[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 133 (Thursday, September 25, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H8909]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SUCCESS STORIES FROM IRAQ

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, as part of the Committee on Government 
Reform that took a recent official visit to Iraq, I witnessed what I 
thought was the true shock and awe story. I saw the progress of a 
fledgling free nation, and I came away knowing we have every reason to 
be optimistic in that country.
  My disappointment, Mr. Speaker, is that when watching the evening 
news on my return home, I could scarcely recognize the situation I had 
just left. In Iraq, General James Conway of the First Marine 
Expeditionary Force described our efforts there as a vivid success 
story, both during the major combat phase and since its conclusion. 
Perhaps most important, he said that most Iraqis were concerned not 
that we would stay too long, but that they would leave too soon.
  As a doctor, I particularly wanted to assess the Iraqi health care 
system. I knew the difficulties that this system had suffered under 
Saddam's rule, but I also knew that we were starting to see the 
decrepit hospitals begin to improve. Most of these hospitals had no 
nursing staff left at all.
  A member of the public health team of the 385th Civil Affairs 
Brigade, Lieutenant Michael Keller, told me that in the library at the 
medical school no text had a copyright date later than 1984. Mr. 
Speaker, on average, Saddam's government spent 50 cents per person on 
health care. Since the fall of that regime, that amount has increased 
to $45.

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