From the Library of Congress:
MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE -- (House of Representatives - June 15, 2006)

Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, with the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq reaching 2,500, it's disappointing that the best the GOP leadership can do is demand more of the same. That's exactly what this resolution does by calling for a vague open-ended military commitment in Iraq. This resolution reaffirms a policy that simply isn't working.

Instead of acknowledging the difficulties our troops face by offering clear alternatives to the President's ``business as usual'' approach, this resolution tries to cloud the debate by focusing on the ``war on terror.'' Indeed, Iraq isn't even mentioned until the eighth paragraph.

The real issue at hand is whether this particular U.S. military-led effort that we've been following under Secretary Rumsfeld will achieve lasting peace and democracy in Iraq. I can understand why the GOP would want to divert attention from this critical question--it is precisely because of the Administration's policy that Iraq has become a terrorist haven where none existed before.

Since President Bush landed on an aircraft carrier and declared ``mission accomplished'', the estimated number of insurgents in Iraq has quadrupled from 5,000 to 20,000. As a result, the average number of daily attacks by insurgents has climbed from 53 to 75, from May 2004 to May 2006.

This war is an expensive quagmire that's weakening the federal government's ability to meet our domestic needs. We have spent over $300 billion so far on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is costing us about $8 billion a month on average, according to the Department of Defense. It's no wonder that this Congress was recently asked to vote on a budget that cuts education, freezes funding for health care research, and shortchanges medical care for our nation's veterans.

The massive deployment of National Guard and Reserve units overseas has undermined our capacity to confront terrorist attacks or natural disasters here at home. We know that state officials in Louisiana and Mississippi struggled to overcome the absence of National Guard members from their states in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Despite these grim realities, politicians on the other side of the aisle are stubbornly restating that--no matter what--we must ``stay the course.'' I strongly disagree. The President and his allies in Congress should heed the words of military and diplomatic leaders who have warned that a continuing presence in Iraq will neither calm the violence nor lead to stability.

Mr. Speaker, it is incumbent on this body to offer and debate real strategies for the redeployment of American forces. Instead, this resolution allows only a phony debate on the ``war on terror'' which will not allow amendments that would offer alternatives to the Bush administration's policy in Iraq.