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Statement of Rep. Tim Walz in favor of the Iraq Resolution being considered today by the U.S. House of Representatives
February 13, 2007
Mr. Speaker, today we begin a long overdue debate on the President's troop escalation plans and the Iraq war in general. I spoke earlier this morning, and I had the opportunity to address some of the conflicts between the testimony of experts and the Administration's wishful thinking in regard to the escalation.
What is said here on this floor of Congress, what is said by our experts and what is said by this Administration matters. It matters because our troops will be asked to fulfill the mission that comes out of these discussions. Our debate on this resolution is about far more than expressing our disapproval of the President. We offer this debate in the hopes that it will shape the mission that our soldiers are asked to carry out, one that is based on facts and reality not blind ideology.
I retired for the National Guard in 2005 and the unit I served with is now in Iraq. Many of these soldiers are kids that I taught in my high school class room and coached on our school football team. They joined my Guard unit and I trained them. We deployed together in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and now they are deployed again to Iraq.
As a 24 year veteran of the Army National Guard, I know that our soldiers are trained to fulfill the mission they are given. But having a mission that is achievable is the key to any military success. The previous Republican Congress failed to hold the administration accountable for providing a mission that could succeed and in doing so they failed to support our troops.
Last week I had the opportunity to speak with a Field Commander of the Minnesota National Guard who is serving in Iraq. He told me that our soldiers are performing magnificently, every minute of every hour of every day, that's not the issue that's at hand here. The issue at hand is providing a mission that can succeed.
Mr. Speaker, when we recess for our district work period next week, I will go home and look in to the eyes of the families of these soldiers. These are the same families and the men and women who learned on cable TV that they would be extended in their tour of duty. These are the same men and women who will face financial loss because many of them had planned to return to their jobs after an 18 month deployment to work in the agricultural and construction businesses and now they will be delayed in their return. They'll miss the critical seasons. They have been deployed for two and a half of the last four years.
Mr. Speaker, we can and must do better by our soldiers. The resolution that we will debate today, and I am in support of is meant as a first step in giving our troops an achievable mission and a chance to return. Our soldiers are trained to fulfill their mission without question. We as civilian leaders have a duty to question it on their behalf. For the past four years this Republican-led Congress has failed in their duty.
This resolution is about this Congress standing up and saying, "we will achieve our duty to the same level of excellence as our soldiers have."
Thank you.
Walz uses his National Guard experience to illustrate how the war is affecting families in his district. The emphasis is echoed in remarks in a recent National Journal article, Keeping Up The Fight:
Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., echoed [Joe Sestak's] sentiments. "I was not running on just my military background, it was just one part of my character," he stressed. "I never claimed that it gave me any type of exclusive privilege to speak on issues of national defense, because that's pretty obnoxious, I think. And it's quite honestly not true." But Walz did suggest that his experience as a National Guardsman gives him an "insight" into what those soldiers are "going through."
While we were at work, Walz was on Hardball paired with Bill Shuster, so we missed it, but will to transcripts and video clips as they are made available. Walz will also be on Washington Journal tomorrow morning on C-SPAN at 8:15am.
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