Congressional Record, Volume 149 Issue 137 (Wednesday, October 1, 2003)

[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 137 (Wednesday, October 1, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12217-S12220]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

IRAQ

Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. President, I speak today as a former mayor. I have
been listening to the debate about the President's request for $87
billion supplemental appropriations to support what our troops need in
Iraq. Yet there are some, who want to divide that, who say: Yes, we
will provide somehow $67 billion; that is what the troops need on the
military side, and to do that gives them moral clarity, while
supporting an additional $20 billion for infrastructure and other
essential services is labeled as squandering American resources that
could be better used at home.

Let me offer some insight on what it takes to build a city, what it
requires to assure that those who live in a city feel ownership in
their future, feel confident in their role in that city, and have the
necessary confidence to move that city forward.
First, to rebuild a city requires patience. A broken and decayed city
did not happen over night, and it will not be fixed overnight. What
happened in Iraq did not happen overnight. From 1970 onward, Saddam
Hussein never had a budget; he did not invest in infrastructure. In
fact, he pillaged and raped that infrastructure for his own needs, for
his palaces, and to cover his friends.
So what you have are patterns of neglect that have set in and cities
have become stale and moribund. Their infrastructure starts to
collapse. That is what we have seen in Iraq. The water systems fail,
the sewer systems fail, and the power grids blow out after years of no
maintenance. The roads and sidewalks crack and shift and become
dangerous to use. So you have the state of decay.
Second, to restore confidence and hope in a city requires commitment
and investment. Safe streets do not just happen overnight. You have to
train a police force. You have to recognize that the best partners in
fighting crime are not the guns in their holsters but the people who
live in the neighborhoods who will support the law enforcement efforts.
Moms and dads living in a city need to have confidence in knowing the
police are there to protect and serve them, not to conduct covert
activities on behalf of the Government to deprive them of their
freedom, their liberty, and their lives. That has been the pattern in
Iraq for many years.
Third, to assure growth in a city, there must be a sense that there
is a future in the city. This requires business believing there is room
to grow. You have to grow jobs. You have to get paychecks to people who
then invest in homes and libraries and streets and sidewalks.
Rebuilding a city is a tough job. Now, increase that on a grand scale
of rebuilding a nation, and I hope my point is becoming more evident.
The fact is, rebuilding Iraq--all of Iraq--is as important to the
protection of our soldiers as the equipment we give them to protect and
defend themselves. We have to win the peace. We have to win the peace
and not just the war.
Rebuild a neighborhood and you keep parents from becoming bitter that
they do not have clean water or a functioning sewer. Make the
investment in a library and you give the children a tool out of their
despair and bring the light of learning and opportunity into their
lives.
If you remove people's hopes, you remove their incentive to be
participants in the community. And if you choose not to invest in their
lives, their homes, their communities, and their businesses, they will
turn away from the light and seek the darkness.
The threat our troops face in the months ahead in Iraq is not just
from the Baath loyalists or foreign terrorists who are simply trying to
live another day so they can kill another American soldier. The threat
our troops face is that moms and dads in Iraq will lose confidence in
the promise America made to them not only to liberate them from the
brutality of Saddam Hussein but from the chains of despair.

We have seen it in our own cities. When we take away hope and
confidence in people, they strike out. Ask any cop in any American city
what he fears most: a gang member packing a Glock or a neighborhood
where people don't care what goes on outside their locked doors and
windows. You can always find a way to arrest the gangster, but it is
nearly impossible to get people who have lost hope to open the doors to
their lives once they have

[[Page S12218]]

