[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 48 (Wednesday, April 7, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3874-S3875]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS IN IRAQ
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, this Friday, April 9, will mark the 1-
year anniversary of the liberation of Iraq from the dictator Saddam
Hussein and his corrupt regime. It was April 9, 2003, that Iraqis
cheered when Saddam Hussein's statue fell in Baghdad.
When we began Operation Iraqi Freedom and as our troops were marching
on Baghdad, we started the Senate every single day for at least 30
minutes talking about our troops, what they were doing, the successes
they had, and the heartrending problems they faced. We let them know
that not 1 day, not 1 hour, not 1 minute passed that we were not
thinking of what they were doing for our country.
It is still the case today. Although Saddam Hussein's regime fell 1
year ago today, we are still fighting with the spirit and the heart
that is personified by our troops on the ground in Iraq today.
At that time, we all talked about--and it was written in the
newspapers and talked about on television--that it did not seem like
that infamous Republican Guard had been there. We did not meet them on
the way to Baghdad. We did not meet them in Baghdad, at least it did
not seem like it. It seemed almost too easy.
This is one person's opinion, but this person believes that when
history is written about this war, it will say that we are meeting the
Republican Guard right now, that they faded into the woodwork and they
strengthened their numbers and they are coming back. They have decided
to make their last stand because we have a deadline of
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June 30 when we want the Iraqi people to take control of their
governance, and we want the people to have a say. We set that deadline.
All of those who do not want freedom and democracy in Iraq, whether
they be people who want control inside Iraq or whether they are people
from outside Iraq who want to control the Middle East and make sure
there is not a working democracy, all of those forces are now coming
together against our coalition forces.
This is a very important time in our war on terrorism, and our hearts
are with our troops on the ground. Our hearts are with their families
right now.
Our hearts are with those brave civilians who have volunteered to go
in to help stabilize the country of Iraq and to get an economy going
there. We know they paid the price from the horrendous pictures we saw
last week. Those volunteers who were trying to serve were not only
murdered in cold blood, but their bodies were defiled. We will never
forget those pictures, and we will never forget the pictures we have
been seeing day after day out of Iraq.
We are here today to say how much we appreciate what they are doing.
We are also here to say that every one of those who have died, they
have not died in vain because we are not going to walk away from this
battle. America will not cut and run and render those great losses
meaningless. We will not do it because we have a President who is
willing to stand firm in the face of adversity. Our President is
supported by troops who are every bit as committed and dedicated as he
is to the cause.
This is a very important time. I think it is so important that we
should look at what is happening and make sure we are not doing
anything which would hurt our cause while our troops are in harm's way.
I have to say I am troubled when I hear leaders say this is another
Vietnam. We have troops on the ground in harm's way. Is it really
productive for us to be labeling Iraq after 1 year as another Vietnam?
Is it helpful to heap criticism on our President? Is it even helpful to
be dissecting what happened in the run-up on the war on terrorism that
began on September 11, 2001? Is it helpful to be saying who is at fault
for bad information? Was it the Clinton administration or the Bush
administration? Or was it before that? Is that what we ought to be
talking about right now? I don't think so.
I think what we ought to be talking about right now is how we can
come together as a country and make sure everyone in America
understands the importance of this cause; that we support our Commander
in Chief, and that we support our troops on the ground.
I have been to Iraq. Mr. President, you have been to Iraq. Our
Commander in Chief has been to Iraq. We know a little bit about what it
is like. We don't know everything because we are not there when the
bombs go off. We are not there when the missiles are launched. But we
have been there, and we know our troops are the best. They are
committed. They are doing exactly what needs to be done to stabilize
this country.
It is not going to be easy. But the one thing we must all do is be
committed to the proposition we can't fail, and dividing our country in
half over who was responsible for faulty intelligence is one way we
could fail.
What we need to be doing is uniting our country. This is America's
challenge. This is our coalition's challenge, that we will stay the
course. We will make sure a constitution is in place in Iraq so the
people who have been oppressed for so many years, so the girls in
Afghanistan who have been abused and uneducated will have the chance
for lives all of us dream for our children to have, so the people in
Iraq who were raped, tortured, and mutilated by Saddam Hussein and his
regime will no longer have to fear that kind of treatment because they
will be in control of their own destiny. We will be there with the
security to help them see this through.
What we need right now is a united country, not a country sniping at
our President, whether it is on the Senate floor or out in the field.
My time is up. But I think it is not productive for us to be divisive
at this point. We need to be united in support of our Commander in
Chief and our troops on the ground.
Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
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