mr. speaker , i yield myself 1 1/2 minutes . 
mr. speaker , the resolution we are debating today is an h. res. resolution . 
basically , this is just a sense of the congress . 
it is largely symbolic . 
one of the complaints that many of us on this side of the aisle , and i know some of the people on the republican side have as well , is that we kind of skirt around the real issue , which is what the policy is . 
staying as long as it is going to take , that is not a policy . 
that is a sound bite . 
the president does not know where we are going in iraq . 
he has given speeches that have been heavy on rhetoric , but not particularly big on specifics . 
if we want to do something helpful here , bring a binding bill to the floor here that sets out our policy , and let us have it out . 
let us have the debate . 
let us talk about what our policy should be in iraq . 
let us come back next week or let us come back for a week in january and have this debate . 
let us discuss what , in fact , our policy should be in iraq . 
we are not doing that . 
this is all symbolic . 
notwithstanding the fact that we have 160 , 000 troops over there , that over 2 , 100 americans have died over there , and 15 , 000 americans have been wounded , tens of thousands of iraqis have been killed , we have yet to have a real policy debate on this house floor about what course we should take in iraq . 
that is what we want . 
that is what we are hoping for . 
i do not think that is unreasonable . 
to bring a largely symbolic resolution to the floor and tuck in it this kind of policy statement , give us an hour during the debate on the resolution to talk about everything , that is not the way we should be doing business around here . 
mr. speaker , i yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from washington ( mr. inslee ) xz4001930 . 