been closed. And once hope is lost, the land becomes a swamp of
discontent, a breeding ground for terrorists, unchecked by the
populace.
That is what we cannot allow to happen in Iraq. If we try to parse
the investment we make in Iraq, we parse the commitment to American
troops. This is not rhetoric. This is not drama. This is reality.
We need to invest in training Iraqis to become policemen now and
ensure that more American troops can come home sooner.
We need to invest in Iraqi infrastructure now and ensure that its
economy begins to recover. And more Iraqis will go back to work. And
the greater the hope grows, less anger will be directed toward American
troops.
We need to invest in Iraqi schools and libraries and hospitals, and
conditions that lead to despair and striking out against American
soldiers diminish, and the breeding ground that terrorists prey on
becomes smaller and smaller, until they disappear completely.
The best way to take the gun or bomb out of the hand of a potential
terrorist is to make sure they have food to eat, schools to attend,
libraries with books, hospitals with medicine, and communities that are
safe.
The best way to make a difference between an Iraqi citizen who works
with American soldiers instead of trying to kill them is to make sure
they have access to city services and the very real opportunity for a
job.
There is this idea, I am afraid, that the rebuilding of Iraq is
taking too long and costing too much. There is a sense of panic that
has seemed to set in. There are those who roam the halls of Washington
saying: I told you so.
Throughout the political rhetoric that takes hold on both sides of
the aisle is a sort of posturing and positioning for who is more
supportive of American troops than the other. All the while, young men
and women are laying down their lives to deliver on the commitment that
their leaders of this country made to the people of Iraq.
It is time it ends. I am not the most senior guy here, nor am I the
smartest. I am not the most articulate, nor am I the most decorated. I
did not come to the Senate to prove on any given day or issue I am
right. I came to the Senate on any given day or issue to simply do
right. Today, I urge my colleagues again to turn this issue into
something that does more to give honor to our democratic traditions,
and to our American soldiers, than partisan speeches about who is to
blame for this and who is to blame for that.
Everyone knows the pricetag is large. Everyone knows there are
programs in the United States that need support, too. I understand that
as a former urban mayor. Let us not lose our sense of perspective. The
task before us in Iraq may be gargantuan in its cost, but the cost of
failure is unacceptably high.
Mr. President, I see my colleague from Texas is motioning for the
floor. I yield for her.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, what is the time?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Twenty minutes.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Has the Senator from Minnesota finished? Because I
need to allocate 10 minutes.
Mr. COLEMAN. I will finish in 90 seconds.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Thank you, Mr. President. Let me ask for 1 additional
minute for the Senator from Minnesota.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
Mr. COLEMAN. Thank you.
Mr. President, I do not need to remind my colleagues how much money
disappeared from the American and world economy on September 11.
Success will build world confidence and investment far beyond this
investment in Iraq. Failure would cost us far more.
We can, and will, argue over the nature of this commitment. Should it
be a grant or loan? We know we cannot let a single American dollar go
to paying off the debt Iraqis owe to the French or Germans who propped
up Saddam Hussein. We know we cannot load Iraq with debt it cannot
repay while urging other nations to forgo their debt.
This body will vigorously debate this issue, as it should, but let us
not pit the needs of home against the safety of our troops in Iraq. I
say this without hesitation: We put our troops in Iraq at grave risk if
we do not win the peace. I urge my colleagues not to let political
showmanship put American lives at risk.
The mayor in me says it is time to get back to work in this body and
support those efforts that will get Iraq and its people back to work.
Restoring hope and confidence will, in turn, create new investment
that will save American lives and ensure that Iraq and its people have
a brighter hope for a better tomorrow.
With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Minnesota for
those profound remarks and appreciate his weighing in on this issue.
Mr. President, we now have 20 minutes left; is that correct?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Eighteen minutes 15 seconds.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I yield up to 9 minutes to the Senator
from North Carolina; following that, up to 9 minutes to the Senator
from Tennessee; and then I ask unanimous consent to use 3 minutes of
leader time, which has been cleared by Senator Frist.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from North Carolina.
Mrs. DOLE. Mr. President, thousands of young men and women from bases
in my home State of North Carolina are currently fighting the war on
terror in Iraq. We are forging a process of peace; and in doing so, we
are moving toward turning control of the government and society back to
the Iraqi people.
With the major battles over in Iraq, our Nation is helping to rebuild
schools and hospitals, water supply systems and roadways. Part of the
President's supplemental request is being designated for the
continuation of these efforts. The stabilization of Iraq depends on
providing the Iraqi people basic services as well as humanitarian
relief. And the safety of our men and women in uniform depends on the
stabilization of Iraq.
Our forces are on the offensive, and continue to capture key figures
in Saddam Hussein's evil regime, so that they may be brought to
justice. The vast majority of the President's request will go directly
to American troops, giving them the pay, the equipment, and other
resources necessary to fight the war on terror. We must ensure that
these funds are available to allow them to complete their mission and
return home safely.
Recently a proud grandmother met with my 102-year-old mother in
Salisbury, North Carolina. This grandmother forwarded me a letter from
her grandson, Christopher Shawn Jensen, who is currently stationed in
Baghdad. I would like to read to you what a soldier on the front lines
has to say. I will read just a portion:

