[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 67 (Thursday, May 13, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5463-S5464]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, all of us in the Senate, and in the 
Government generally, are terribly upset with the events of these last 
days and weeks because the shock and awe that we all experienced in the 
beginning days has been diminished when compared to what we are seeing 
now.
  Now we are seeing the ultimate degradation of human conduct. 
Unfortunately, some part of it comes from us, from Americans. We are 
embarrassed, apologetic, humiliated by what we have seen.
  I, like all of my colleagues, had a chance to view the pictures the 
Pentagon sent to Congress yesterday. They were sick, perverted images 
from the Abu Ghraib prison. Shameful, perverted, degraded images that 
made Members feel ill. But we could tell from the images there were 
many soldiers present at these scenes. This was not a soldier or two; 
there were many. The photographs demonstrated complete disintegration 
of discipline. Unfortunately, while it would be a lot easier if this 
were just the case of a few bad apples, it indicates a breakdown in 
leadership.
  I am a World War II veteran. I experienced the stress of being in a 
combat zone. I understand the psychological wear and tear. I also know 
it is the responsibility of a soldier's leaders all the way to the top 
of the chain of command to supervise, to manage as best they can the 
conduct of the troops.
  Regarding the current case of prison abuse, it is premature to rush 
to court-martial individual soldiers before all of the facts are known. 
I understand the administration seeks a public, visible court-martial 
trial to demonstrate the United States commitment to justice, but 
before we simply lay all the blame on the soldiers at the bottom of the 
chain of command, we need to understand where the directives were and 
what they were when they came down from the top. How clear is it now 
that well-dressed men in charge have let the soldiers in uniform down?
  The top civilian leadership at the Pentagon has failed. In my view, 
replacing Secretary Rumsfeld will change little at the Pentagon if his 
discredited team of advisers remain in their high-level position. A 
series of bad decisions by the top civilian leadership at the Pentagon 
has severely undermined our operations in Iraq. In my view, the 
Pentagon's trio of civilian leaders needs to be replaced. I am speaking 
specifically of the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy 
Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and the Under Secretary for Policy, Douglas 
Feith. All three of those officials ought to be replaced. They all work 
very closely together, and I am sure not one, not even the Secretary 
himself, made all of the decisions. The trio's poor planning and 
miscalculations have undermined the troops serving on the ground in 
Iraq.
  We are proud of those who have served so generously and nobly. That 
does not mean we cannot have some bad actors, but it also does not mean 
those at the top are free of responsibility. Their negligence regarding 
reports of prisoner abuses which were alleged to take place as early as 
last October is the last straw in a record of missteps and 
miscalculations that have compromised the safety and effectiveness of 
our military operations.
  These civilian leaders have dismissed the views of people in uniform 
numerous times. For example, in early 2003, Four Star General Eric 
Shinseki disagreed with Secretary Rumsfeld's plans for a light 
battlefield force for Iraq. He said--and it was a courageous 
statement--that at least 300,000 troops would be needed during the war, 
particularly in the aftermath of the war. Now we know that General 
Shinseki was right. The security situation in Iraq is deteriorating in 
exactly the way he said it would if there were not enough troops.

  So how was General Shinseki handled by the trio of civilian leaders 
at the Pentagon? He was fired. Fired for telling the truth. It tells us 
something about the character of those decisionmakers who said, no, no, 
we can get this done in much easier fashion. He was fired for knowing 
what he was talking about.
  That is just one of the many miscalculations and mistakes made by 
this trio at the Pentagon. Despite the urging of the Joint Chiefs of 
Staff not to do so, the Pentagon civilian leadership disbanded the 
Iraqi army after the invasion. We left 400,000 armed and trained Iraqis 
unemployed--I am not trying to give them jobs--and resentful, and now 
these men are contributing significantly to the massive security 
problems American troops are facing.
  The civilian leadership at the Pentagon also ignored postwar plans 
drawn up by the Army War College and the State Department Future of 
Iraq Project, which predicted most of the security and infrastructure 
problems that America faced in the early days of the Iraq occupation.
  We have heard plenty of speeches from Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy 
Secretary Wolfowitz and Under Secretary Feith. They talk tough about 
supporting the soldiers, sailors, marines, air men and women, but in 
reality they fail to provide adequately for our U.S. commanders as they 
requested in Iraq such things as sufficient interceptor body armor or 
adequate protection from Humvees.
  I learned that on my trip to Iraq last month when I asked a young 
soldier--a captain, as a matter of fact--what it was he needed to 
better conduct his soldiers in our Army there. He said: Senator, the 
flak jacket you are wearing is the latest. It is the most protective. I 
don't understand, he said to me, why we do not have them when I have 
seen those in the coalition wearing those vests.
  He said to me: You see this rifle? This big, heavy rifle is bigger 
than the one I carried in World War II; I carried a carbine. He said: 
There are better weapons out there with better sighting mechanisms, 
lighter to carry. He said: We do not have them, and I don't understand 
why, Senator. He said: We have seen those in coalition hands.
  Recently, Acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee and Army Chief of 
Staff GEN Peter Schoomaker recently told Congress that the Army 
currently

