[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 70 (Tuesday, May 18, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5562-S5563]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        WINNING THE WAR IN IRAQ

  Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, I rise this morning to talk about 
several issues relative to what is happening in Iraq today. First, the 
terrible offenses that occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison that came 
forth a couple of weeks ago have obscured some of the positive things 
that have been happening relative to the war on the ground in Iraq. We 
made some great strides over the last couple of weeks and, once again, 
we have every reason to be extremely proud of our brave men and women 
who are carrying out this war against terrorism, because we are winning 
this war.
  We are seeing more of the bad guys taken out in Iraq today, and a lot 
of that has been obscured by what happened at Abu Ghraib and the 
revelations that have been forthcoming relative to those incidents over 
the past couple of weeks.
  With respect to Abu Ghraib and to the individuals who were involved 
in the atrocities that took place there, our Army is doing exactly what 
it is supposed to do relative to issues such as this. We are doing a 
complete and thorough investigation of the facts. Those who committed 
offenses for which they need to be held accountable are going to be 
held accountable, irrespective of their level of management.
  I say that because these atrocities may have been carried out by 
privates or sergeants or any other enlisted or officer personnel up the 
line. If they were, then they are going to be held accountable. If any 
of these atrocities were carried out by civilians, they are going to be 
held accountable likewise.
  Major General Taguba produced a very professional and comprehensive 
report on what did take place at Abu Ghraib. He found what happened 
there was a total lack of discipline and a failure of leadership. Our 
military forces want to be held accountable because those who are doing 
the great job over there--and this is 99.99 percent of our military 
personnel--want us to get to the bottom of this, just as everybody in 
America and every other individual around the world wants us to do. And 
we are going to do that.
  Second, there was an announcement yesterday that the coalition forces 
discovered sarin gas in an artillery round, and that is a very 
significant fact. I don't think we can overstate the significance of 
this, but by the same token we need to be careful as to how far we go. 
There was a lot of criticism leveled at this administration for 
conducting this war on the basis that weapons of mass destruction were 
in Iraq and in the possession of Saddam Hussein and that was the sole 
reason we went to war with Iraq. That simply was not the case. We 
debated that and will continue to debate that down the road. But the 
fact is those of us who kept saying we know the weapons of mass 
destruction are there because Saddam Hussein admitted he had them--and 
he never told us what he did with them so we know they are there--that 
theory has now been validated.
  But is this the be-all and end-all relative to the issue of weapons 
of mass destruction? I don't think so. I don't think we need to get 
overexcited. I think we need to continue to allow the Iraq Survey Team 
to do their investigation and at the end of the day we will find out 
what did happen, how many weapons of mass destruction exist today, and 
where those weapons are. We will proceed with the destruction of those 
weapons that once belonged to Saddam Hussein. It is important that we 
find and destroy these weapons of mass destruction so they can't be 
used by terrorists, as they attempted to do last weekend.
  Third, I want to mention the killing yesterday of the President of 
the Iraqi Governing Council, Mr. Izzedine Salim. Mr. Salim was a 
respected member of the IGC. His leadership will be missed. Our 
thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
  However, his successor, Mr. Ajil al-Yawar, will lead the IGC over the 
next 6 weeks until political sovereignty is turned over to the new 
Iraqi government on June 30. The terrorists and anarchists fighting to 
keep Iraq from becoming a free and democratic state are not going to 
win. We are not going to let the killing of a fine individual such as 
Mr. Salim keep the people of Iraq from forming a new, free and 
independent government and obtaining their democracy.
  The perspective on these events is very important. We will turn over 
sovereignty to Iraq on 30 June. We have discovered weapons of mass 
destruction and we need to continue our search for others. We need to 
let our investigation on Abu Ghraib be completed before making 
pronouncements on who was responsible.
  Last, I would like to relate that about 4 weeks ago, I had the 
pleasure of visiting 14 of our military institutions in Europe within a 
4-day period. During that period of time, Senator Sessions, Senator 
Enzi, and myself had the occasion to visit with individual members of 
our Armed Forces such as those who belong to the 173rd Airborne 
Brigade, who are stationed at Caserme Ederly in Vicenza, Italy, who 
spent a year in Kirkuk, Iraq. They were the original occupying troops 
in Kirkuk. We had the occasion to visit with spouses of our soldiers 
who, today, are deployed to Iraq. We also had the opportunity to visit 
at Landstuhl Hospital at Ramstein, Germany, individuals who have been 
injured in Iraq. I have to say, every time I am around those men and 
women, my heart beats a little faster because they are not only the 
finest young men and women America has to offer, but they are doing a 
fantastic job of representing America, whether it is doing their duty 
of being fighting men and women or whether it is doing what they 
probably do best, and that is being the greatest ambassadors America 
has right now in that part of the world.

  The men and women in the 173rd Airborne Brigade, for example, said 
when they marched into Kirkuk, the Iraqi people viewed them as simply 
an occupying military force, which was not going to be supportive of 
the goals that the citizens of Kirkuk wanted to see carried out; that 
is, to have their children educated, to have hospitals, to have water 
and sewer and power restored.
  As the weeks and months went on, however, the members of the 173rd 
Airborne Brigade did exactly what the local people didn't believe 
possible: They rebuilt the hospitals, they rebuilt and opened the 
schools, they fixed the power grid so electricity could be restored to 
the citizens of that community, as well as increasing the availability 
of water and sewer, so at the point in time when the 173rd needed to be 
returned home, there were tears shed on both sides. The bonding between 
our fighting men and women, these soldiers and goodwill ambassadors, 
and the people of Kirkuk was exactly as we envisioned it should be; 
that is, our men and women had done a great job of liberating those 
people and at the same time had made good friends and had been great 
ambassadors for the United States in that part of the world.

[[Page S5563]]

  At Landstuhl, I will have to say the attitude of soldiers who had 
received, in some cases, very serious injuries was unbelievable. One 
young man who was from the home State of the Presiding Officer, as he 
and I discussed, who had his right leg shot off below the knee, made a 
comment to me as I walked in the room--and he had a big smile on his 
face. He said:

       Senator, I'm leaving here and I am going to Walter Reed 
     Hospital and I am going to get a new leg and as soon as I get 
     me that new leg I want you to know I am going back to be with 
     my buddies in Iraq.

  What greater attitude, commitment, and dedication can you have from 
any individual? That young man is simply a shining light out there 
today and should far overshadow the stories we see coming out of Abu 
Ghraib.
  Also, the spouses of the soldiers who are deployed to Iraq today, the 
spouses we visited with, about 35 or 40 of them, had, again, an 
unbelievable attitude. Our military families are truly that. They are 
families. They stand side by side with their spouses and support their 
deployment to any part of the world. But particularly now with respect 
to this very difficult and complex deployment in Iraq, these spouses 
had the opportunity to engage with us and to come forward to complain 
about a number of things, but they never did. They were all positive 
and said they knew their husbands were doing the right thing, they were 
truly supportive of them, and once again our military families were a 
shining light of which we can all be very proud.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed to speak on 
Democratic time in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is recognized for 10 minutes.

                          ____________________