BREAKING: McNerney to deliver floor speech on Iraq War tonight

BREAKING NEWS: Congressman Jerry McNerney will deliver a speech tonight on the floor of the House of Representatives outlining his opposition to President Bush’s plans for escalating the war in Iraq. The speech will take place sometime between 6-9 p.m. PST tonight (Tuesday, Feb. 13) and will be available live on C-SPAN. The text of his remarks will be available soon.

If you would like to share your thoughts with the Congressman on his speech, please post your comments below.

UPDATE: Congressman McNerney's full remarks are below, as prepared for delivery:

“The young men and women who joined the Armed Forces after 9/11 out of a sense of duty and love for our country are just like my son, Michael, who joined the military because of those terrible attacks.

“I’m proud and heartened by their commitment to service and patriotism – just as I am of my own son’s commitment.

“And I’m concerned about their safety and well being – just as I was about Michael’s when he was in the service.

“When I talk about supporting the troops, it’s not rhetorical, it’s personal.

“It is with great sadness and steely resolve that I stand up tonight on the issue of the Iraq and the President’s plan to escalate the conflict.

“I’m saddened because the misguided and mismanaged conflict has become a tragic disaster and a genuine threat to Middle East stability and global security.

“The escalation will cause more violence in the Middle East and will weaken our nation.

“I’m resolved because it’s our duty as the Congress of this great nation to check and balance the power of the President on any issue we believe harmful to our country.

“This Administration insists on finding a military answer rather than changing this failed approach and pursuing the diplomatic and political solutions necessary to bring an end to the violence. 

“Unfortunately, the President’s plan to escalate the war in Iraq will not bring success there or make the United States more secure.  In fact, the proposal means a further distraction from the mission in Afghanistan and the need for a tougher, smarter approach to the global war on terrorism.

“The President’s proposal puts more U.S. lives at risk, further stretching the readiness of our ground forces and increasing the drain on our Treasury.

“President Bush’s plan is opposed by military experts, by Republicans and Democrats in both chambers of Congress, and by the vast majority of our country.

“That’s why I rise in strong support of the resolution under consideration in this body.

“The resolution has two straightforward provisions:

1. Continuing support for those American soldiers who have served or are currently serving in Iraq, and
2. Disagreeing with the President’s plan to escalate the conflict and deploy an additional 21,500 combat troops to Iraq .

“Supporting our troops is my top priority, not just because it is our duty and responsibility, but because it is personal for me and my family.

“Recently the Washington Post reported that the Marine Corps and Army brigades that would be sent to Iraq under the President’s plan are short body armor, vehicles and other important equipment. This shows just how desperate the President’s misguided plan is. Military action should never be executed in desperation.

“We must transfer the responsibility for establishing and maintaining law and order on the streets in Iraq to the Iraqis.  Training of those Iraqi units must be done outside of Iraq.  This will mean more troops trained more quickly, and will lessen the likelihood that Iraqi army and police recruits turn to dangerous militias and death squads.

“The members of our Armed Forces who have served in Iraq have done so bravely and honorably.

“Unfortunately, the President’s strategy in Iraq has not matched the commitment with which our troops have served in that country.

“We must begin a responsible redeployment of our troops out of Iraq on a public timeline that makes sense – while pursuing a political and diplomatic solution.

“Yet the President has steadfastly refused to engage in the political and diplomatic efforts necessary to bring resolution to the violence in Iraq .

“Both Republicans and Democrats agree that we need a new direction in Iraq .  I will continue to push for that new direction while always putting our troops first.  This resolution is an important first step, but there is much more to be done.

“I stand with resolve in opposing President Bush’s plan for an escalation in Iraq.”

Comments

[Cal]

How about a federal/state/private partnership to build and operate a high-capacity biofuels (I would suggest celulosic ethanol and biodiesel) plant in the Port of Stockton? And a research facility at UC Merced?

It would be the perfect location with the close proximity to what would be the source farms, and the many freeways combining with the port itself and freight rail lines for easy crop inport and fuel export.

And it's certainly in need, with the air quality so bad in the valley, the ag-based communities struggling with the balance between growth and conservation.

Entering farms surrounding valley cities into long-term contracts for production of energy crops would create a constrictive green belt around the cities, limiting sprawl and promoting smart planning and reinvestment and redevelopment. When you see all the houses Spanos built on 8-mile and Grupe built in Brookside, on what used to be prime farmland, the evidence for that need is clear, too.

