These are dangerous times.  The threat we face from radical Islamic jihadists is a generational struggle that will not end simply by us leaving Iraq.  My nephew is now on the ground in Iraq bravely serving his country.  We all want him home, but not until we can leave in victory having secured Iraq, preventing Iran from taking it over and becoming the dominant force in the region and developing nuclear weapons.

The stakes are higher than many think. If we retreat from radical Islam, the world will witness mass genocide and ethnic cleansing. These people hate us and everything our democratic society stands for.  They want nothing more than to destroy our way of life. 

Here are my comments from the House floor following the General Petraeus’ progress report to Congress on Iraq.

Rep. Zach Wamp’s House floor Statement on Iraq
September 10, 2007

There used to be things that we did in this country as Americans, not as Democrats and Republicans. This should not be about winning the next election or the last election. Wars should not divide us along Democrat and Republican lines, and everything should not be seen through that prism, and moveon.org is shameless to do this. It is shameless, this advertisement in The New York Times, and, as the gentleman from Georgia said, everyone in this body should condemn what they are doing to try to win elections over our men and women in uniform in Iraq.

My nephew is serving there in Iraq right now. I hate it that he would turn around and see this in a full page ad in a major newspaper against the most equipped leader to lead our forces in Iraq that our country has to offer, period, is who this is.   For them to slander him in this way for political gain is un-American. What they have done is un-American. They have the right under the Constitution to say it, and we have the right as Americans to reject it, and everybody in this House should do that.

Three main things, while I have an opportunity to speak tonight.

The mission is just. We lose sight of that sometimes, that our men and women in uniform are doing and carrying out what is right for our country at this very volatile time in world history.  It is also easy to forget that over half the Democrats in the United States Senate and almost half the Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives voted to remove Saddam Hussein by force. And others will come and say, oh, George Bush sold us a bunch of bad information. Listen, if there was any bad information, everyone had the same information, and many of us voted, from both sides of the aisle, to remove Saddam Hussein by force. It is just very convenient now to say, oh, that was them and not me.

It is hard to take responsibility for your actions. It is hard to stand before the American people and say we need to work through this together. We need to stand behind our troops until they prevail, until we have victory and not retreat in Iraq, instead of saying this is all about them. It used to be in this country about us. We did things like this together, and we didn't retreat so the world would see us walk away from our commitments. This mission is just, number one.

Number two, the military has been extraordinary. They have been great. You heard General Petraeus say that today. What the Marines have done in Anbar, the progress that has been made there, it wasn't even hardly covered by the GAO report. They didn't even talk about the extraordinary success, civilian casualties way down, 80 percent success in the Anbar Province.

The moderates are even siding up with us and saying "We don't like al Qaeda. They are cutting off our people's fingers. They are killing our children. We want to fight with the Americans against these insurgents.''  That is not the way it was before we strengthened our forces and had this success in Anbar. The military is performing in an extraordinary way and the tribal governments are now siding with us. That is progress by any definition. The military is succeeding in Iraq. You may not want to hear it, because, as one of your distinguished leaders said, you are in trouble politically if we succeed as a Nation in Iraq. That is what he said. I hated that he said it. That is terrible. That is an indictment on politics in America. We all win if we beat these terrorists in Iraq. Everyone in this country wins. The military is succeeding.

Number three, the political progress in Iraq is not happening. That is true. We need to be honest about it. I wish personally we could get rid of the Maliki government because I think it is deplorable. But we promoted free elections and that is what we got, and we can't very well turn around now and say, oh, we didn't like who you elected. Get rid of him. They have got to do that. That is the tough work of freedom. They have got to do that. I hope they do. But that is up to them. Politically, we are not succeeding the way we need to succeed in Iraq, and all of us in this House have an obligation to come together and see that through to completion.

Let me just close with this: I have worked for 13 years in a bipartisan way. I have scars on my back to prove it. I have made people on my side of the aisle livid with some of the positions that I have taken working with the other side. But I will not----

   Mr. WICKER. Amen.
   Mr. WAMP. You didn't have to say ``amen.''

But I will not cooperate with anyone for our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines to walk away in defeat or to leave prematurely before we can hold our head up and say "America has succeeded with this just mission in Iraq.'' I don't want to stay for 5 years or 10 years. I think it is a matter of months before we can see real, live redeployments. But the military leaders need to do that. It doesn't need to happen on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. We can't micromanage this war, and we sure as heck shouldn't be sending signals that we are going to pull them out, because that is the worst thing we can do for the long-term interests of our country.

The Middle East is in chaos. The Wall Street Journal said it well last week. The worst religious and political pathology in the history of the world is in the Middle East, and now you add to that nuclear weapons, terrorism, IEDs and control of the world's oil supplies, there is a lot at stake.

This is not Vietnam, nothing like it. It is a whole lot worse, the stakes of losing in Iraq. I believe that deep in my soul, and I am going to continue to say that on the floor of this House. We need to stand together as a Nation and stand together behind our men and women in uniform until we can leave in   victory and drive back this terrorist threat at this point we are fighting in Iraq.
  
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for the time.