[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 137 (Wednesday, October 1, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H9077-H9079]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THROWING MORE MONEY AT IRAQ IS NOT THE ANSWER
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, earlier this week U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell spoke to a business forum in Detroit. His topic, the
Middle East. His message, the nations of the Middle East need to
transform themselves.
The Bush administration, having failed to find weapons of mass
destruction, failed to find Saddam Hussein, failed to capture Osama bin
Laden, failed to eradicate the Taliban, failed to implement the road
map to peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, and of course
failed to secure the peace in Iraq, is trying to salvage something out
of its disastrous policy so they are talking about this policy of
transformation.
The Bush administration is trying to get the American people to
believe that throwing $87 billion more at Iraq will begin the process
of transformation by building the garden spot of the Middle East and
that other nations will magically follow the lead.
It will not work. Their policy is doomed to fail, throwing more money
is not the answer in Iraq.
As the Detroit Free Press reported, although Secretary Powell had
plenty of advice for Middle Eastern nations about how to conduct their
affairs, he offered no plan for the road to peace. That is not
surprising because the Bush administration has no plan for peace in the
Middle East, no plan for postwar Iraq, no plan for getting the United
States out of Iraq, and fundamentally, no long-term plan for energy
independence for America which would give us the leverage we need to
play the role of honest broker instead of dependent addict.
Secretary Powell said in Detroit that the Arab nations are plagued by
poverty, alienation and despair. He said the Arab world needs to
embrace free trade and democratize in order to break out of the cycle.
But free trade cannot bring democracy. If that were
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true, the Arab world would be a democratic paradise and have already
broken the cycle of poverty, alienation and despair.
Instead, the oil oligarchies of the Middle East have already been
trading for decades and decades. We trade extensively with the Bush
administration's close friends in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In fact,
we have an oil trade deficit with them of over $8 billion a year. We
trade extensively with the Bush family's close friends in Kuwait. We
have an oil trade deficit with them of over $1 billion a year. And what
about Iraq, home to the second largest set of oil reserves in the
world? We had over a $3.5 billion trade deficit with them, even when
sanctions were being imposed. The problem with the oil oligarchies is
hardly a lack of trade.
The Detroit Free Press also ran a story ``Oil, Gas Tighten U.S.
Connection to Mideast,'' and ``Alternative Fuels Dismissed at Forum.''
As reporter John Gallagher wrote, ``The U.S.-Arab Economic Forum gave
a glimpse Monday at the future of American energy policy. It sure
looked a lot like the past.'' And therein lies the problem. The past is
filled with war and conflicts, much of it tied to the politics that
come from the oil field across the Middle East. That is what the future
will look like unless the United States achieves energy independence
here at home.
Indeed, oppression and oil seem to go hand in hand, and it is a world
that previous U.S. administrations, doing the bidding of Exxon,
Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and other big oil companies have had a
big hand in creating for over half a century. The United States at the
dawn of this century is utterly dependent on Middle East oil. Our
biggest trading partner, the Saudis, are increasingly brazen about the
nature of our relationship, and their oil minister said in Detroit on
Monday, ``Detroit makes a lot of cars, we produce a lot of oil; you can
see the connection.'' You send us the oil, and we send them our
dollars.
It is easy to see that the Saudis have George W. Bush exactly where
they want him. They have Dick Cheney exactly where they want him. They
have Colin Powell exactly where they want him. And they have the
American people exactly where they want us. They have us addicted to
their oil and begging for our next fix. To me, that is unacceptable.
Here is what David O'Reilly, CEO of Chevron Texaco said in Detroit,
``We are in for a long period of dependence on fossil fuels.'' Well,
that is no problem as long as we do not mind American dollars going to
the Middle East for oil only to end up in the hands of terrorists who
then kill us. The Bush administration might be comfortable with our
relationship with those oil states, but I am not. That is why I have
introduced the Biofuels Energy Independence Act of 2003, H.R. 130, and
ask my colleagues to cosponsor it.
Oil, Gas Tighten U.S. Connection to Mideast
(By John Gallagher)
The U.S.-Arab Economic Forum being held in Detroit gave a
glimpse Monday at the future of American energy policy. It
sure looked a lot like the past.
Speakers on a panel devoted to energy needs agreed that a
reliance on Middle East oil and natural gas is the
cornerstone of any future American policy.
Far from fostering a U.S. policy of independence from
Middle Eastern producers, the panel suggested that ever-
closer ties with the region and its vast oil and natural gas
reserves will be needed to meet U.S. consumption.
Ali bin Ibrahim Al Naimi, minister of petroleum and mineral
resources in Saudi Arabia, captured the almost cozy nature of
the discussion when he quipped to the audience: ``Detroit
makes a lot of cars. We produce a lot of oil. You can see the
connection.''
Indeed, any stresses and strains in the energy relationship
between the United States and Middle Eastern nations were
simply not mentioned Monday. Panelists used the words
``partner'' and ``partnership'' multiple times. Alternative
fuels such as solar and hydrogen were brought up just long
enough to be dismissed.
``It's hard for people to visualize how massive the oil and
gas industry is,'' panelist Lee Raymond, chairman and CEO of
ExxonMobil Corp., said at one point.
Even if alternative fuels were to grow at a rate of 20
percent a year, they would still supply just 1 percent of
U.S. needs while the vast, vast majority of capital in the
energy industry is going into oil and gas,'' he said.
