mr. speaker , i am here today in support of the rule and the underlying resolution , in very strong support . 
i am here as a member of congress . 
i am here as a 31-year veteran of the army reserves and the national guard . 
i am also proud to be the father of a son who served for a year in iraq . 
i know firsthand of the progress that is being made there , along with other members of congress . 
we should be proud that chairman hunter , his son served in the marines for a year in mosul . 
mr. skelton had a son serve in afghanistan in the war on terrorism . 
mr. taylor xz4003992 of north carolina , mr. akin xz4000050 of missouri , mr. kline xz4002240 of minnesota , ms. ros-lehtinen xz4003440 of florida , and mr. saxton xz4003590 of new jersey , all of us have had family members who have participated in the global war on terror , and we are so proud of their successes . 
additionally , i would tell you that i disagree with democratic leader pelosi . 
i believe that her position is wrong . 
i believe that proposing a withdrawal is giving your game plan ahead of time . 
you do not do it in football ; you do not do it in politics . 
and you do not do it in a time of war . 
it is my view that we should understand that war is unpredictable . 
of all times , this week 61 years ago we found out the unpredictability of war and that is the battle of bulge . 
tens of thousands of german troops secretly were located in the ardennes forest , attacked our troops in luxembourg , in belgium , and in germany itself , and we lost 17 , 000 americans . 
this could not be projected , this surprise attack . 
we need to be prepared . 
so i am very proud that indeed progress is being made . 
our president has a wonderful plan of developing the iraqi security forces , developing the iraqi economy and the political situation , as we saw yesterday with the historic turnout of millions of iraqis to build a civil society . 
and the bottom line is , it protects the american people . 
this is exactly what america did after world war ii , developing the democratic society of japan which now is one of our great allies . 
we have the same potential to protect american families now . 
