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

[John Colwell]

I would like Jerry to spend more of his time and effort restoring our lost liberties under the Bush administration. Nothing could be more important to this country than preserving the rights we say we are fighting for. This president must not leave office with a legacy of devastating blows to our liberties.

[Wes]

Your opposition here is only a first step. I am proud of that fact that you had the guts to sign on to HR 508 when the other representatives whose districts have slices of my county (Eshoo, Honda, Lofgren) did not. It was the right thing to do and that is why we sent you there... to do the right things.

[Jay Jackman]

Jerry's comments reflect both the local and national consensus that escalation is the wrong road. As one of the newly elected moderate Democrats he represents the middle of the electorate, which wants a major change of direction in Iraq. It is wonderful seeing Jerry taking a leadership role in the effort to redirect this misguided administeration. Keep up the good work.

Jay

[Dr. Mark Borowsky]

The Honorable Jerry McNerney
Congressman, 11th District (CA)
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

11/14/06

Dear Jerry,

I trust that the initial few days and weeks in your new job will prove to be somewhat overwhelming, and that demands on your time will be similarly so, however, I am also hopeful that you will find the time to review these comments on my vision for the priorities of the 110th Congress.
First, some short autobiographical notes to put these comments into better perspective. I grew up in a military family. My father, who grew up poor, and who was what we would describe today as a self-made man, was a physician. (More about him later.) Consequently, I spent my childhood in Washington D.C. during the Kennedy years, Yokosuka, Japan during the escalation of the Vietnam War, and Oakland, California during the height of the anti war protests. Much of my weltanschaung is based upon this family background, and the experiences derived from it, in addition to the history of my mother, a naturalized American citizen who was born in a Jewish family in Germany, and a Holocaust survivor who lost much of her family, including both of her parents and older sister, to Nazi persecution. My present world view was shaped not only by this history, but as well by more recent life experiences during my 46 years. I am happy to describe these more fully, both in the text to follow, as well as one on one. I trust that the latter will come to pass again.

The issues that matter the most to me as a citizen, are as follows:

That we live in a secure, just, and prosperous society, prioritized in that order. I do not want to live in fear for my life, or that of my family, or my fellow citizens. I am a strong believer, that the best way to ensure this, is to create a world in which no one else, either in this country, or overseas, feels similar threats, does not want for the basic necessities of life, and further, has access to the tools and conditions to allow him or her to fulfill a destiny commensurate with his/her talents and abilities. In my view, the appropriate role of government is to facilitate the achievement of these preconditions, in as unobtrusive a manner as is necessary. One can then debate over what policies need to be implemented in order to best guarantee the realization of this outcome. In my scheme of things, these policies consist of the following:

A strong national defense to protect the security of ourselves and our allies, who share similar values. Paramount among those values, which have made this nation a uniquely successful experiment in popular governance, are those espoused in our Constitution and Declaration of Independence, specifically, freedom of thought, inquiry, conscience and speech, and protection of private property. This is especially true even if the aforementioned should be either misunderstood, or unpopular. Our present administration is all too willing to sacrifice any and all of these rights and freedoms: it has therefore rightly begun to lose its mandate to govern

Universal access to quality health care at an affordable price. I have had to retire from the practice of medicine prematurely, as the result of illness, and have myself become acutely aware of the difficulties of buying private health insurance, once one has been ill.

Universal access to a quality education that will allow a diplomate at any level of achievement, whether it is high school, college, or graduate/professional, to compete successfully in an increasingly globalized, technology driven economy. The definition of an educated person has changed with the resulting changes in the world economy, and therefore, our educational standards must keep pace. Therefore, no person can be considered educated today, unless he/she has mastery, at a minimum, not only of the English language, and pre-calculus mathematics, but he/she also must be computer literate, and ideally have some familiarity with at least one foreign language.
Further, science education in particular cannot be held hostage to some perverted notion of political correctness, or worse, deference to misguided, misinformed notions of religious fundamentalism. I refer to one egregious example in particular, specifically the dumbing down of the curriculum by many local school boards, by minimizing or denying the central role of the theory of evolution in the development of modern biological thought. Were these people even historically literate, never mind scientifically literate, they would be only too aware of the disastrous consequences of what happened to 2 radically different 20th century societies, when their science was made subservient to their corrosive political agendas. I refer of course to the perverted racial theories of Nazi Germany and, in the Soviet Union under Stalin, the equally misguided introduction of a more Marxist friendly form of Lamarckian genetics/pseudoscience (Lysenkoism) into the practice of Soviet agriculture, with the end result that competent geneticists were purged, often killed, as the Russian harvests failed miserably for the subsequent generation.. Certainly not models for anyone to emulate. More on the subject of science education at the end of the letter.

