Mr. Speaker, earlier this week, the World Health Organization released a report that can only be called shocking and appalling. Cholera is on the rise in Iraq and spreading to urban areas like Baghdad and Basrah, and some of the northern provinces as well.

As most of you know, cholera is a diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine. People get cholera from drinking water or food contaminated with the cholera bacteria, and it spreads rapidly in areas with inadequate treatment of sewage and drinking water.

This sounds like a disease of the Third World, not one of a developed and wealthy country, certainly not a country where the United States is propping up the health care system, right? Then why have the confirmed number of cases of cholera risen to more than 2,000? In one week alone, 616 new cases were discovered. The WHO estimates that more than 30,000 people have fallen ill with similar symptoms which may later be confirmed as cholera.

This is a shocking epidemic. As a result, the Iraqi Government is considering travel restrictions to limit the spread of this often deadly disease, particularly for children.

In a country already crippled by refugees and internally displaced people, the situation grows more severe every single day. Why, as we are spending more than $13 million an hour for the occupation of Iraq, $13 million an hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, can we not join with the international community to provide for the most basic human needs? We are talking clean drinking water and proper sanitation. This is not reinventing the wheel or putting a man on the Moon.

Clean water and sanitary conditions, is that too much to ask? I guess it might be for our leader at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, because the administration spews a lot of rhetoric about liberating the Iraqi people. Does that mean crumbling infrastructure, sectarian fighting, a massive refugee crisis, and on top of that, a possible epidemic of cholera?

Iraqi families need to start their lives over again. They need their kids to be able to go to school. And they need to start their businesses and reopen them. They want real sovereignty over their own nation. They want U.S. troops out.

Real leadership in Iraq means bringing our troops home and offering humanitarian assistance to the people of Iraq. We must join with the international community to provide relief, reconstruction, and reconciliation. This is the only way forward for Iraq.

Force and occupation will not rebuild Iraq. It will not provide healthier communities. And most importantly, it will not provide a peaceful future for the people of Iraq.

Bring our troops home. Bring hope to our military families at home and the Iraq families yearning for peace.