I was invited to meet with a local Iraqi who works the
engineering for our building's electricity . . . He graduated
from the Baghdad University in engineering and showed me his
class picture (from 1979). We talked about what it was like
then, and the difference now. You could see the suffering in
his eyes as he talked about the years of terror, the people
lived with while Saddam was in power. I felt the same
emotions of sadness for these people when I first rolled up
here from Kuwait, to see their cheering faces of relief . . .
many a soldier's eyes were filled with tears that day . . . I
pray that we finish the job we started.

At the end of the letter to his grandmother, Shawn made a request to
his friends and family. ``I have started the ball rolling for several
ideas, he writes, to help in the effort to free Iraqis and also to help
to make this a safer place for liberty and freedom. I know many of you
have big hearts and want to help, you just don't know how. Here are
some things you can help with. I have written to the Editor of the
Wilmington Star newspaper. The children in Iraq learn on the dirty
floors in their schools. They need approximately 200,000 desks for
their schools. I am trying to build support for a program where the
American citizen can buy support for the Iraqi children.'' And let me
add, my husband, Bob Dole, has already committed to Shawn's effort.
Shawn's letter continues, ``We are also collecting money from the
soldiers here and we are going to buy back

[[Page S12219]]

weapons from the populous of Iraq. We are using the little money we
earn in a combat zone to start this program. The regular citizens have
all kinds of weapons like grenades, bombs, and rockets . . . things
regular citizens don't need. We are asking American citizens to match
funds that we are collecting for this cause. My father can be contacted
for this via phone or a web-site that has been started.''
Shawn Jensen understands what freedom means to the people of Iraq--
indeed he is seeing it first hand. He is so committed to making Iraq a
safe place for his fellow soldiers to complete their mission, and for
the Iraqi people to live in a free and orderly society, that he and his
fellow soldiers are making these tremendous sacrifices.
My friend, Secretary of State Colin Powell, described last week his
visit to Iraq in the most poignant terms, He said, ``anyone who doubts
the wisdom of President Bush's course in Iraq should stand, as I did,
by the side of the mass grave in Iraq's north. That terrible site holds
the remains of 5,000 innocent men, women and children who were gassed
to death by Saddam Hussein's criminal regime.''
Recently, in testimony before the Armed Services Committee, on which
I serve, Ambassador Paul Bremer outlined a clear and well-defined
course of action in Iraq. As he noted, there will be bumps along the
way, but it is critical for us to stay the course. As he has said so
poignantly, ``Gone are Saddam Hussein's torture chambers,'' he wrote.
``Gone are his mass killings and rape rooms. And gone is his threat to
America and the international community.'' As we go forward, it is this
that we should keep in mind.
Today in Iraq, streets are lined with shops selling newspaper and
books representing varied opinions. Already, 160 newspapers have sprung
up in Iraq. Schools and universities are open; parents are forming
PTA's; 95 percent of health clinics are open, and Iraq is on the way to
a democratic government. Eighty-five percent of towns now have city
councils. And a Constitution will soon be written, followed next year
by elections which will provide legitimacy and credibility to the
government. And millions of dollars of humanitarian aid are going to
the Iraqi people to make sure they have food, water and shelter.
Iraqis are also being trained to maintain peace and order in their
own country. Thousands of members of the Iraqi police force will be
trained over the next several months in Eastern Europe. And the area
around Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, one of the most dangerous sections
in Iraq, is currently being patrolled by the Iraqi army. These measures
are part of the larger goal of turning over the security of Iraq to the
Iraqis.
Certainly, the operation there is proving to be a dangerous and more
grinding conflict than some expected. The President addressed this fact
candidly and resolutely in his recent address to the Nation. While
Saddam Hussein was building palaces, the infrastructure was
deteriorating terribly, more than we realized. Adequate resources for
the proper reconstruction are essential to providing security and
allowing our troops to leave as soon as possible.
Eliminating terror is more than removing the leaders of an evil
regime from power. Terrorism must be torn out by its roots, ensuring
