This is a slightly edited transcript of U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes's remarks during House debate on a nonbinding resolution against President Bush's announced troop surge in Iraq.

I come to the floor to voice support for our troops without reservation and to oppose the administration's proposed escalation in Iraq.

This Congress will shortly vote on a bold, clear resolution repudiating the administration's failed policy in Iraq, a fiasco which has weakened our security, threatened our military readiness, cost thousands of lives and wasted billions of dollars.

I was elected to Congress promising a return of congressional oversight. For the past six years, while Congress was under Republican control, only 12 hearings were held on the Iraq war. But in the past six weeks, this Congress has held 52.

The evidence is clear that the American people and Congress were misled into the war in Iraq: There were no weapons of mass destruction and no links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. Iraq did not represent an imminent threat to our national security. Our resources, effort and attention were recklessly diverted from the war in Afghanistan, which I supported and which continues to require our vigilance and commitment.

This administration has lost credibility with the American people and with the world. To succeed in the Middle East, we must regain our moral compass and embrace a new direction in Iraq.

The administration's stubborn arrogance and incompetence have magnified the chaos in Iraq. Our brave troops have done everything asked of them, but the administration's failures in planning post-conflict reconstruction and shocking incompetence in management have opened the Pandora's box of sectarian violence and civil war.

Escalation has been tried before, and it has failed before. The administration claims this escalation is different. The administration says there are benchmarks for the Iraqis, but what I have concluded from the hearings and briefings is that no firm benchmarks for the Iraqis have been set. Clearly, the administration will escalate whether or not the Iraqis step up. This is deja vu all over again, a lack of planning combined with lack of candor.

Relying on military force as a strategy continues the administration's one-legged stool approach to foreign policy. Absent an Iraqi government committed to forging a political solution to the country's woes, and absent the infrastructure for a jobs and reconstruction program, the one-legged stool cannot stand. We have already lost billions in United States and Iraqi dollars to fraud, waste and abuse. Baghdad is a city of some 7 million people. In a city that size, an injection of 20,000 troops is too little too late.

Our first order should be to address the missing second leg of the stool. Replace the military surge with a diplomatic one. Convene a high-level team of special envoys. Send them to the region to engage in shuttle diplomacy. Send them to Iraq to demand real Iraqi cooperation and military commitment. Send them to broker peace agreements between the political leaders of the Sunni and the Shia. Send them to talk to all the regional forces, friend and foe, to forge a consensus on the importance of a stable Iraq.

The third leg of the stool is economic. We need to commit to an economic reconstruction program, on strict conditions that the Iraqi government quell the violence and engage in reconciliation and oil revenue sharing. Instead of creating the cesspools of poverty that breed and unite our enemies, let's create jobs by rebuilding infrastructure.

It will not be cheap, and it will not be easy. But it will improve Iraqi stability and our own long-term security. And it will certainly yield better returns than the more than $8 billion we currently spend each month on combat efforts.

It is past time to remove our troops from the middle of this civil war. Redeploy them strategically in the region to give pause to our foes and send the troops we need to Afghanistan, where they can support the government and deal with the resurgent Taliban. Harsh rhetoric and saber-rattling are counterproductive in the complex, destabilized Middle East.

By passing this resolution, we are sending the administration an unambiguous message: Face the reality in Iraq and develop a responsible and comprehensive strategy to protect American security in the region.

Much has been asked of this country in the past, and the future will inevitably require sacrifice. But it does not require sending 20,000 more Americans to Iraq. It does not require an escalation of this war.

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