[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 127 (Tuesday, September 16, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H8264]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             REPORT ON IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, 2 weeks ago I had the privilege of visiting 
Iraq with the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis), the Committee on 
Government Reform chairman. I am not a member of that committee, but he 
kindly let me accompany them.
  Mr. Speaker, when I returned to this country I will have to tell my 
colleagues I wondered if I had gotten off a plane on the wrong planet 
or if my jet lag was particularly bad. I turned on the evening news and 
listened to one of the national news anchors, and his comments about 
Iraq were such that I did not recognize the country that I had just 
left.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to tell my colleagues tonight about what I did 
see while I was there. It is a good story, and it is a story the 
American people need to hear, and unfortunately, it is a story the 
American people are not hearing as we have heard evidence tonight by 
the comments on the other side.
  General Conway of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Babylon told 
our group that what has happened in Iraq is a vivid success story. The 
Iraqis are not concerned that we will stay too long; they are more 
concerned that we will leave too soon.
  Mr. Speaker, when we flew into Baghdad that first morning, I was 
struck by how normal life is in Baghdad. The markets are full. There 
are cars on the street. In fact, we encountered a couple of traffic 
jams. Satellite dishes have appeared on the rooftops of the apartments 
and houses in Baghdad, and Mr. Speaker, bear in mind that 4 or 5 months 
ago, possession of a satellite dish was punishable by a year in prison, 
and now 25 to 30 percent of the homes have satellite dishes. These are 
people who are hungry for knowledge, who are hungry for information.
  The schools completed their school year. Agriculture in this country, 
in spite of the combat phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Just at the 
end of August, they had completed the wheat harvest up by Tikrit, an 
area that looks very similar to Kansas for all I could tell. Perhaps 
the Kansas of 150 years ago, but nevertheless it looked very similar to 
Kansas.
  From a military standpoint, the combat phase of Operation Iraqi 
Freedom was prosecuted brilliantly, and Mr. Speaker, I would point out 
probably more humanely than any other military exercise in the history 
of the world. There is no remaining strategic threat, that is to be 
sure Iraq is still a dangerous country, but the Iraqi military is not 
going to reconstitute under Saddam Hussein and attack our forces.
  Stabilization is currently the goal of our military operation, to 
find, contain and kill those who would hurt our troops or harm innocent 
Iraqi citizens.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out a picture that I took while I 
was over. This was actually taken in Tikrit in one of Saddam's old 
palaces. The men and women of the 4th Infantry Division, that is a Fort 
Hood division out of Texas, had this graphic up there to illustrate how 
42 of the 54 most wanted of the former Iraqi regime are no longer a 
threat to the Iraqi people or the American people: Saddam's regime is 
gone and will not be back, can you hear me now.
  Mr. Speaker, as far as the police force in Iraq is concerned, we are 
just now 2 years and 5 days after the 9/11 disaster, and many of us got 
to know Bernard Kerik on our TV screens, the police commissioner from 
New York City who presided over the New York Police Department during 
9/11. He has been a miracle worker in Iraq. He has gone from zero to 35 
precinct stations in a mere 14 weeks' time. He has stood up 37,000 
Iraqi policemen and expects to have 65,000 more by next May.
  Mr. Speaker, to sum up, I would like to just illustrate the 90 days 
of progress that have happened in Iraq. The schools have completed 
their academic year and completed testing and indeed will be starting, 
if they are not already started, a new school year this September. Over 
90 percent of the major cities and towns in Iraq have functioning city 
councils and town councils. Over 500,000 Iraqis are contributing to 
their own security and border security. Prisons are on the verge of 
reopening, and the judicial system is up and functioning. Food 
distribution occurred throughout the combat phase and afterward. No 
humanitarian crisis grew as a result of the combat in Iraq.
  Hospitals remained open and functional. To be sure, they leave a lot 
to be desired, but nevertheless, they remained open and most 
importantly to me, four and a quarter million children have been 
immunized since last May.
  Mr. Speaker, I would point out in this 90 days of progress, none of 
these things were in place in Kosovo a full year after that major 
military operation ended.
  I would like to point out some of the things that I saw within the 
health care industry in Iraq, which was particularly important to me as 
a physician. There has been no health care infrastructure improvement 
in Iraq for over 30 years. Pharmaceuticals manufactured in Iraq were 
useless, and we juxtapose this with the opulence of the palaces and the 
poverty of the hospitals. Mr. Speaker, this was a man who needed to be 
removed and deserved to be removed.




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