The House Holds Heated Floor Debate on U.S. Troops' Withdrawal from Iraq

KWAME HOLMAN: For the first time since they authorized the use of force in October 2002, members of the House of Representatives launched into a full day of debate on the Iraq war, tussling over what the military campaign has achieved so far and what needs to be done before American troops can return home.

REP. ADAM PUTNAM (R), Florida: Morale is high, and they are confident in the success in this mission.

REP. LLOYD DOGGETT (D), Texas: There's a better way to honor our troops than sending more of them off to be killed.

KWAME HOLMAN: Democrats repeatedly attacked Republican leaders for tying the debate to a single, non-binding resolution which praises the troops but also links Iraq to the war on terror and rejects setting an arbitrary date for troop withdrawal. Ike Skelton of Missouri is the Armed Services Committee's top Democrat.

REP. IKE SKELTON (D), Missouri: I take a back seat to no one in supporting our American military and their families, no one. But before us is a resolution that is not the fulfillment of a promise that we were given. We were told we would be able to have a debate on Iraq; that's not the case.

KWAME HOLMAN: North Carolina Republican Walter Jones agreed and had his hands tied together to demonstrate that members who wanted simply to discuss a timetable for withdrawal were being shackled by the resolution.

REP. WALTER JONES (R), North Carolina: We're going to have a resolution that is hollow, no meaning, except to say, "Thank you," which we do that every day. There's nothing wrong to say, "Thank you," but why don't we have some meat? Why don't we have some policy issues in this debate so that we can meet our constitutional responsibilities?

KWAME HOLMAN: However, many Republicans were anxious to capitalize on the recent good news in Iraq: the formation of the new government's cabinet, and the killing of insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra of Michigan said the U.S. must not waste that momentum.

REP. PETER HOEKSTRA (R), Chair, Intelligence Committee: We know that al-Qaida wants to attack us again in our homeland. That's why it's important to stay on the offensive, attacking them where they are, and making sure that they do not have a safe haven to plan, to train, and to develop the resources to attack us again.

KWAME HOLMAN: Today's debate had the strong endorsement of Majority Leader John Boehner, who's been pushing the idea since assuming his post in January.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), House Majority Leader: You know, what do we have to fear in allowing the House to work its will? That's what people get elected to do here.

KWAME HOLMAN: But a memo Boehner sent to his colleagues this week indicated the leader thought Republicans could take political advantage of the debate. He urged them "to clarify just how wrong the Democrats' weak approach is and how dangerous their implementation would be to the national security interests of the United States."

KWAME HOLMAN: New Mexico's Heather Wilson was on message this afternoon, speaking about the terrorists' mindset.

REP. HEATHER WILSON (R), New Mexico: They won't stop if we ignore them, so that is the choice we face as a nation and why this debate today is so important. It is a choice between resolve and retreat. And, for me and my family, I choose resolve.

KWAME HOLMAN: Republican Mike Rogers of Michigan followed.

REP. MIKE ROGERS (R), Michigan: They'll behead you; they'll shoot you; they'll blow you up. They don't care. And to have the talk of rhetoric, because the electricity isn't where it is, let's come home in defeat. Because the oil isn't going exactly the way we'd like it, let's come home in defeat. That's no standard for victory.

KWAME HOLMAN: But Connecticut Democrat John Larson, facing the Republican side of the aisle, voiced his outrage at the Republican plan of attack.

REP. JOHN LARSON (D), Connecticut: Here we are in a race between cooperation and catastrophe, and you guys bring to the floor a political document, not designed for a new direction or to bring the country together to discuss this issue the way it should be, but instead as talking points outlined by Karl Rove in New Hampshire, sandwiched in between a president's photo-op and a picnic this evening.

Americans are outraged that we don't have a citizenry and members here who are willing to stand up and have accountability.

KWAME HOLMAN: Illinois Democrat Rahm Emanuel argued the facts cannot be hidden from the American people.

REP. RAHM EMANUEL (D), Illinois: The Republican Congress sat and watched the administration make mistake after mistake and mistake. You cannot spin your way out of a fact that's been present in the country's mind for 3 1/2 years, $480 billion, 2,500 lives, and over 18,000 fellow citizens wounded.

KWAME HOLMAN: Emanuel was a political aide to President Clinton and now sets strategy for his House colleagues heading into the fall elections.

REP. RAHM EMANUEL: This is an attempt to, as the Republican Party leadership may know, try to embarrass Democrats, and I think that that will flip back on them, because that's the one thing the American people don't want.

KWAME HOLMAN: Even some Republicans shared that view, including 12-year House veteran Ray LaHood, also of Illinois, a confidante of Speaker Dennis Hastert.

REP. RAY LAHOOD (R), Illinois: My point is, when you have a country that's war-weary, and you have politicians that are low in the polls because of the war, I don't see the real advantage in spending eight, or 10, or 12 hours talking about this, particularly given that half the time will be by people who are opposed to the war.

KWAME HOLMAN: And Democrats made their voices heard, many harking back to the original war debate four years ago, when 40 percent of them voted for the president's resolution of force.

That included Pennsylvania's John Murtha, a decorated war hero who has become the most prominent Democrat to call for an immediate redeployment of U.S. forces, acknowledging his earlier vote was a mistake and likening the Iraq situation to Vietnam.

REP. JOHN MURTHA (D), Pennsylvania: I believed in the Vietnam War. I thought we were fighting communism. But Lyndon Johnson said they had an election. One month after I come out of Vietnam, "Everything's going to be all right."

You know how many people we lost from 1967 until we pulled out? Thirty-seven thousand. Rhetoric does not answer the problem; only the Iraqis can solve the problem in Iraq. They're fighting with each other, and our troops are caught in between, and I say it's time to redeploy and be ready.

KWAME HOLMAN: Connecticut Republican Christopher Shays, in the middle of a difficult re-election campaign because he supported the war, maintained leaving would be a mistake.

REP. CHRISTOPHER SHAYS (R), Connecticut: When I am asked by individual Iraqis what is their biggest concern, when I ask them that, it is not the bombings, the lack of electricity, or anything else, other than this: It is, and I quote -- this is what they tell me continually -- "That you will leave us, that you will leave us before we can grab hold of democracy and defend ourselves." I pray we will not let them down.

KWAME HOLMAN: Nonetheless, Congressman LaHood, who presided over much of today's debate, warned the more Republicans talk about the war, the greater the risk they'll suffer at the polls in November.

REP. RAY LAHOOD: But there's no question, in my home state of Illinois, we have sort of the poster candidate for the antiwar movement in the district that's being vacated by Henry Hyde. We have Tammy Duckworth.

She is a double-amputee through the Iraq war and now is against, you know, us having gone there. And, you know, this kind of debate for a day long may very well play into the kind of message that she's trying to put forth in her congressional district. So I hope we don't give ammunition, too much ammunition to those who want to run on the issue of the war.

KWAME HOLMAN: With several hours of debate on the resolution still before them, the House was expected to vote on it late tonight or tomorrow.