[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 145 (Thursday, October 16, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12636-S12637]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IRAQ
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I will say a few words about the
supplemental appropriation which the leader just addressed a moment ago
and we are addressing all week and also about the ongoing search for
weapons of mass destruction.
I was in a Senate Armed Services Committee briefing when Dr. David
Kay, one of the leaders of the Iraqi Survey Group, briefed me, and
later briefed Congress as a whole, on the ongoing search for weapons of
mass destruction. In that briefing and in the published statement he
made that is now on the CIA Web site, he says:
In searching for retained stocks of chemical munitions, the
ISG [Iraqi survey group] has had to contend with an almost
unbelievable scale of Iraq's conventional weapons armory,
which dwarfs by orders of magnitude the physical size of any
conceivable stock of chemical weapons. For example, there are
approximately 130 known Iraqi Ammunition Storage Points, many
of which exceed 50 square miles--
I had to doublecheck that quote to make sure it was accurate because
it boggles the mind.
Continuing--
50 square miles in size and hold an estimated 600,000 tons of
artillery shells, rockets, aviation bombs and other ordnance.
Of these 130 ASP's, approximately 120 remain unexamined. As
Iraqi practice was not to mark much of their chemical
ordnance and to store it the same as they would conventional
weapons, the size of the required search effort is enormous.
Dr. Kay has a gift for understatement. Having only in this time since
the fall of Saddam Hussein been able to examine 10 out of a possible
130 ammunition sites gives an idea of the tremendous task ahead.
Perhaps the critics should give some pause about the ongoing search for
weapons of mass destruction and the likelihood--indeed, I would say the
probability--that we will find those weapons of mass destruction in the
end.
The search is ongoing, but we know for certain that 17 U.N.
resolutions and numerous inspection missions by the U.N. weapons
inspection team from 1991 to 2003 were not sufficient to stop Saddam
Hussein. Even though we have not yet found the degree of weapons we
anticipated, it is clear Saddam Hussein lied to the world about his
arsenal despite all the steps taken by the international community.
There have also been significant finds that indicate we have only
grazed the surface of Iraq's weapons capabilities.
According to the same report I quoted a moment ago:
The home of an Iraqi scientist brought the discovery of
strains of biological organisms, one of which can be used to
produce biological weapons. The team found new research on
[Biological Weapons]-applicable agents, Brucella and Congo
Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), and continuing work on
ricin and aflatoxin, none of which were made known to the
U.N.
It will be many months before we will have a clear picture of the
nature and extent of Saddam's weaponry, but already some things are
crystal clear.
There are some in this body who have opposed the conflict in Iraq
from the beginning. I disagree with them, but they have a right to
their views. I am sad to say there are also those who have come close--
too close--to exploiting for political gain the hardships we have
encountered following Saddam's fall, hardships experienced in serving
the cause of freedom. I believe that is wrong and should be repudiated
in the strongest terms.
We all know Congress voted overwhelmingly to authorize the President
to use necessary force to remove Saddam's regime in Iraq. Subsequent
events, including Dr. Kay's report on behalf of the Iraqi Survey Group,
have vindicated that decision. I am also glad to see that today France,
Germany, and Russia are planning to support the resolution concerning
our efforts in Iraq before the U.N. Security Council. I would only hope
the administration's critics in this body would express such strong
support as well.
We all know that the great efforts and sacrifices made by our brave
men in the coalition forces who ignored the beltway echo chamber and
suggestions from the outset of quagmire, the cynical prognosticators
who claim that our forces were on the brink of collapse, and the
handwringing doubters who said Operation Iraqi Freedom was nothing but
a pipe dream--we know these critics were wrong. The dedicated men and
women of our coalition forces acted as true professionals. They were
interested in actions and not words. We all know they liberated Baghdad
in a mere 21 days.
Even in the face of that success, there still are naysayers who
refuse to acknowledge the tremendous and dramatic accomplishments we
have made as well as the necessity that we finish the task ahead. They
are urging in so many words that we abandon Iraq, leaving behind an
unstable nation still trying desperately to crawl up from under the
rubble of destruction by Saddam's ruthless regime. That is a dangerous
and an unwise suggestion.
