Mr. Speaker, China is facing growing criticism for its record on human rights. It has been condemned for its recent crackdown on Tibet, its oppression of dissidents at home, and its support for the regime in Sudan that is responsible for the genocide in Darfur.

Russia is another country that has received justifiable criticism for cracking down on freedom. President Putin has rolled back many of the democratic gains Russia made after the Cold War. And the recent elections in Russia were a sham, clearly rigged to favor Putin's candidate.

Because of all of this, you would think that the people of the world would have a much higher opinion of the United States, the world's greatest democracy, than they would have of anti-democratic China and Russia. But that just isn't the case. Incredibly, according to the most recent annual survey of international attitudes, America is viewed more negatively around the world than China and Russia.

The Study of World Opinion was conducted by the BBC World Survey. According to the BBC, America's image abroad plummeted after our invasion of Iraq in the year 2003, and continued to decline in the following years.

The latest survey, which was released on April 1, however, has shown some good news. America's image is a little better than it was last year. But it is not because the world has suddenly changed its opinion about the Bush administration and its policies in Iraq.

The director of the survey was quoted as saying, ``It may be that, as the U.S. approaches a new presidential election, views of the U.S. are being mitigated by hope that a new administration will move away from foreign policies that have been so unpopular in the world.''

Mr. Speaker, what the world thinks of America matters. And it is not just because we want to win popularity contests. It is far more serious than that. Our ability to lead the world is badly damaged when our reputation is in tatters. We cannot lead the world in the fight against terrorism when so many people in the world, even our best friends, believe that we are a threat to peace ourselves. We cannot lead the world in the fight against the many other global problems, including poverty, disease, climate change, and the lack of educational opportunity when we have lost our moral authority and credibility.

When you go to war under false pretenses, devastate a nation that never attacked you, and condone torture, you don't make America stronger, you make America weaker, because you undermine values that are the real source of our strength. America's great values are democracy, the rule of law, peace, and compassion for the people of the world. Our occupation of Iraq has trampled on all of these values. The veto of Congress' effort to outlaw waterboarding is just the latest example of what I am talking about.

And what was gained by trashing our values? Nothing. A report written by the National Defense University, the Pentagon's premier military educational institute, called our occupation of Iraq a major debacle.

Mr. Speaker, 92 Members of the House have written to the President to tell him that we will fully fund the responsible redeployment of our troops out of Iraq, but we will not approve another penny to support the disastrous policy of open-ended occupation.

After more than 5 years of occupation, it is time for us to redeem America's reputation, restore our values, rebuild Iraq, and lead the world in the fight for peace once again.