[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 34 (Wednesday, March 17, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H1120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      IRAQ'S INTERIM CONSTITUTION

  (Mr. STEARNS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, on the 1-year anniversary of the war in 
Iraq, I rise to applaud the Iraqi civil leaders who last Monday on 
March 8 signed the interim constitution, the Transitional 
Administrative Law. With the adoption of this law, the governing 
council has taken a historic step forward towards a democratic Iraq. It 
took only 12 months, Mr. Speaker, to defeat Saddam Hussein and 
transition to an interim constitution.
  Now, my colleagues, it took 6 years for the first State in the Union, 
Delaware, to ratify our Constitution, and several more years before the 
original 13 finally ratified.
  Iraq is moving at a much faster pace. One year ago, the naysayers 
said we did not have enough forces in place to defeat Iraq's military. 
Naysayers said we could never find Saddam Hussein; and naysayers 
doubted that we could get Kurds, Shia, and Sunni Muslims to agree on 
anything.
  Mr. Speaker, 1 year later the naysayers are wrong.

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