and electricity generation. And we have actually lost ground.
The situation is the same for drinking water. In essence, we have squandered $50 billion. Profiteering has been rampant, and the taxpayer has gotten gouged and the work has not gotten done. And what is especially shameful about the wasteful spending is that we needed this money for our troops. When we first went into Iraq, our troops did not have enough body armor.
Families had to purchase armor off the Internet and ship it to Iraq in a desperate attempt to protect their loved ones. On congressional delegations, individual service members have taken our staffs aside and begged for more night vision goggles.
Patriotic Americans even had to donate their frequent flier miles so troops who were dumped at the Baltimore airport by the Pentagon could make it home for the holidays. This should never have happened. It is inexcusable that our troops face desperate shortages of essential gear while billions of dollars were frittered away.
To understand the magnitude of this, there is no better place to start than Halliburton. Halliburton is the largest private contractor operating in Iraq. The company has three contracts that total more than $20 billion. We now know that political appointees, not career civil servants, decided to give Halliburton a secret no-bid contract for $7 billion to operate Iraq’s oil fields.
As GAO has reported, the key decision that led to the award of the secret contract violated Federal procurement law. When a career attorney properly objected, he was simply overruled. And despite statements from the Vice President, we know now that his chief of staff, Scooter Libby, was personally briefed on this entire plan months before the war.
The decision to give those lucrative contracts to Halliburton has been expensive. According to Pentagon audits, Halliburton’s total unreasonable and unsupported charges exceed $1.4 billion. Well, the examples of waste, fraud, and abuse are numerous. Halliburton charged $45 for a case of soda; $100 for a 15-pound bag of laundry.
When they had brand-new $85,000 Halliburton trucks, they abandoned them or torched them if they got a flat tire or experienced minor mechanical problems. Halliburton’s contracts are cost-plus. That means that Halliburton is reimbursed for all of its costs, and then receives an extra percentage as additional profit.
In practical terms, this means that the more Halliburton spends, the richer it gets. Now we talked to former Halliburton employees who worked in Iraq. They told us the informal company motto was: “Do not worry about price, it is cost plus.”
Halliburton was supposed to be in Iraq to provide support for the troops, but the company used one standard for the troops and a completely different standard for its own executives. Halliburton employees stayed at the five-star Kempinski Hotel in Kuwait, where it costs taxpayers $10,000 per day. This is the five-star Kempinski. This gorgeous hotel offered maid service, complimentary fruit baskets to Halliburton employees.
Our troops stayed in tents in the desert. At one point, a cost-conscious Army official asked Halliburton to move its employees into air-conditioned tents, but they refused.
To their credit, career government auditors identified these overcharges. When they examined Halliburton’s second oil contract, they harshly criticized Halliburton’s performance, citing profound systemic problems and exorbitant indirect costs. But their recommendations were rejected.
After reviewing Halliburton’s first oil contract in Iraq, auditors recommended that the Army not pay $263 million in unreasonable and unsupported charges. But the Army ignored those auditors and paid Halliburton $254 million, over 95 percent of the disputed charges.
And in spite of the auditor’s findings, Halliburton was paid nearly $100 million in profits and bonuses for overbilling taxpayers.
Well, Halliburton symbolizes what went astray in Iraq, but it is not the only contractor abusing the system. Parsons received the contract to rebuild health clinics throughout Iraq. But despite spending $186 million, Parsons completed just 20 of 142 health clinics they promised to build.
Another firm, Custer Battles, received two security contracts. A Federal jury recently found that the company committed 37 separate acts of fraud. These are not isolated instances. There are over 70 corruption investigations currently under way in Iraq. These cases involve allegations of
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fraud, false claims, theft, bribery and kickbacks. Some of the worst problems in Iraq are almost beyond comprehension.
The U.S. management of the Development Fund for Iraq, which was the fund that held the proceeds of Iraqi oil sales, is a classic example of what not to do. The Coalition Provisional Authority handed out over $8.8 billion in cash, in cash, to Iraqi ministries. And they had no idea what happened to the money: $8 billion in cash simply vanished.
One former U.S. official who was in Iraq at the time, Frank Willis, described conditions as the Wild West. He said the lack of controls effectively created a free fraud zone.
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Iraq was awash in brand-new $100 bills with no accountability to prevent corruption. All the while, the White House looked the other way and Congress put its head in the sand.
Under the Constitution, we are supposed to be a check and balance, but we have abdicated this responsibility. The Republican majority is terrific at applauding the President, and they are proving it again today with this dishonest resolution.
Congress isn’t doing the serious and important work it must do to protect our troops, rebuild Iraq, look out for American taxpayers. Congress must be more than a cheerleading section for the White House.
The fiasco in Iraq was a windfall for some. Halliburton made more than $2 billion in profits last year. Its total revenue has increased by 66 percent since 2002. Another beneficiary was David Brooks. He is the CEO of a company that makes bulletproof vests. In 2001, Mr. Brooks reportedly earned $525,000. In 2004, he earned $70 million. Last year, the U.S. Marines recalled more than 5,000 of the company’s armored vests. But by that time Mr. Brooks had pocketed $186 million.
Well, the American people might think that Congress would rise up in the face of such unconscionable profiteering. When our troops are willing to sacrifice so much, and they do sacrifice so much, how can we let others create cynical fortunes off their blood?
As we debate this resolution, 2,500 of our bravest men and women, have been killed in Iraq. Over 18,000 have been wounded, and the total cost of the Iraq war is over $300 billion. Those of us privileged to serve here have been spared any of the personal consequences of being on the front line, but we should not be spared the responsibility of doing our job.
We owe more to our troops than slapping “I support our troops” bumper stickers on our cars and extolling their courage. Instead of wasting time on bipartisan charades, we should acknowledge and fix our mistakes so that Iraqis can take over and our troops in Iraq can come home.
We owe more than empty promises to American families who are paying for this costly war in Iraq. They count on us to make sure that their money is spent well, and we haven’t done that.
An honest unsparing look at the record of the past 3 years tells us a stark truth. The White House and Congress have failed our troops, the taxpayers and the Iraqi people. They deserve better than a partisan resolution that pats ourselves and the White House on the back.
It is shameful that we are squandering money on Halliburton at the very same time that we don’t have enough money to protect our troops. It is shameful that Congress has abdicated its oversight and legislative responsibilities to rein in the incompetence and corruption that has undermined our efforts in Iraq.