[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 168 (Wednesday, November 19, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H11633-H11634]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     EXPLORING IRAQ EXIT STRATEGIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Rogers of Alabama). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, over the last year and a half, the 
administration has attempted to make the case that the Iraq war is part 
of the global ``War on Terror.'' They argued that military action to 
disarm Iraq would save the United States from being directly attacked 
by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and would also prevent Iraq from 
giving weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups that could then 
launch attacks against the United States.
  Of course, no weapons of mass destruction have been found, and there 
has been no proof offered that legitimately connects Saddam Hussein 
with the September 11 attacks or the work of the al Qaeda network on 
September 11.
  The war has effectively had the opposite effect of what was desired. 
Al Qaeda, which was not proven to exist inside of Iraq prior to the 
war, is now thriving in Iraq and is targeting U.S. soldiers in their 
war against the United States. The U.S. occupation is fueling internal 
and regional hatred towards the U.S. and is providing al Qaeda with a 
recruiting poster for their anti-American ambitions.
  The world is considerably less safe because of this endeavor. 
Terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and a complete breakdown 
in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, only reinforce that the war in 
Iraq did not bring peace to the region as President Bush said it would.
  Clearly, the mission has not been accomplished. More U.S. troops have 
died since the end of the war than during combat operations. Last week, 
the U.S. military launched Operation Iron Hammer, a version of shock 
and awe, targeted at foreign and nationalist terrorists insurgents 
whose presence in Iraq is a direct result of the U.S. invasion.
  Most of the world's nations view the war and occupation of Iraq to be 
a U.S. folly. The U.S. is stuck, mostly alone, with a costly, 
unpopular, and unending occupation of Iraq.
  This is why a major change is needed. That is why I believe we need 
to get the U.S. out and the United Nations in. The U.N. will not go in, 
however, unless the main focus of resistance and instability, the 
United States, agrees to pull out.
  The U.S. must also renounce all political and economic interests in 
Iraq. It will be necessary to renounce, clearly and unequivocally, any 
interest in controlling Iraq's oil resources. The U.N., not the U.S., 
will administer Iraq's oil revenues.
  Under a new U.N. resolution, the U.N. will administer contracts to 
repair Iraq. War profiteering will no longer be tolerated. It will be 
necessary to suspend all reconstruction contracts and close the U.S.-
led Coalition Provisional Authority, because of the suspicion that 
various contracts have been given to large American corporations were 
as a result of political connections. In its place, the U.N. would help 
Iraqis administer funds to employ Iraqis to repair the damage from the 
invasion.
  I believe if we hand over the security, administrative, and economic 
responsibilities to the United Nations, member countries would be more 
inclined to help pull the United States out of this quagmire.
  I am not suggesting that we do not have responsibilities there. We 
need a phase-in of the U.N. force and a phase-out of the U.S., while 
keeping a Navy fleet to defend the territorial integrity of Iraq from 
foreign invasion.
  The U.S. owes a moral debt to the people of Iraq for the damage 
caused by the U.S. invasion. The U.S. will also owe a contribution to 
the U.N. to help Iraq make the transition to self-government.
  American taxpayers deserve their contributions to be handled in an 
accountable, transparent manner. However, Americans are not required to 
build a state-of-the-art infrastructure as the administration seems to 
be planning.
  All we can do now is to make a dramatic reversal. Of course, we must 
acknowledge that the continued U.S. military presence in Iraq is 
counterproductive and destabilizing. We have a choice in front of us: 
either we change course, withdraw our troops, and request that the U.N. 
move in and bring the U.N. in and take the U.S. out, or we sink deeper 
into this occupation, with more U.S. casualties, ever higher financial 
costs, and diminished security for Americans. I think that we can still 
turn this around. I think that America can take a new direction.
  Today, Mr. Speaker, in the Washington Post on page A21, there is a 
story called ``Sending a Message,'' and I will include that in the 
Record of my Special Order. What that does is it talks about the 
aspects in which the war is escalating and the damage that is occurring 
to Iraqi communities as a result of U.S. military action. I would 
suggest that the damage inherent, as is described in this story, is not 
only to the humble people whose homes are being blown up, but it is 
also to the U.S. reputation, because as we get into the cycle of 
violence, we will be digging ourselves in deeper, and we will be 
distancing ourselves from the world community. This is a time that we 
need to reach out to the world community, take a new approach, and that 
will then enable the United States to finally end this unfortunate 
episode.

               ``Sending a Message'' With a Show of Force


             rural iraqi homes destroyed in u.s. offensive

                          (By Daniel Williams)

