Voices From The House Floor

Excerpts from yesterday's debate on the Iraq war resolution:

Duncan Hunter (Calif.), ranking GOP member of the Armed Services Committee

"This is indeed a sad time in our country. Five years ago . . . we joined in sending our troops off in this war against terror. . . . Now, we're trying to expand freedom in a different part of the world, a very dangerous part of the world. . . . Today, you've got an 82nd Airborne 2nd Brigade . . . already there in Baghdad. Now, is this going to be the day, I would ask my colleagues, when some trooper from the 82nd Airborne writes on the concrete wall next to his position in Baghdad, 'This is where I stood when the United States House of Representatives, led by the Democrat leadership, rejected my mission'?"

Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.)

"Today, our House is divided; tomorrow, it will become all one thing or all the other. . . . In our divided House, one side believes we must win in Iraq to avoid a catastrophe; another side assumes we can lose in Iraq without consequence. One side believes we must support our troops in harm's way and continue their funding; another side claims we can support our troops in harm's way and cut their funding. One side assumes we must defeat al-Qaeda in Iraq; another side asserts we can retreat from al-Qaeda in Iraq. And one side believes the American people voted to change course in Iraq to win; another side feels the American people voted to change course in Iraq to lose."

Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.)

"What we now have in Iraq is a defeat. We cannot achieve the illusions of the Bush administration that we will be able to create a stable, unified, liberal democracy in Iraq that is pro-American. Instead, we have sectarian fighting, death squads and a destabilized Middle East that threatens to be engulfed by the nightmare that we have unleashed. . . . Instead of acknowledging these failures and embarking on a new course of action, the president gives us more of the same: Send more troops to Iraq. . . . The Congress must stand ready to use the checks and balances necessary to extract ourselves from the morass we face in Iraq."

Diana DeGette (Colo.), Democrats' chief deputy whip

"It's time for a new course in Iraq -- a rational course -- a more humane course of action. It is long past time to start a phased withdrawal of our troops from Iraq. . . . This debate is about policy and direction. Surely, the facts on the ground cannot be used to support continued or increased combat involvement in Iraq. Iraq is in a civil war. That is the truth, and it's time we accept the implications of that fact. . . . The president mistakenly continues to believe [in] . . . the light at the end of a tunnel. But, there is no light; it was extinguished long ago. There is only darkness and despair."