that there is no toehold for its sponsors to reestablish their violent
ways. The bottom line; we can fight them there, or we can fight them
here.
The President's call for a supplemental spending bill for operations
in Iraq has spawned the most recent round of debate over the war on
terror. For those who have criticized the cost of the war, understand
that inaction would be much more devastating. Just look at the
September 11 attacks. One study has pegged the cost to the economy at
well over $2 trillion. And a Brookings Institution study estimates that
a biological terrorist attack against a major U.S. city would cost our
economy $750 billion.
There are other critics who have accused the military of being slow
in their progress. But consider these numbers I heard recently from
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. It took 3 years after World War II
to establish an independent central bank in Germany; it was established
in Iraq in 2 months. Police in Germany were establish after 14 months;
in Iraq, 2 months. A new currency in Germany took 3 years; it took 2\1/
2\ months in Iraq. The cabinet in Germany was created after 14 months.
Iraq has a cabinet today--after just 4 months!
We cannot afford not to do what is necessary to win the war against
terror and secure our homeland. The funding for the war is necessary
and significant, but it is temporary. The cost of fighting this war is
well below the cost of previous conflicts.
And more than words . . . more than negotiations . . . the
President's significant spending request sends an unmistakable signal
to the sponsors of terror, to the liberated Iraqi citizens, and to the
world--that the United States of America is staying the course. Attacks
on U.S. troops and other targets in Iraq are aimed at undermining
freedom and democracy--but these attacks will not cause us to shy away
from our commitment. Failure to follow through in our mission would
leave a lethal void--a void that would rapidly be filled by terror and
its supporters. President Bush has said, ``Liberty is not America's
gift to the world, it is God's gift to Mankind.''
I believe that God's gift to all of his children is liberty--and also
justice and equality, tolerance and opportunity. These belong to all
people--no matter where they live. Let us remember the steadfast
resolve of Shawn Jensen in that letter to his grandmother. He is a
witness to a country being transformed from a reign of terror to a
beacon of hope. Let us, like him, commit to the stabilization of Iraq
diminishing the threat to our troops and ensuring greater stability and
peace in the Middle East.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, the challenge described by the Senator
from North Carolina is immense: Restructuring the economy and
government of a country that has borne decades of neglect by a
tyrannical regime. If we fail, the consequences could be a disaster. A
fractured, failed Iraq could become a safe haven for terrorists, a
caldron for fomenting extremism, and a destabilizing force to its
neighbors, throwing the entire Middle East into chaos. If we succeed,
the results could be extraordinary. A democratic and economically
vibrant Iraq would be a shining example to her neighbors that Islam and
democracy can coexist. More important, such an Iraq would be a friend
to the United States.
I have often come to this floor to talk about the importance of
teaching our children American history and civics so they grow up
learning what it means to be an American.
Former President Harry Truman put it this way. He said:

The only thing new is the history you've forgotten.

Let me look at history. I am reminded most about the choices we made
when dealing with postwar Germany, after World War I and World War II.
At the end of World War I, we made a grave mistake. We punished Germany
for its actions. The Treaty of Versailles, which formally declared the
end of the war, ordered Germany to repay its debt to other European
countries and denied any aid for reconstructing war-torn Germany. Even
though a new democratic government sprang up in Germany at that time,
the Weimar Republic, we chose not to provide help but to tell the
Germans to ``pay up.'' In other words, we defeated them, left them in
ruins, sent them a bill, and went home.
Sometimes we forget that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic
Germany. What was the result? As early as 1922, a young Hitler was
already railing against the Treaty of Versailles and the payments
Germany was forced to make. Eleven years later, in 1933, Hitler became
the Chancellor of Germany--elected. Again, he blamed the Treaty of
Versailles for Germany's woes. He said:

We want to liberate Germany from the fetters of an
impossible parliamentary democracy.

