Mr. Speaker, the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Out of Iraq Caucus sponsored a very important meeting this morning to review the dire situation in Iraq and to explore ways to end the occupation. At this event, we heard from Dr. William Polk, one of America's leading experts on the Middle East.

Dr. Polk taught Middle Eastern history, politics, and Arabic at Harvard before joining the U.S. State Department's Policy Planning Council responsible for the Middle East and responsible for North Africa. Later, he became professor of history and founding director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Polk is the author of many books, including the recently published book entitled, ``Violent Politics, a History of Insurgency, Terrorism, and Guerilla Warfare from the American Revolution to Iraq.'' To write the book, Dr. Polk studied insurgent movements throughout world history. He found that they were motivated by many different causes, including race, religion, culture, economics, and language, but he found that they all had one thing in common, an opposition to foreign occupation.

Dr. Polk's research has clear implications for our policy in Iraq. It tells us that the American occupation of Iraq can never solve the country's problems. Only the Iraqis can solve Iraqi problems. And it tells us that the only policy that now makes sense is to withdraw our troops in an orderly but rapid way, and couple that action with a carefully constructed program that will help the Iraqis to pick up the pieces and to rebuild their country with the help of the regional international community.

The lesson of history is clear, Mr. Speaker; yet, our leaders in the White House continue to follow a disastrous course of foreign occupation. Their blindness has put our Nation on a very dangerous course. The administration has called for an enduring relationship with Iraq, meaning many years, perhaps even decades, of American military involvement.

If the administration has its way, babies now in diapers will grow up and march off to Baghdad while the neo-cons who crafted our Iraq policy play golf in their retirement communities.

The administration's policy of endless occupation will cost us trillions of dollars and countless casualties. It will lead to the deaths of countless Iraqi civilians and surely force millions more to become refugees. Meanwhile, al Qaeda will continue to hatch its plots against the United States in their safe havens far from Iraq.

It is clear that Iraq will never stabilize and find peace while we are present. Our occupation of Iraq prevents Iraqis from finding solutions to their own problems, and it prevents the regional and international diplomacy that is absolutely needed to help them reconcile and to rebuild.

The timely withdrawal of American troops is the essential first step in solving the Iraqi problem. So long as our troops and military contractors are there, the situation can only and will only get worse.

In the days ahead, I and others will urge Congress to move to end the occupation. Congress has the power of the purse. We must pass a bill requiring that all spending related to Iraq be used for only one purpose, and that is to fully fund the safe, orderly, and responsible withdrawal of all American troops and military contractors.

If we fail to do this, we will have failed the American people, who sent us to Congress last November with a clear message: End the occupation of Iraq. And we will have failed our country morally, we will have failed our country politically, and certainly we will have failed it economically.

It is time, Mr. Speaker, to do what we know is right and what is best for our country: bring our troops home.