       Tikrit, Iraq, Nov. 18.--The house of Omar Khalil Ibrahim is 
     a flattened jumble of broken bricks and roofing. Three of his 
     neighbors' homes, still standing, are riddled with big holes 
     made by tank shells that blasted through two or three walls. 
     A dead cow lies rotting beside a broken shed.
       The scene in central Iraq was the result of a U.S. military 
     offensive aimed at taking the initiative away from anti-
     occupation guerrillas. It is using helicopter gunships, tanks 
     and Bradley fighting vehicles, as well as an occasional jet 
     strike, unleashing 500-pound bombs and satellite-guided 
     rockets.
       One high-ranking commander described it as a ``no-holds 
     barred'' operation. The targets are suspected hideaways, 
     command centers and safe houses of the elusive guerrillas, 
     U.S. officials said.
       ``We have to use these capabilities to take that fight to 
     the enemy, and why not?'' said Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack 
     Jr., the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, which 
     patrols western Iraq. ``That's why we use them. They are the 
     right systems.''
       For all the heavy and sophisticated armaments, the targets 
     in Hawijat al-Ali, a rural hamlet near Tikrit, are small-
     scale. The houses are single-story structures set within 
     walled rose gardens.
       ``We were surprised by all the big shooting,'' said Kafi 
     Khalaf, Ibrahim's wife. ``They spent a lot to get rid of our 
     houses.''
       U.S. military officials say the show of force is a 
     necessary response to escalating attacks in central Iraq. 
     Maj. Gordon Tate, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division 
     in Tikrit, said the offensive, which began Oct. 1, picked up 
     steam after Nov. 2, when guerrillas shot down a U.S. CH-47 
     Chinook transport helicopter near the western town of 
     Fallujah, killing 16 soldiers. Rocket and artillery 
     operations replaced search-and-seizure raids that 
     characterized U.S. military activity in the summer and early 
     fall.
       ``We are sending a message. We are showing we are here,'' 
     Tate said. Among the

[[Page H11634]]

     weapons now in use are rockets that each disperse 960 little 
     anti-personnel bombs. Five Iraqis were killed Monday night in 
     a 4th Infantry Division attack, Tate said.
       Tate said that sympathizers of deposed Iraqi president 
     Saddam Hussein pay mercenaries to harass U.S. troops. ``We 
     want them to think twice,'' he said. ``They should leave out 
     of fear or face death.''
       To curb the use of roadside bombs that are among the 
     deadliest weapons employed by Iraqi resistance fighters, 
     soldiers have orders to shoot and kill anyone seen digging a 
     hole alongside thoroughfares, Tate said. The same goes for 
     anyone seen carrying a weapon, he said.
       Emphasizing the new get-tough approach, U.S. troops in 
     dozens of armored vehicles patrolled in convoys throughout 
     Tikrit Monday. ``They are saying, `I dare you,' '' said 
     Ashraf Skarki, a farmer. ``The noise and dust, it is all part 
     of their letter to Tikrit.''
       The activity is not limited to this town, which is 
     notoriously hostile to the U.S. occupation. In Baqubah, 
     several miles east of Tikrit, a pair of F-15 fighter jets, 
     launched from Qatar on the Persian Gulf, dropped four 500-
     pound bombs Tuesday on some abandoned farmhouses, military 
     officials said. Apache helicopter gunships and artillery 
     poured fire on targets on Baqubah's outskirts and then ground 
     troops pounded the area with 155mm howitzers and 120mm 
     mortars.
       ``We have taken action on these targets before, but this is 
     to demonstrate one more time that we have significant 
     firepower and we can use it at our discretion,'' said Lt. 
     Col. Mark Young, commander of the 67th Armor Regiment's 3rd 
     Battalion, part of the 4th Infantry Division. ``This is the 
     biggest operation we've had in the Baqubah area in terms of 
     tonnage and volume'' of munitions, he said.
       On Monday, two U.S. soldiers were killed near Balad, about 
     35 miles from Baqubah, one in a rocket-propelled grenade 
     attack, the other by a roadside bomb.
       ``We will not let these insurgents dance on our territory. 
     We need to maintain an offensive stance and let the enemy 
     know that we will come down with a heavy hand,'' said Lt. 
     Col. Steve Russell, a battalion commander with the 4th 
     Infantry Division.
       In Baghdad at mid-evening, U.S. forces fired heavy weapons 
     at suspected guerrilla positions in the far western part of 
     the city. A series of blasts reverberated across the capital. 
     For a second consecutive night, the city was largely blacked 
     out. U.S. officials blamed the electrical outage on a storm 
     that they said toppled high-tension wires, although the 
     weather has been calm for several days all across Iraq.
       Exactly who the guerrillas are remains a mystery, even to 
     commanders on the ground. At a briefing in Baghdad on 
     Tuesday, Swannack said that 90 percent of the fighters that 
     U.S. forces have captured or killed were loyalists of Hussein 
     or Iraqi religious militants. While the Bush administration 
     has described foreign fighters as posing a mounting threat, 
     Swannack estimated that only 10 percent of the guerrillas had 
     come from abroad.
       ``We are not finding foreign fighters coming across the 
     borders in significant numbers to do the fighting,'' said 
     Swannack, whose soldiers patrol a vast swath of Iraq that 
     borders Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
       Resident of Hawijat al-Ali doubted the offensive in the 
     Tikrit area would be successful. ``Do they really think 
     making this kind of ruin will stop the resistance?'' said 
     Jamal Shahib, who described himself as a shepherd.
       Shahib and other residents said U.S. soldiers arrived 
     Monday night searching for Ali Ahmed Hamid and Hussein Ali, 
     two teenagers suspected of being members of Saddam's 
     Fedayeen, a militia created in the 1990s as an irregular 
     adjunct to Iraq's army and secret police. They did not find 
     the young men. The soldiers arrested Omar Khalil Ibrahim, 55, 
     and told the residents to leave their houses. They then 
     unleashed the barrages of firepower to destroy the 
     structures.
       Everyone denied that anyone had a connection to Saddam's 
     Fedayeen. One woman, in a fit of emotion, began to chant, 
     ``With our blood and our souls, we will defend you, O 
     Saddam.''

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