[[Page S5464]]

only has 2,000 armored Humvees even though it needs at least 5,000 to 
adequately protect our troops. And the sight of those vehicles burning 
leaves out what happened to those people who were in those vehicles.

  When asked why the Army did not have enough of these vehicles, 
General Schoomaker said the Pentagon policymakers had not foreseen the 
need for these standard fighting vehicles.
  Despite their academic credentials, Wolfowitz and Feith horribly 
misjudged the post-invasion situation in Iraq, and it has cost American 
lives.
  Under Secretary Feith dismissed all dissent to his view that U.S. 
forces would be greeted as liberators and quickly win the lasting 
gratitude of the Iraqi people. Despite the current quagmire, he 
continues to cling to his delusional view of the situation.
  In addition, before the invasion, these civilian leaders also told 
the American people that Iraq would pay for its own reconstruction 
through oil revenues. As we now know, not only has that not happened, 
but U.S. taxpayers are paying virtually all of the costs of the 
reconstruction of Iraq.
  We cannot pass a highway bill in this Congress for America, but we 
are unloading U.S. taxpayer dollars to rebuild Iraq's highway system. 
Why do we have to go to our taxpayers over and over again for billions 
of dollars for Iraq? Why does the President need to take another $25 
billion that could be used for Medicare, education, and American 
highway construction?
  The reason is the administration marginalized the international 
community before the war, and Pentagon civilian leaders refused to cede 
any control of post-invasion Iraq to the international community. As a 
result, we have paid more than 80 percent of all of the reconstruction 
funds in Iraq.
  I want to make it perfectly clear, I do not think we can cut and run. 
I think we have a responsibility there that we have developed through 
our own decisionmaking and through the fate that war has brought us. So 
I do not say cut and run. But I do say it would help us an awful lot if 
we were not, at this point in time, arguing to give people who have 
been successful in business or in life greater tax breaks when we 
desperately need the money.
  Furthermore, there is little hope that European allies or 
international donors will cough up the over $30 billion that Iraq still 
needs for rebuilding, according to World Bank estimates.
  U.S. taxpayers will have shelled out almost $200 billion by the end 
of 2004. As a result of this unilateralism, we barely cobbled together 
a meager coalition of the willing, but our men and women make up over 
87 percent of the troops fighting in Iraq.
  Secretary Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz, and Under Secretary 
Feith all have to be replaced. We need new leadership at the Pentagon, 
leadership that will listen to the military experts, leadership that 
will not cling to discredited ideologies.
  Perhaps the best illustration of the ineptitude of this team was 
their gross underestimate of the length of the Iraqi operation. They 
created false hopes for troops and their families, especially the 
reservists, many of whom are now facing more than a year's worth of 
duty away from their homes, away from the ability to pay their 
mortgages, away from the comfort children need from a father. They 
created the false hopes, especially of the reservists, who expected 
much shorter battlefield tours of duty.
  In February 2003, Secretary Rumsfeld said the war ``could last six 
days, six weeks.'' And he said: ``I doubt [that it could last] six 
months.''
  It is well over a year from the beginning of this war, and now our 
own generals are publicly questioning whether we can win. We have to 
win. We have no choice. But in order to win, we have to make sure our 
troops have the tools to do the job with, and that we have sufficient 
help from other places. We have to make sure we pursue that mission.
  I am not sure the current Pentagon team has the ability to direct our 
needs now. We need new leadership. Secretary Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary 
Wolfowitz, and Under Secretary Feith need to resign. And if they do not 
do so, then the President would be wise to ask them to go.
  I yield the floor.

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