The Environment: Of course, a world class economy/standard of living will require easy access to ever expanding sources of renewable and environmentally friendly energy. I do not believe that it is either economically, militarily, or morally defensible for our country to continue to consume such a large fraction of the earth’s non-renewable, and pollution generating energy resources. We will require the next Apollo Program in order to develop environmentally friendly energy self sufficiency, and will most likely require a combination of energy conservation, exploration, and development, with a specifically defined goal, to be achieved by a specific date. A necessary adjunct to this project, would be the development of clean and affordable public transportation (I am specifically thinking of high speed long distance trains, and commuter railways in major metropolitan areas) in all of the major metropolitan areas of the United States, linked to Canada and Mexico, such as exists in Western Europe today.

Fiscal Responsibility: It also follows almost tautologically that none of the above mentioned goals will be able to be met until we, as a country, can get our own fiscal house in order. The present administration has arguably been one of the most fiscally reckless and irresponsible regimes in the history of the world. In an ever interconnected global economy, we risk a major world-wide economic calamity if we continue to borrow on such a massive scale. It is unconscionable for the current generation to pass on such a huge debt to future generations. We can afford to wait no further to rationally prioritize our national spending, balance our budget, and begin to pay off this debt, increasingly held by foreign lenders, who’s interests often are divergent from our own. Debt reduction can in this framework be viewed as inseparable from our own national security.

These are the values which I consider to be worth fighting for, and why I have devoted my time and effort to see that someone who shares these values is elected to a position of influence. It is these values that have made America a beacon to the world, not the least to my father’s parents, and to my mother who came here in search of a better life. They found it.
These values afforded my father, who was born during the Depression, to a stay at home mother, and a father who worked multiple odd jobs in order to feed his family, and to give his children the opportunity to go to school and learn. My dad aspired to be a professional, and was well aware of the economic, social, and class barriers that stood in his way. Beginning at the age of 13, he worked for 2 hours a day after school, at $1 an hour, in order to save money to go to college. During his 8 years at Temple University, to which he commuted daily from home, on the city street car, he continued to work as a lab assistant, in order to earn money to go to medical school. During the 1950’s, this was no small task, as there was an unofficial gentleman’s agreement ( i.e. quota or numerus clausus) limiting Jewish enrollment to 5%. Every step of the way, he beat the odds, and graduated from medical school, as a member of the honor society, owing not a dime to a bank or government organization. After a year’s internship, he joined the Navy, did his residency in pathology, serving for a total of 20 years before he retired a Captain. The portrait of the classic self made man, although he was humble/modest enough, as well as sensible enough to realize that he benefited not only from the support of his family, as well as the state institutions ( transportation, and public schools from the elementary school through the professional school level) which were the great equalizer for the lower class kid, with a passion for education and self improvement, in his dedicated search for a better life. He certainly found it, and never forgot the debt that he and is family owed to the armed services: both as a source of income, as well as, most importantly, the guarantors of our liberty.
My mother’s story is no less inspiring. I have alluded to parts of it previously. She was born into a middle class German Jewish family. Her father was a decorated veteran of the First World War , and a respected grain dealer in the Hessian district where they lived. None of this counted for anything when the Nazis came to power. My grandparents and aunt died in Nazi concentration camps. My mother miraculously survived internment, starvation and forced labor in Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, and Mathausen. After her liberation by American troops, she emigrated to the United States. Had she and her parents not also been subject to an even crueler form of numerus clausus for immigrants during the 1930’s, this and multiple similar tragedies might have been avoided. Coming to this country speaking no English, she went to night school, received a high school diploma, and then went on to nursing school, graduating, and within 10 years of her arrival became a head nurse. You can’t make stuff like this up.
Such are my roots, and my family’s experience with the American Dream. Sadly, this path to success is becoming exceedingly rare, and extremely more difficult to duplicate.

