Two of Iowa’s five congressman spoke on the floor of the U.S. House Tuesday during the on-going debate of a resolution which opposes President Bush’s proposed troop surge in Iraq. Congressman Leonard Boswell, a Democrat from Des Moines, said he can no longer support what he called a "failed and tragic military exercise in Iraq."
Boswell, who mentioned his two tours of duty in Vietnam, said U.S. troops in Iraq now find themselves in the middle of a civil war, and it’s time to begin the "planned, phased withdrawal of U.S. forces." Congressman Steve King, a Republican from Kiron, also spoke yesterday and offered the opposing view.
"When we had…the prime minister of Iraq speaking from that very podium behind me…a short half-a-year ago, he said: ‘The fate of our country and ours is tied. Should democracy be allowed to fail in Iraq and terror permitted to triumph, then the war on terror will never be won elsewhere,’" King said. King said rather than pulling out, American troops should stay and "destroy the enemy" in Iraq.
"We haven’t really won a war since World War II," King said. "Think about what that means. Think about what that means to our enemies who are encouraged by this kind of debate and this kind of behavior." King said America needs to have "the resolve" to finish what was started in Iraq. Debate on the Iraq war resolution will continue today.