Clarence Cazalot, president and CEO of Marathon Oil Corp.,
underscored the point by declaring that Marathon has no
projects in the works dealing with alternative sources of
energy.
The panel was convened to talk about Middle Eastern oil
policy, so it was not surprising that it did not take up
broader energy problems.
And the business-as-usual approach probably was assured by
the make-up of the panel. Two Middle Eastern oil ministers,
four U.S. oil company chief executives, and former Michigan
Sen. Spencer Abraham, now U.S. Secretary of Energy in
President George W. Bush's cabinet.
Even so, it was surprising how little mention was made of
broader energy problems. There was no discussion of this
summer's surge in gas prices, except when Al Naimi declared
that the war in Iraq had produced no significant increase in
prices this year. Nor was there any discussion of the recent
blackout that left metro Detroit, much of the Northeast and
parts of Canada in the dark.
Instead, oil producers and oil company executives agreed
that there was no getting around the realities of the United
States being the world's biggest energy consumer and the
Middle East holding the world's biggest reserves of oil and
natural gas.
``We're in for a long period of dependence on fossil
fuels,'' said David O'Reilly, chairman and CEO, of Chevron
Texaco Corp., told the audience at the Detroit Marriott
Renaissance Center.
U.S. energy consumption is expected to grow 50 percent by
2025; Al Naimi estimated, a figure that no one disputed.
Yet around the edges of the discussion Monday, a few
glimpses of potential problems crept into the discussion.
If the United States is worried about a stable supply of
oil and natural gas, it turns out that producing nations like
Saudi Arabia and Qatar are worried at least as much about a
stable demand.
Russia, Mexico and other non-Arab oil-producing nations are
clamoring for more access to the U.S. markets. The panelists
noted that Middle Eastern nations can't afford to make
massive new investments in their facilities without
assurances that the U.S. market will still be open to them.
And there was just the barest mention of civil unrest in
some Middle Eastern nations, where forces of modern secular
capitalism vie with religious fundamentalism. O'Reilly noted
that a solid relationship with the United States is needed to
help young Arab men and women meet their potential.
As if to mirror the mostly up-beat discussion Monday,
gasoline prices in Michigan continued their recent slide.
The statewide average price for a gallon of self-serve,
regular gasoline is down more than 10-cents from a week ago,
AAA said. It marked the second straight 10-cent drop in as
many weeks.
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[From the Detroit Free Press, Sept. 30, 2003]
Middle East Must End Its Cycle of Terrorism, Despair, Powell Says
(By Niraj Warikoo)
The Arab world is trapped in a cycle of despair and fury
that will continue to breed terrorism unless nations
radically change their policies, said U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell in a toughly worded speech to business leaders
in Detroit Monday night.
Powell gave few specifics on how the Middle East can bridge
the gap but cautioned that if it is to survive, the region
urgently needs solid jobs, along with respect for rule of the
law, the individual and religious tolerance.
``It is no exaggeration to say that without a
transformation of the Middle East, the region will remain a
source of violence and terrorism,'' Powell said. ``We must
not let that happen. We will not let that happen.''
Powell spoke at the first U.S.-Arab Economic Forum, an
event designed to bring the two worlds together with the
local Arab-American community acting as a conduit. Hundreds
of U.S. and Arab business leaders gathered in Detroit's Cobo
Center to hear him speak.
He urged the crowd to join him in transforming the Middle
East into a region full of hope and where ``all people
worship God in a spirit of tolerance and understanding.''
Some Arab Americans in the audience were unimpressed with
Powell's speech, saying he should have announced a plan to
relieve the suffering of the Palestinians.
``He brought no new ideas,'' said Ron Amen, executive
assistant to Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano. ``He
brought no new hope.''
Powell spoke at length about Iraq during his speech and
during an earlier interview with the Free Press. He said he
believes a weapons of mass destruction program will be found
in Iraq.
``There is no doubt in my mind'' the United States will
find evidence of Saddam Hussein's weapons program, Powell
said. ``It wasn't a figment of anyone's imagination.''
Powell criticized those who questioned whether Hussein had
deadly weapons before the war.
Some people thought that ``sweet Saddam Hussein, who was
willing to gas 5,000 people on a spring day in 1988, was
suddenly a different Saddam Hussein,'' Powell said during the
Free Press interview.
``Other nations might have been willing to make that
judgment, but not President Bush. He wasn't going to walk
away from the challenge.''
Powell said former UN weapons inspector David Kay is going
through documents and interviews in a search for a weapons
program. And Powell recounted his visit earlier
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this month to Iraq, saying he was touched by the northern
city of Halabja.
Powell said he spoke with Iraqis whose family members were
killed in that town in March 1988, when Hussein's regime used
chemicals to kill an estimated 5,000 people.
He urged the American public to be patient with Iraq,
reminding reporters that it took the United States more than
12 years--from 1776 to 1789--to draft a constitution.
``It isn't easy'' to draft a governing document, he said.
Besides Iraq, Powell addressed the conflict between the
Israelis and Palestinians. He said Palestinian Authority
President Yasser Arafat ``is not a partner for peace.''
Powell said he has made it clear to Arafat that he must
change his leadership approach.
Powell also questioned Israeli settlements and the way
Israel is constructing a new security fence near its border.
Powell tried to quell concerns about how Arabs traveling to
the United States will be treated at airports and by the
government. He conceded there has to be balance between
liberty and security in admitting new visitors and
immigrants.
Said Powell: ``We want to be a welcoming society.''
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