despair, after so many shameful episodes such as the mission accomplished, abu ghraib, the outing of valerie plame, and so much more, our troops are finally coming home from iraq. all of them. much credit goes to president obama for making good on his promise when he was sworn into office, there were 142,000 u.s. service members deployed to iraq. by that time the calendar turns in 2012 there will be zero. zero. but this day would not have come unless some very brave people spoken up for peace at a time when the pols and conventional wisdom said that brush -- president bush in his iraq policy were unavailable. i have been proud to work in particular with my friends, congresswoman barbara lee and congresswoman maxine waters, in establishing the out-of-iraq caucus. many of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle stood shoulder to shoulder with us, including our late friend, jack murtha, whose opposition to the war represented a major turning point in the iraq debate. of course no one displayed more courage than these heroic men and women who served in iraq with honor and selflessness. they present