[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 67 (Thursday, May 13, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H2993]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          SITUATION IRAQ: HAVING FAITH IN A SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OSBORNE. Mr. Speaker, I spent most of my life in a competitive 
environment and, during that time, I tried to understand why some 
organizations are successful and why some fail and some win and some 
lose. It seems to me that in a competitive endeavor that three 
principles were critical.
  Number one, unity of purpose; everyone having a common goal and 
pulling together. Number 2, the willingness to pay a greater price than 
the opposition; to sacrifice, to suffer, if necessary. And number 3, 
having confidence in a successful outcome to believe in the 
organization.
  I believe that these principles are generally time-tested and proven. 
It seems to me that some of these principles might apply to our 
struggle in Iraq.
  Recently I have heard some comments that the war is unwinnable. This 
is troubling, because it seems to me that words matter. Such statements 
are often self-fulfilling prophecies, because if you think you cannot, 
if you say you cannot, you probably cannot.
  So what if a football coach or a coach of any kind told his team that 
they probably could not win? They probably would not win. What if 
Washington told his troops at Valley Forge that they could not win? It 
probably would have made a big difference in the final outcome. What if 
Lincoln had said after Antietam, where 26,000 casualties occurred in 
one day, the bloodiest single day in our history, if he had said, it is 
over, we cannot win? What if MacArthur had said this: Instead of saying 
he was going to return, what if he had said he was going to quit and go 
home? Or what if Eisenhower had said during the Battle of the Bulge 
that he could not be successful either?
  Recently a Member of Congress came up to me and asked me this. He 
said, what is the exit strategy? I guess the way the question was 
phrased, it was how do we get out of this and somehow save face? How do 
we gracefully depart? I guess I did not have a good answer for him. As 
a matter of fact, I was puzzled because I had not really thought of 
that kind of an exit. I thought the exit strategy was to win. I did not 
know we had another exit strategy. The exit strategy, as I understand, 
was to displace the Taliban in Afghanistan, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, set 
up a representative government in both countries, train and equip each 
country's police and military to provide stability, and then leave. The 
rest of it, I believe, is up to the Afghan and Iraqi people. Much of 
this has been done already. It is certainly not completed, and 
certainly it is a difficult conflict and there is a lot yet to be done.
  When I was in the Middle East not long ago, a young Reserve captain 
had been in Iraq for a nearly a year, and he said this: It is important 
that the American people not lose patience. I believe that is very 
true. He said this: He said, it is better to fight al Qaeda here in the 
Middle East than it is at home. He was proud of what he had 
accomplished over there militarily, in terms of the infrastructure, the 
water, the electricity, oil production, hospitals, schools, children 
being vaccinated, provisional governments being established.
  So if we declare defeat, and if we say we cannot win, and if we say 
we have to pull out, it will do this: number one, we will dishonor the 
750-plus soldiers who have died already, and their families.

                              {time}  1730

  Number two, we will sentence thousands of Iraqis who have helped in 
the reconstruction to death. They will not have much chance, and this 
is the one thing they are most fearful of.
  Number three, we will have shown terrorists everywhere around the 
world that we lack the will, we lack the courage to see this through. 
In other words, we will put a huge bulls-eye on our back.
  So we all say on this floor time after time we support our troops; 
but, and I would say this, telling them that the war is unwinnable, 
engaging in partisan wrangling is not supporting our troops. It is 
critical that Members of this body stand united, stand committed and 
stay the course.

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