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Thank you Madam Secretary for appearing before our Committee today to speak on the subject of Iraq. I would also like to thank Chairman Lantos for holding this briefing.
All of us listened carefully to the President last night as he laid out his new strategy for achieving victory in Iraq.
As the President moves to implement his new strategy, the Congress will be heavily engaged in debating and discussing its merits, large and small.
There already has been much criticism.
Some have already come to unshakeable conclusions without offering any alternatives.
The debate promises to be sharp, comprehensive, and full-throated.
Our efforts here will be one part of a much larger and far-ranging debate and discussion throughout this country – from talk shows to small town forums – for that is how our political process and our society arrive at decisions of great importance.
We are approaching a national decision, one that will have enormous and fateful consequences for us.
The real issue is not the number of troops but the bigger question of what is at stake in the war. What is at stake is to create a viable alternative for the development of the Middle East away from secular dictatorships and Islamic fundamentalists.
Secular dictatorships oppress their people and provide no opportunity for development, thus driving them into the hateful ideology of fanatical fundamentalism.
Fundamentalism is a reactionary movement, hostile to freedom. This makes our efforts in Iraq worthwhile, and the question of troops is a military matter in attempting to achieve this goal.
Some do not want to discuss this larger purpose but instead are attempting to politicize the issue by focusing purely on the number of troops, as though fewer troops is always better. But fewer troops is not the case when the goal is important to our foreign policy and to freedom.
It is essential that we remain ever aware that our national debate and discussion will not occur within a cocoon.
The entire world will be watching.
Al Jazeera and others will ensure that no weakness of ours nor internal political struggle will go unnoticed.
All are waiting to see what we will decide as a nation.
What the global audience is wondering is: What will the most powerful country in the world, the friend of many, the enemy of others, do?
Because our decision will have an impact far beyond Iraq’s borders, and will be a major factor in the calculations of our friends and our enemies.
We know that success is not guaranteed in Iraq.
That will not be easy to achieve under any circumstances, and this latest plan may have to change again.
But it is definitely within our power to guarantee failure.
There is growing sentiment in this country and in the Congress for some type of withdrawal of U.S. forces.
That may sound like a straightforward proposal, but what does it actually mean?
Should we simply pull out our forces quickly and entirely and thereby try to rid ourselves of our problems in a single act?
Or should we gradually draw them down according to a predetermined timetable, regardless of the evolution of events in Iraq?
Some form of plan to this effect may indeed emerge, but that will not be a solution.
For it would be merely the opening to new and greater troubles, not their end.
We shall not doubt that, however we might try to disguise it, a withdrawal while Iraq is still in chaos would be regarded around the world as a victory by our enemies.
There would be an extraordinary boost to their standing and morale that would result from such a momentous accomplishment on their part.
We would be deceiving ourselves if we think we could confine the consequences, however grave, to Iraq.
It is certain that large areas in that country would become secure bases for terrorists operating against us globally.
And they would employ strategies and methods elsewhere that were devised and proven successful in Iraq.
No border would stop them.
They would pursue us wherever we go, wherever we are, even here at home.
Following directly from our withdrawal would be an expanding chaos and violence that will not stop at Iraq’s borders.
It will be pushed into the neighboring countries and beyond.
And chaos is the ally of our enemies.
I do not need to remind others that the region is the center of the world’s oil supply.
A withdrawal will also signal a more general retreat around the world, giving encouragement to all those who oppose us, even in this hemisphere.
The leaders of Iran and Syria, North Korea and Venezuela will rejoice.
They will be emboldened in their efforts to drive us out.
For we will have demonstrated that we will abandon allies, that we can in fact be forced to accept defeat, regardless of its consequences.
Yes, withdrawal is an option, but ultimately a disastrous one. We must not deceive ourselves.
We may devise some fig leaf to hide our actions, but the world will not be fooled, our friends will not be fooled, and our enemies will not be fooled.
Of course, the U.S. cannot bring about victory in Iraq by itself, regardless of our effort.
Unless the Iraqi government, the leaders of the various communities, and the Iraqi people themselves are persuaded to cooperate and defend themselves and their country, it is difficult to see a path to victory.
But the lack of a clear path is no argument for standing still, and even less to flee.
I do not believe we are facing defeat in Iraq.
I look forward to the President’s new strategy being quickly put in place and aggressively implemented.
Let us not forget that we in the Congress also have a responsibility to act as well, for we will play an inescapable role in determining the outcome that ultimately emerges.
We cannot stand on the sidelines, hoping that silence will protect us or believe that our words and actions cannot harm our country.
We are at the beginning of a new century.
It has already proven to be a far more difficult one than we had at first hoped.
I am certain that we will undergo many trials that no one can foresee.
But many times in our history, we have encountered great difficulties, many of them far more threatening than that which we now face in Iraq, many of them seemingly unconquerable.
And yet every time, we rose to face them.
And prevailed.
Let me end with a quote from Lincoln in a letter he sent to the Congress in the depths of the Civil War:
"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history.
We of this Congress and this Administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us.
The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation."
He was correct.
He is still correct.
We can either shape our own fate, or have it shaped for us.
In determining our course, we must remember that destiny is neither preordained nor imposed.
It is a choice, one that we must now make.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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