[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 71 (Tuesday, May 13, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H3979]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   AMERICA APPRECIATES ALLIED SUPPORT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Murphy). Pursuant to the order of the 
House of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Coble) 
is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COBLE. Mr. Speaker, I want to revisit the war in Iraq, if I may.
  On March 25 of this year, Mr. Speaker, I came to the House floor and 
said the following: ``Many insist that this is a unilateral operation. 
Not true. There are many supporters, but they are reluctant to openly 
oppose Saddam. They fear him. They, in fact, Mr. Speaker, are afraid. 
Many of his neighbors loathe Saddam, but they stand in fear. But the 
Bush-Blair wagon will move forward with the support, albeit sometimes 
anonymous, of other nations.''
  Mr. Speaker, as we have continued to praise our U.S. troops, I want 
us to avoid ignoring our allies, because as I said on this floor about 
2 months ago, it is not a unilateral effort. I recently read in the 
Sergeant Shaft article, which appears regularly in the Washington 
Times, a letter from an Australian commander who wrote, ``When are the 
British and Australian troops going to be included in the television 
coverage?''
  A fair question. Now, I am not critical of the coverage, Mr. Speaker, 
as it is only natural to praise our own troops first, but we certainly 
do not want to turn deaf ears to the contributions of our allies, Great 
Britain, Australia, Spain, Poland, many others.
  I was recently in Denmark regarding the sensitive issue of maritime 
security and learned while there of the impressive assistance we have 
received from the Danes in this war effort.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, another point. Some Members of the Congress 
have been openly critical of President Bush's recent visit with our 
troops aboard the carrier Lincoln, alleging excessive costs. Some of 
these same critics are hardly paragons of restraint when it comes to 
pork barrel spending of taxpayers' dollars. I am more inclined, Mr. 
Speaker, to place a higher value upon the troops' enthusiastic welcome 
to the President as opposed to some sour grapes criticism after the 
fact.
  To sum up, Mr. Speaker, President Bush has demonstrated responsible 
leadership. We have been a beneficiary of able assistance from our 
allies, which we need to openly and gratefully acknowledge; and we need 
to be patient and deliberate in restoring some sense of order in Iraq. 
But the people of Iraq who demanded the removal of Saddam need to 
demonstrate patience and deliberation as well.

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