[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 52 (Wednesday, April 21, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H2234-H2235]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     WE MUST NOT ABANDON THE KURDS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, the casualties in Iraq are a bitter 
reminder of the truth and consequences of war whether you oppose it, as 
I do, or wage it, as the President has.
  As America grieves over our losses, we should also grieve over the 
losses suffered by the Iraqi Kurds in a war that went largely unnoticed 
in this country. In fact, this is not the second Gulf War, but the 
third in our memory.
  After the first Gulf War, America pulled out of Iraq, leaving Saddam 
to reorganize his henchmen. They did more than take names; they took 
hostages, and they look lives, thousands of lives. It can happen again.
  After the first Gulf War, we established a no-fly zone, but we did 
not disarm Saddam's Republican Guard, and we did not destroy his lethal 
helicopter gunships, killing machines used not against Americans, but 
against Iraqis. The outcome was a blood-drenched record of atrocities. 
At least 8,000 Kurds were massacred by Saddam and his henchmen after 
the United States withdrew from Iraq, having urged them to rise up. The 
Kurds cried out for help, but no one listened, and no one saw.
  The war was over, then-President Bush number one declared. Victory 
was at hand. We marvelled at the stories told, many untrue, of how U.S. 
technology had spared lives, reduced casualties, and proved America's 
warmaking superiority. The satellite images showed everything except 
the coming slaughter of these peace-loving people.
  The Kurds represent about 20 percent of the Iraqi population. They 
have their own language and culture. Although Muslim, they are not 
Arab. Historically they have lived in the mountainous regions of 
northern Iraq in an area around Kirkuk. This region holds about 7 
percent of the world's known oil reserves. The vast oil wealth 
represented around Kirkuk has always been a motive for Saddam and other 
ethnic Iraq groups to act. Remove the oil by removing the Kurds. Saddam 
used every opportunity to hunt them down and eliminate them. But 
America is barely aware of the suffering Saddam inflicted on these 
people.
  While the President never found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, 
Kurds would tell you that the President would have found evidence of 
mass murder. Kurds fear, and we should, too, that it could happen 
again. Kurds fear, and we should, too, that if the U.S. pulls out on 
the 30th of June, it will not take long before the killing begins 
again.
  We should never have left the Kurds alone after the first Gulf War, 
and we must not leave them alone after June 30. The date is meaningful 
only for the President's political ambitions. We know what happened the 
last time we pulled out of Iraq. We cannot do it again and silently 
sanction a new outbreak of unspeakable crimes again the Kurds.
  The Kurds deserve liberation. The Kurds deserve protection. The 
bloodshed we see daily in Iraq reminds us of the country's instability. 
It should be a warning of the bloodshed that will come if America 
forsakes its responsibility to Iraq and all the Iraqi people, all the 
Iraqi people.
  We must stay the course. Stay past June 30. Stay until the Kurds are 
safe, until Iraq itself is a safe place. We owe Iraq and the world 
nothing less. By declaring war we took responsibility for the future of 
Iraq. We cannot walk away and throw it open to the chaos that we have 
created.
  It was our warning to the President when we started, winning the war, 
the military part, that will be pretty easy because we have a 
tremendous fighting force. But as for establishing the peace, that is 
where the trouble is. The President never planned for it.
  He ignored the State Department's efforts to do that. He ignored 
everybody's warnings. General Shinseki said it will take 300,000 
troops. They said, shut up, and they fired him because he told truth. 
Anybody who tried to tell him the truth coming into this was discarded 
or shuffled off or put somewhere else.
  We are about to do it again because the President wants to have 
another sign that says ``Mission Accomplished, Democracy Delivered.'' 
You could have a little ceremony somewhere and hand some paper around, 
I guess. It reminds

[[Page H2235]]

me of a scene in Vietnam when the United States declared victory and 
left off the roof of the embassy. We must not let that happen again.

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