Under such a heavy burden of debt, with a failed reconstruction
policy, Hitler convinced the German people that democracy was too much
of a burden. We all know what happened next--another world war that was
more devastating than the first.
Our post-World War I policy with Germany was a complete failure.

[[Page S12220]]

One can imagine a similar scenario playing out in Iraq today if we
make the wrong choice. Let's say the United States, after getting a new
Iraqi government in place, decides to go home and orders Iraq to pay
its bills, as some on the other side of the aisle would have us do. It
is not hard to imagine a new Iraqi leader emerging who blames Iraq's
economic woes on the United States, who decries the debt we are making
Iraq repay, who says we only waged the war in order to encumber its
oil; a new leader coming to power on the wave of anti-American
sentiment who proceeds to destroy the fledgling democratic system the
United States helped to establish in Iraq; and suddenly, a few years
down the road, we have a new evil tyrant running Iraq, who is a clear
enemy of the United States and could start pursuing policies similar to
those of Saddam Hussein, or even worse.
Fortunately, there is another choice. After World War II, we took a
very different approach to postwar Germany. In 1948, after a failed
policy of loaning money to war-torn countries in Europe, the United
States adopted the Marshall plan, named for Secretary of State George
C. Marshall. The Marshall plan was a 4-year initiative to rebuild the
economies of 16 countries in Europe, including Germany. The Marshall
plan cost $13.3 billion and a lot of effort. Ninety percent of the
money spent on the Marshall plan--nearly $12 billion--was grant money,
not loan money.
What was the result? At first, the results were uncertain. Germany's
economy looked shaky. But over time, our continued investment paid
dividends. A continent that had been fighting for a thousand years
became a democracy and became our ally.
In Japan--in another part of the world--our help took a country that
had invaded us and made it an ally. The results could not have been
better after World War II. Our policy was a complete success.
That is why I believe we need a Marshall plan for Iraq. We need a 4-
or 5-year plan for reconstructing Iraq, and we need to face up to the
cost of the plan. We need to understand it is more for us, the United
States, than it is for them. President Bush has laid out the first
stages of such a plan.
The Marshall plan was used for a variety of purposes to reconstruct
war-torn Europe, including Germany. It paid for the building of
railroads and water systems, for needed medicines, modernizing
factories, for restoring ports to allow foreign trade, and much more.
President Bush's request for funding will pay for many of the same
things: restoring Iraq's ports on the Persian Gulf, building roads,
restoring power and water systems, needed medicines, reopening schools,
and much more.

Some say funding Iraq's reconstruction would be too costly. But the
cost of the President's request for rebuilding Iraq--$20.3 billion--is
actually far less than what we spent on the Marshall plan. That was $13
billion then, between 1948 and 1952, and that would be at least $102
billion in today's dollars.
Another way to compare the cost is percentage of gross domestic
product. The Marshall plan cost 1.1 percent of our GDP during the 4
years it was in place. President Bush's proposal would be only one-
fifth of 1 percent. Again, the Marshall plan was five times the cost of
President Bush's Iraq plan.
Or we can compare the cost as a percentage of the Federal budget. The
Marshall plan cost 7 percent of the Federal budget during the years it
was enacted. The President's requested funds, when added to those
already spent on reconstruction, were only 1 percent of the Federal
budget.
So this idea that we are spending more on Iraq than we did after
World War II is totally false.
We can learn a valuable lesson from history. After World War I, we
made Germany pay its debts. We left them in ruin. We went home. As a
result, we got Adolf Hitler. After World War II, we pursued the
Marshall plan, and it did cost some money. But as a result, we won
democratic allies in more parts of the world.
President Kennedy said it best in his 1961 inaugural address. This is
what he said:

We will pay any price, bear any burden . . . to assure the
survival and success of liberty.

The people of Iraq, like the people of Germany 60 years ago, lived
under an evil tyrant who wreaked havoc on his neighbors and his own
people. In both cases, the evil tyrant was overthrown by the United
States and its allies. America and its allies temporarily took over the
administration of Germany and Iraq. We paid for the German
reconstruction under the Marshall plan. We should do the same in Iraq
and support the President's request. We cannot afford, in our own
interests, to do anything less.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas is recognized.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, is there any time left on our side in
morning business?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. There are 3 and a half minutes, including the
leader time.

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