Mr. Speaker, I rise to call the House's attention to two very positive developments in the administration's handling of foreign policy and military affairs.

First, the administration offered Iran a new beginning in relations between our two countries. He did that on Friday. It was part of his message to the Iranian people and to their leaders on the occasion of the Persian new year.

The President said, ``My administration is now committed to diplomacy that addresses the full range of issues before us, and Iran, and to pursuing constructive ties among the United States, Iran, and the international community. This process will not be advanced by threats. We seek, instead, engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect.''

Mr. Speaker, President Obama is determined to settle differences with Iran peacefully. Of course, I don't have any, nor should any of us have any, illusions that it will be easy to reduce tensions with Iran. That's because they continue to develop a nuclear program which could be used to build nuclear weapons.

But I do believe that diplomacy can produce good results over time. A diplomatic effort can begin within the next year, or in the next week actually, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attends a conference on Afghanistan in The Netherlands. Iran is expected to attend the conference, and Secretary Clinton could interact with Iranian officials.

The United States and Iran have cooperated in the past over Afghanistan, and this may be one area of common ground. But at the very least, the administration has created an environment where peaceful progress can be made, and I commend the administration for that.

The second development that is positive came last Wednesday when Secretary of Defense Gates announced that he is moving to end the Pentagon's terrible stop-loss policy. Under stop-loss, Mr. Speaker, thousands of soldiers have been forced to remain in the military even after their enlistments have expired.

Ending stop-loss is long overdue. It has been essentially a backdoor draft, and it's one of the policies that has stretched our military to the limit, putting a terrible strain on our soldiers and on their families.

The Army has acknowledged this problem. The Army Vice Chief of Staff told a Senate subcommittee last week that forcing soldiers to take longer deployments has helped produce a ``stressed and tired force.''

Prolonged deployments, Mr. Speaker, which have separated soldiers from their families for these very long periods of time, have contributed to a tragic rise in the number of suicides among military personnel. The Army has confirmed that there were 133 suicides last year alone, and that's just the Army.

Another serious problem is that many soldiers who have left the military have not had a happy homecoming. The unemployment rate for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan is 11.2 percent, which is higher than the rate for nonveterans.

That is one of the reasons why I support the administration's economic recovery plan, which actually is the third policy development that we should be talking about today, because this plan will produce millions of new jobs. I would have liked to have seen an even bigger recovery plan to create even more jobs, but Mr. Speaker, I have to disagree with the administration on some policies occasionally, and that's stretching beyond where their good intentions are.

I also have to disagree with the administration on some foreign policy issues. But on this occasion, I don't want to go into that. I want to applaud the administration for taking three important steps that can make the world a more peaceful place and that will lift a very heavy burden off our brave troops and their families.