This mission must end when we complete the task of stabilizing Iraq
and we are able to hand power over to leaders who are elected by a free
Iraqi people--not before. While we all want to return Iraq to the Iraqi
people as soon as possible, and at the same time get our troops back
home as soon as possible, these well-intentioned desires should not
blind us to our duty to finish the job we started. There is no doubt
that the enemies of democracy in Iraq, both inside and outside of that
country, will exploit any short-lived commitment.
Indeed, I believe the evidence is overwhelming that the events of
September 11 were largely caused by the apparent lack of American
resolve to defeat terrorism, and what we are doing today--maintaining
our strong resolve and finishing the job that we started in the war
against terror in Afghanistan and Iraq--is absolutely essential to our
success.
If we leave Iraq prematurely, we will play into the hands of the
terrorists and Baathist remnants. They are counting on the resolve of
the coalition to falter, freeing them to seek to regain control of this
fledgling nation. We must not cut and run and, in so doing, leave the
Iraqi people as they are, undefended, or we risk the possibility that
the sacrifices that have been made by this Nation, and particularly our
military and other coalition forces, will all be for naught.
[[Page S12637]]
Today in Iraq there is religious freedom and human rights unlike
anything seen during Saddam's regime. The Iraqi people now have hope
where there was formerly only despair. They have hope for a future that
must have seemed like only a dream a few short months ago.
The ``blame America first'' gang is grasping for anything they can to
prop up the illusion they were right all along. But the absence, so
far, of weapons of mass destruction and stockpiles of biological agents
does not mean Saddam's Iraq was some kind of sunny paradise or a
thriving garden dictatorship, one long springtime for Saddam. Nothing--
nothing--could be further from the truth.
We have not yet found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but let me
remind all of us what we have found. We have found torture chambers. We
have found execution sites. We have found prisons where children were
held in order to coerce their parents to bend to Saddam's will. We have
found a legacy of fear and terror, the vestiges of years of tyranny and
cruelty. We have found as many as 300,000 people--maybe more--buried in
mass graves throughout Iraq in nearly 100 reported sites. They stretch
from Basrah to Baghdad, from Najaf to Kirkuk. These stand as silent
monuments of Saddam's ruthlessness left behind for all to see.
For the Iraqi people living under Saddam, peace--if you can call it
that--was far more bloody than the current war.
To those who continue to doubt our mission in Iraq, I say this: Peace
is a good thing but at what price is it purchased? By turning our backs
on suffering, genocide, and evil? By tolerating those who defy the
civilized world and encourage, facilitate, and promote international
terrorism?
If the 20th century has taught us anything, it is that if America is
to fulfill its role as the guardian of the free world, a beacon of
light shining in the darkness, we cannot allow bloodthirsty tyrants
such as Saddam Hussein to act with impunity.
Clearly, there are obstacles to overcome in Iraq, and there will be
setbacks along the way. Yet we cannot allow the politics of the moment
or the upcoming Presidential election to undermine the war on terror
and American resolve.
I believe the task that falls to us at this moment in history is
spreading the blessings of liberty and bringing the light of freedom to
a nation that has, for too long, been imprisoned by darkness.
We must not falter in our efforts. We must not play political games
while the world turns inward. We must fulfill our duty to defend
America's interests abroad and ensure that the tragedies of September
11 are never repeated.
In the end, if there is one thing certain, it is this: In Iraq the
mass murder has stopped. And we stopped it. The Iraqi people and the
American people and all the people of the civilized world are better
off for it.
Those who would play political games with our mission in Iraq, even
while our brave men and women labor to secure and stabilize this
fledging nation, risk dishonoring the memories of those who sacrificed
all in opposing this bloodthirsty regime.
No, Mr. President, we must not cut and run, leaving the Iraqi people
with a promise unfulfilled. Success in Iraq depends enormously on our
willingness to stay the course and finishing the job we started, and
through it all, we owe our men and women in uniform our unequivocal
support as they labor in a dangerous place for an honorable cause.
In summary, America needs from this body and from its leaders less
babble and more backbone.
Mr. President, with that, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Alaska is recognized.
____________________