A quality public education, as the great equalizer in American life, is a vanishing entity in the high schools, and becoming ever more unaffordable at the college/university level. We are mortgaging our future as a country, if we cannot correct this ill in a timely manner, by once again making a sound, modern education available to all of our country’s children. By having to rely on foreign graduates to carry this load at the university level, we condemn a whole generation of our own children to seek jobs in an ever shrinking industrial sector, or in the service industries in which they can not expect to earn a living wage. Therefore, there can be no doubt that our country desperately needs a coherent and comprehensive educational policy that will allow our youth to be competitive in this increasingly post-industrial/information age economy.

Such are the major challenges that we face as a country as I see them. Your election represents a beacon of optimism to those of us who share these values. Much work along these lines remains ahead. I am confident that you are up to the taskWishing you all the best for the future in your exciting new endeavor.

Sincerely,

Mark

Mark Borowsky, M.D.

[Marcia and Deane Savage]

Dear Jerry,
We are so very proud of you.
Great to see you speaking out on the escalation in Iraq! This immoral and illegal occupation must end now! Hopefully, this is the first step in reaching that goal.
We have lost over 3,000 men and women,and over 20,000 wounded. In the future, we hope you will acknowledge the tremendous loss the Iraqis have suffered since our illegal invasion. The numbers are staggering--some say over 300,000 deaths, and untold hundreds of thousands wounded.

[carol schumacher]

hey jerry,
you made us all proud. this is such an important first step. we'll back you all the way! you keep sayin' what needs to be said.
carol schumacher

[Richard Linville]

I missed your speech, but I read the text. I agree it’s likely that many of those, like your son, who joined the military after 911 did so out of patriotism and a desire to server their country. We all know that most of the enlisted personnel in the US armed services are there because they had no other real choice. They were unprepared for and couldn’t afford college, had no prospect for a job leading to self-sufficiency, and had no other way off the streets.

I also agree that it’s our responsibility to do all we can to heal our veterans, and help the families of those that aren’t coming home. The VA reports that one third of homeless adults in the US are vets. Their treatment over the last 40 years has been dreadful. I would recommend the DAV (Disabled American Veterans) as one worthy organization for those with the means and desire to help.

You referred to “the global war on terrorism” as thought anyone still believed it was something other than a hoax; a new smokescreen deigned to continue the pillaging of the US treasury by war profiteers, a.k.a. defense contractors. Those responsible for the murder and destruction on 911 have not been brought to justice. Yet we’ve imprisoned and tortured thousands on suspicion of being associated with the conspirators.

No quantity of flags can wipe away the blood spilled in Iraq by the United States of America. This stain on the reputation of our country will linger for a generation to come. The belief that we naively grew up with, that America stands for justice, equality, and human right is now, sadly, pre-911 thinking.

I implore you to end the slaughter - stop funding the occupation.

[Charmaine Jabr]

As soon as Joe and I got home from work he turned on CSPAN and lo and behold a familiar voice! Great job on the floor today Jerry! Keep it up and thanks for also supporting HR 508 to bring the troops home. One statement the opposition keeps spouting is that this non-binding resolution means nothing and if the majority party really meant it you would begin to cut the funds now. So, let's ask them if they really support this buildup and what it is supposed to accomplish, they should do it with overwhelming force, not just 21k. But of course we don't have the troops, so if they really mean it, then they should ask all Americans to share the pain and call for a draft!

[Dick Schubert]

After a reckless bus driver drives over a cliff it is too late, the brakes will do no good. Now is the time to stop him and take the keys not put more kids on the bus!

[Karen Shulman]

I think it's lovely that the Congressman is getting on TV but to stop this madness, much more extreme actions need to be taken. Nothing short of impeachment will stop this man and his sidekick, Cheney. And thus far, the cowardliness of this Congress is allowing these two sick corupt guys run rampant and Congress should assume the guilt for the hole that we are digging ourselves in