Also, check out the following company- which uses plasma gasification to turn garbage into energy at a profit, with a net energy gain and no external emissions: http://www.startech.net/overview.html

[TY HINES]

Dear Jerry,
thank you for great leadership, if only your type of leadership was available to our nation before this Iraq war.
Our troops deserves leadership worthy of their sacrifice, the planning thus far by this administration has been poor and ill-conceived. Major combat operations have continued long after the president told the word they had ended, the mission is not accomplished and the insurgency is far from being in its last throes. Our troops are dealing with the reality of our leaders illusions. We need help - now !

[Eric C. Rader]

I am a firm believer in Hydrogen as a fuel source. We however still need the power to produce the hydrogen.
It has come to my attention that there are being coal fired power plants being built out of state to produce the power we need in California.
Coal is one of the most impure of fuels. Its impurities range from trace quantities of many metals, including uranium and thorium, to much larger quantities of aluminum and iron to still larger quantities of impurities such as sulfur. Products of coal combustion include the oxides of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur; carcinogenic and mutagenic substances; and recoverable minerals of commercial value, including nuclear fuels naturally occurring in coal.

I feel we need nuclear power. The nuclear power for a family of four for twenty years generates no more than a shoe box of spent fuel rods that critics call "nuclear waste" The nuclear hysterics will not allow our country to reprocess the rods to extract the highly radioactive isotopes and reclaim the plutonium that can be used as new fuel. If we reprocess the spent fuel rods, the remaining "waste" that must be buried for a family of four for fifty years will fit in a pill bottl e or a shot glass. Compare this to the scare stories you get from the nuclear hysterics who would have you believe that nuclear power plants generate mountains of nuclear waste that can be scattered all over the world. The total nuclear waste generated by all 103 nuclear plants in the U.S. over the last fifty years will fit in the volume of a typical high school gym (77,000 tons by weight so far). Does that sound like an enormous task? Or difficult to safeguard once it is stored a thousand feet inside of a mountain?
I urge you to help get nuclear power back on course in California. If we had nuclear power throughout the United States, there would be NO threat at all from the middle east.
There are numerous nuclear power plants in the United States. They store their waste. The French deal with their nuclear waste, as do the Chinese and much of the rest of the world, gaining a competitve advantage over us.

[Dr. James Barker]

It is past time to restore our system of checks and balances to our democracy. This Administration needs Congressional oversight. Please begin a real debate on the war and place a timetable to pull our troops out of Iraq. They should have been in Afghanistan capturing Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leadership. Cut funds for Iraq after the withdrawal timetable has been reached.

[Eric C. Rader]

The estimated population of the United States is 300,958,808 so each citizen's share of this debt is $28,983.23.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $1.57 billion per day since September 29, 2006!

The Social Security Trust Fund is this debt. Boomers collecting Social Security draw on the fund, increasing the federal debt.

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 14 Feb 2007 at 04:35:41 PM GMT is: $8,722,757,053,008. http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

We buy products produced overseas and they buy our debt. Soon they will own the country who lives on ever increasing debt. What national security is that?

Watch this 6 minute video: http://www.scottmcleod.org/didyouknow.wmv

[Mary Lou Erickson]

Thank God you are speaking out against the escalation in IRAQ.

Please, ALSO, STOP THE PRESIDENT'S BUILD UP TO A WAR IN IRAN, AS WELL.

Warn Americans against the administration's ploys - to start a 'provocation' with Iran which will allow the US to strike them or invade them. WARN THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THAT WE ARE GOING TO BE TAKEN IN ONCE AGAIN!!!!

[Fred Hess]

Thank you Jerry,
Absolutely excellent speech. Before Friday's vote, please try as hard as possible to privately, or on the floor, convince our friends from the minority how important the issues are; and to join you.

[barbara michel]

thank you for standing up to an administration gone awry, and for doing everything within your considerable power to stop this war -- not only to save the lives of american soldiers, but also to stop the killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians who have the bad luck to be in the way of bush-cheney's worldwide quest for more oil.
keep fighting, jerry!
barbara michel

[bill peppin]

Jerry's comments are on point, but the debate in congress must be broadened to the entire way in which decisions are made in the matter of preemptive wars, and the civil liberties so quickly discarded in the name of national security. If citizens have no access to major decisions on matters of war, if congresspeople have no power to check the excesses of the executive branch, then we have ceased to be a representative democracy. Are the people of this country so willing to give up constitutional rights so that they can continue shopping and declining to participate in grass roots efforts to alter the Titaniclike course we are on?

[Margo Terrill]

I was very pleased with Jerry's comments in the House of Representatives last night. I agree that we need to get out of Iraq and that we should focus more energy and attention on Afghanistan where we can actually do some good.

Jerry is doing a great job and I will happily work to get him reelected again.