[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 116 (Thursday, September 23, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H7547]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          WORLDWIDE TERRORISM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, just a few hours ago in this House, we were 
addressed by the Prime Minister of the country of Iraq, Dr. Allawi. Dr. 
Allawi came to this body to speak to us here. He wanted to deliver a 
message. He wanted to deliver a message of success that we are indeed 
succeeding in the country of Iraq. He came here to enumerate three 
principles.
  He wanted to tell America thank you, thank you for giving us our 
country back. He wanted us to know that Iraqis knew that the world 
indeed is better off with the regime change that occurred in Iraq and 
that America did the right thing.
  He also wanted us to know that they were working and would continue 
to work to make certain that they, the government of Iraq, got it right 
on the ground in Iraq. It has not been easy. It has not been without a 
price; and Dr. Allawi allowed that as America has mourned its losses, 
they have mourned their losses in Iraq as well. But this is the cost of 
freedom.
  As Harry Truman once said, If you want peace, you better be ready to 
fight for it.
  Mr. Speaker, Dr. Allawi also talked about elements of defeatism that 
creep into conversation and how pernicious that defeatism is. He 
pointed out that within the past year's time, within the country of 
Iraq a Constitution has been adopted, a Constitution that provides for 
majority rule but respects the rights of the minority. He pointed out 
how the handover occurred at the end of June as it was scheduled to. 
It, in fact, occurred 2 days early and sovereignty was returned to the 
country of Iraq.
  He also pointed out that the Iraqi assembly met in that country and 
over 25 percent of the participants of that assembly were women, an 
event that was unprecedented prior. He pointed out that the elections 
will be held in January of next year, and with that, the completion, 
the turnover to sovereignty will be complete.
  Mr. Speaker, he also pointed out that indeed, Iraq currently is the 
battlegrounds for those who are opposed to freedom. But, of course, 
Iraq is not the only battleground as we know all too well in this 
country.
  Mr. Speaker, this past weekend I had the opportunity to travel to 
Moscow. The purpose of that visit with some other Members of Congress 
to visit with the children in the Federal Pediatric Hospital in Moscow. 
Children who had been present in the Beslan School Number One on the 
first day of school of this year.
  This is Alan standing here with me. Alan is 11 years old and attended 
school that day only to find that there were people in the world who 
were capable of such an astonishing degree of hatred and cruelty that 
it left the rest of the world speechless. In fact, it is not known how 
many died in the gymnasium that day in Beslan, Russia, 300, perhaps 
more, over half of them children. And that has not been the only story 
in the country of Russia during this past month.
  They have lost two planes and they had the bombing of a metro station 
in downtown Moscow. All in all, 500 deaths or more in the last 4 weeks 
in the country of Russia.
  But, Mr. Speaker, what really moved me, what really tore at me was, 
again, the astonishing cruelty of these people who would direct their 
hatred towards an innocent individual like young Alan.
  Mr. Speaker, Alan's mother called me back into his hospitals room 
after we took this picture and said, I want you to see what they pulled 
out of my son's chest. And here, Mr. Speaker, is a piece of metal that 
Alan had surgically removed after he came to the hospital in Moscow. It 
is of junk. It is a piece of metal that came from a landfill or a 
junkyard, but it is a small piece of metal as you can see. And these 
mines were packed full of metal this size so they would get maximum 
dispersion and cause maximum injury, inflict maximum pain on the most 
innocent members of society.
  Mr. Speaker, let us not forget what we are up against. Let us not 
forget what the cost is in this global war that we are engaged in at 
this time. Let us not forget what we are fighting for. We are fighting 
for the innocents. The innocent in Iraq. The innocents in this country 
and, indeed, the innocents in Russia.

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