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  of north carolina , mr. akin  of missouri , mr. kline  of minnesota , ms. ros-lehtinen  of florida , and mr. saxton  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 .  