[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 89 (Tuesday, June 17, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H5453]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             WAR IN IRAQ AND ASSOCIATED TRAGEDIES NOT OVER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, if the American people needed evidence that 
the war in Iraq and its associated tragedies are not over, it arrived 
in a front page picture Saturday that was carried across our country. 
In my hometown paper, the Toledo Blade, but also the Chicago Tribune, 
the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.
  This is the photo, First Class Sergeant Bryan Pacholski comforting 
David Borell, career Army guard, both from Toledo, at a military base 
in Balad, Iraq. The Associated Press photograph caught an emotional 
moment, a Toledo career soldier being consoled in his grief by a buddy 
after military doctors allegedly refused to treat three Iraqi children 
with painfully serious burns from some sort of explosive device. The 
soldier, Sergeant David Borell, of our 323rd Military Police Company, 
later wrote home an e-mail with his personal thoughts on the incident, 
specifically that the children had been unjustifiably denied medical 
treatment.
  The Blade printed the story and a request on my part of our Secretary 
of Defense for a full investigation and a meeting with him in order to 
discuss how to prevent this type of situation in the future. Such an 
investigation is warranted because the incident, if true, flies in the 
face of numerous stories from the war zone telling of humanitarian acts 
by U.S. troops under hostile circumstances. We know our troops want to 
do the right thing.
  Mr. Speaker, is it really U.S. policy to refuse treatment of Iraqi 
civilians with serious but nonlife-threatening injuries? Who made that 
decision? Who were the doctors involved, and why did they handle the 
situation as they did? Were the kids callously refused care, or was the 
sergeant simply overcome by witnessing their great pain? These are some 
of the questions that deserve straightforward answers.
  The Blade, in its editorial, goes on to write, ``Given frequent news 
reports about the destruction of Iraq's hospitals and emergency 
services, of which we are all aware, and the 10-year embargo preceding 
the war that caused all of their hospitals to lack medical equipment 
and supplies, it is difficult to give much credence to a spokesman for 
the U.S. Central Command who contended that Iraq now has a better 
health care system than before the U.S. occupation. It is entirely 
believable that in the words of the same spokesman, U.S. forces in Iraq 
`are providing health care to Iraqis, but we do not have the 
infrastructure to support the entire Iraqi civilian population.' ''

                              {time}  1830

  So whose fault is that? And what do we do? What do we do to build 
friends, more friends than enemies inside Iraq?
  Most Americans probably would say that defenseless children should be 
taken care of in any circumstance. They, after all, did not cause the 
war. There are plenty of adults around to blame for that. Secretary of 
Defense Rumsfeld has agreed that we will begin with a meeting with 
Under Secretary of Defense Chu, who is in charge of personnel and 
deployments. Hopefully, that first meeting will begin tomorrow. My 
proposal will be the same, that we move some of the funds we have 
already appropriated because we thought the war would last longer with 
the siege of Baghdad, divert some of those funds to move some of our 
temporary field hospitals in different places in Iraq, and to put 
medical supplies there to treat this type of injury that Sergeant 
Borell saw, children who are burned, people who are bleeding, civilians 
who we want to be our friends.
  We now hold the ground in Iraq. The question is, in the future, will 
we win the hearts and minds of the people? There is no greater way to 
do that than one by one ministering to their tragic health needs. That 
time is long overdue. And so I welcome the opportunity to discuss this 
with Under Secretary Chu, with Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and to 
make sure that no other soldier in service to this country will have to 
experience what Sergeant Borell experienced with no alternative given 
to him.
  There were no kits, no medical kits that were available to the 
platoon other than their own small emergency kits, because they are 
military police. There were not hospitals in the area where these 
people could be referred that had decent medical supplies and backup. 
And so he was forced as an American to turn the family away. How do you 
think America is perceived by those civilians? I think they are 
beginning to wonder, at least that family, will America really make a 
difference? Yes, America really can make a difference, just give us a 
chance. I would welcome the opportunity as one Member of Congress to 
mobilize my community to provide the supplies for that first field 
hospital right near where Sergeant Borell and Sergeant Pacholski are 
serving. These are part of our flesh and blood from our community. We 
want to give them all the support we can. I know the Secretary of 
Defense will find a way to help us.

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