Floor Speech On Iraq And The War On Terror

Mr. President, I rise today to discuss my strong feelings about our dialogue in Congress on the war in Iraq .

I am concerned not only with the defeatist message that some are sending the brave men and women in our Armed Forces on a daily basis but also with the message being sent to terrorists and those that wish to harm us.

Instead of focusing our attention this week on how to provide our Armed Forces with the best equipment possible to complete their mission, many in this body continue to play politics with war.

This political game is deflating troop morale and strengthening our enemies.

Some of our colleagues believe they know the situation on the ground in Iraq better than my friend General Petraeus, the commander of the multinational forces in Iraq .

They believe we should begin a withdrawal of our troops from Iraq .

The people who are best qualified to decide our troop levels are the commanders on the ground, not politicians in Washington .

I want to talk specifically to the Democrats that want immediate withdrawal. Contrary to what the base of the Democratic Party may think, this war is not a Republican war. And it is not just President Bush’s war.

It is an American war.

When we vote to send troops into battle they fight under the American flag.

If we win or lose in Iraq, the United States wins or loses. Not the Republican Party. And not President Bush.

I saw yesterday the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is now running ads in select states asking Republican Senators to vote to immediately bring our troops home from Iraq .

I watched the ads.

Not surprisingly, they did not mention what would happen if American forces withdraw quickly from Iraq .

Nor did they mention that the head of the DSCC and the Senate Majority Leader voted to authorize this war. There is a shocker.

If we take the advice of the political arm of Senate Democrats and pull out of Iraq, chaos will rule the day in Iraq and spread throughout the Middle East .

That is why many of the Democrats that want to bring our troops home now don’t talk about the harsh consequences of pulling out.

This is precisely why we shouldn’t politicize war in 30 second sound bites.

I also want to briefly address my Republican colleagues that may be feeling the political pressure back home as we debate the war.

Our constituents sent us to Washington D.C. to make tough decisions - not to cast votes based on public opinion polls.

Many of you know the consequences of pulling out of Iraq . I know because we have talked about it.

But stay strong until September when General Petraeus briefs us on the effects of the surge. Then lets all reevaluate.

The surge has only been fully in place for less than a month.

I acknowledge that the signs of success have been slow and yes, mistakes have been made with past strategies.

But this is how war is – mistakes sometimes are made. We learn from our mistakes and we move forward with a new strategy. This new strategy is now in place.

General Petraeus is working with the increase of thousands of American troops to bring safety and stability to Baghdad and Anbar province, putting insurgents on the run.

The partnership between the United States and Iraqis forces against terrorist insurgents is increasing.

Just last month more than ten Iraqi tribes in the Baghdad area reached agreements with U.S. and Iraqi forces for the first time to oppose al-Qaeda.

These tribes’ members fought alongside al-Qaeda in the past and are now providing our troops with information about their former allies.

We are at a crucial point in our fight against al-Qaeda and the extremist terrorist insurgents.

I urge my colleagues to look at the long term consequences of prematurely abandoning our mission in Iraq .

Anyone who believes that we can bring an abrupt end to our involvement in this conflict and still conduct successful counterterrorism operations in Iraq is wrong.

Defeat in Iraq will come with a hefty price that will be paid by future generations of Americans.

If the United States leaves, there will be a regional explosion of Islamist extremism that will throw the entire Middle East into greater upheaval.

The Iraqi government may collapse and throw the country into a state of chaos.

Iran will dominate the Middle East and our national security will be severely compromised.

It is because of these consequences that we should allow General Petraeus and the troop surge the opportunity to succeed.

We cannot pull the rug out from underneath him right after we gave him more tools to try to succeed in his mission.

It is both irresponsible and unfair.

We promised to give him until September to report back with the progress on the surge and we should hold true to this promise. That is just two months from now ---- two months.

Finally, I would also like to address the efforts made by some of my colleagues across the aisle to overturn effective policies we have in place to fight against terrorism.

I oppose changing the 2006 Military Commissions Act to give legal rights to suspected terrorists.

Detained enemy combatants are not ordinary criminal defendants and are not entitled to a trial in civilian courts or to habeas corpus review.

Make no mistake about it. These terrorists are at war with us, and we should treat them like it.

We already have mechanisms in place for detainees to challenge their enemy combatant status.

These procedures are more protective of the detainees’ rights than any military commission in American history.

I find it ridiculous that we are faced with debating this issue yet again.

The Senate has already voted on four separate occasions in the past two years to ensure that suspected terrorists do not have automatic access to U.S. federal courts to challenge the legality of their detention.

How many more times are we going to be forced to vote on this issue?

Let me be clear. I oppose weakening our current procedures.

The changes being proposed will only end up strengthening the rights of terrorists.

I also oppose efforts to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba , .

I realize there have been several negative reports and stories in the media in the past about the facility.

Let me set the record straight.

The vision of Guantanamo Bay the media tries to portray to the American public is very different from the reality of the facility.

I have personally visited the facilities at Guantanamo and found them to be nothing like what is described in the media.

The facilities include air-conditioning, good meals, religious worship areas, and top-notch health care.

The terrorists there are treated with dignity while they show contempt for our troops.

Don’t forget that these terrorists are the worst of the worst. They are all extremely dangerous.

The job our troops do there is critical to our war effort.

If those terrorists stay locked up there, they can not harm us and will provide us with valuable intelligence.

I applaud our troops for their efforts there. They are working very hard to secure our freedom.

It is thanks to these efforts and those made in the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism that our nation’s freedoms remain protected.

The brave men and women and their families in our Armed Forces sacrifice daily for our freedoms because they believe that their mission is too great to fail.

I ask my colleagues are we really ready to declare their mission already lost when it’s just begun?

I for one am ready to stand behind our troops and to stand behind General Petraeus.

I will vote against any amendments that restrict the flexibility of our military commanders to run this war or hurt our fight to end terrorism.

I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Thank you Mr. President and I yield the floor.