[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 119 (Tuesday, September 28, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H7582-H7583]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IRAQI ELECTIONS MUST GO FORWARD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 20, 2004, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Madam Speaker, a country was looking for free, 
democratic elections. Yet, a violent insurgency controlled about one-
third of the nation's territory. Insurgents mined roads to prevent 
transportation and potential voters had to dodge sniper fire just to 
vote. Yet people by the hundreds of thousands risked their lives to 
have the opportunity a chance to vote, a chance for freedom.
  For those that may not recognize this piece of history, the year is 
1982, and the country is El Salvador, and 2 years later the people of 
that country had to risk the same peril to vote. This situation sounds 
familiar, does it not.
  I doubt many can forget the horrible atrocities committed during the 
Civil War in El Salvador that claimed over 75,000 lives. The insurgents 
in that day were no less ruthless than those at the interim government 
that Afghanistan and Iraq are facing. Violent efforts were increased 
before and on the day of election to prevent the people of El Salvador 
from choosing their destiny. The reason was simple. Elections, as 
pointed out in a recent New York Times article, ``suck the oxygen from 
a rebel army.''
  Interim Prime Minister Allawi knows this as well as Afghanistan 
President Karzai. Prime Minister Allawi was on this floor last week and 
stated emphatically that despite the naysayers in the media, and the 
supporters of Senator Kerry, Iraq will have free elections next year. 
Yet, not a day goes by that some pundit or some strategist talks about 
conditions in Iraq and says that the country is not ready for 
elections.
  However, Madam Speaker, I think it would be worthwhile for those who 
say they are experts to listen to the Iraqi people. According to some 
Arab news media reports and Iraqi blogs, only a small portion of Iraq 
is under control of the insurgents. We are talking about a country that 
is roughly the size of California, and only a small portion remains 
vulnerable to the insurgencies.
  Allawi is right to move forward with the elections. Iraqis are beyond 
fed up with these terrorist acts and may surprise many with their 
resilience in the face of these attacks.
  Look at the Iraqi police and National Guard. Despite being persistent 
targets of these extremists, Iraqi citizens continue to risk their 
lives to sign up for

[[Page H7583]]

the change to help bring peace to their nation.
  I think these so-called experts on elections in Iraq and Afghanistan 
are in for a rude awakening. Afghanistan's elections are set for 
October 9. Also, next month, Iraqis will begin registering to vote with 
election scheduled for January of next year. Will it be difficult? Most 
definitely. Will the insurgents try to disrupt this process? Yes. We 
have already seen that they will increase their attacks.
  But the fact is the insurgents are scared. They know that a 
legitimately elected leader can put an end to this illegitimate 
insurgency. An elected leader can offer his people peace, stability and 
prosperity. Insurgents can only offer hate, fear and death.
  An elected leader can undermine an insurgency by reaching out and 
addressing the perceived ills for which they are supposedly fighting 
for, or expose their motives as pure extremism. An elected leader can 
transform his country for the better.
  Madam Speaker, it will not happen overnight. It took years for El 
Salvador but it can happen. It is a task that the United States must 
continue to support without hesitation.
  Let me refer to two other examples. Violence and unrest were 
prevalent in Indonesia. Yet, recently, Indonesia conducted its direct 
presidential elections, orderly, peacefully, without disruption to 
voters' access.
  Finally, I think we can all remember the problems in Serbia with 
Milosovic and what happened with his military action. On June 13 and 27 
of 2004 this year, Serbia held presidential elections which is a 
welcome change in the political direction of Serbia and its 
relationship with the international community.
  Remember what Prime Minister Tony Blair said when he addressed this 
body. Here is his quote which I think rings a very positive note: ``How 
hollow would the charges of American imperialism be when these failed 
countries are seen to be transformed from states of terror to nations 
of prosperity, from governments of dictatorship to examples of 
democracy, from sources of instability to beacons of calm.'' He went on 
to say, ``Why America? The only answer is because destiny put her in 
this place in history at this moment of time and the task is ours to 
do.''
  We must take these words to heart and stand with a universal 
toughness. Democratic institutions continue to spread in the world. 
They are our true defense against the illegitimate attempts of Islamic 
fanatics to force their own distorted views of the world.

               [From the New York Times, Sept. 28, 2004]

                         The Insurgency Buster

                           (By David Brooks)

       Conditions were horrible when Salvadorans went to the polls 
     on March 28, 1982. The country was in the midst of a civil 
     war that would take 75,000 lives. An insurgent army 
     controlled about a third of the nation's territory. Just 
     before election day, the insurgents stepped up their terror 
     campaign. They attacked the National Palace, staged highway 
     assaults that cut the nation in two and blew up schools that 
     were to be polling places.
       Yet voters came out in the hundreds of thousands. In some 
     towns, they had to duck beneath sniper fire to get to the 
     polls. In San Salvador, a bomb went off near a line of people 
     waiting outside a polling station. The people scattered, then 
     the line reformed. ``This nation may be falling apart,'' one 
     voter told The Christian Science Monitor, ``but by voting we 
     may help to hold it together.''
       Conditions were scarcely better in 1984, when Salvadorans 
     got to vote again. Nearly a fifth of the municipalities were 
     not able to participate in the elections because they were 
     under guerrilla control. The insurgents mined the roads to 
     cut off bus service to 40 percent of the country. Twenty 
     bombs were planted around the town of San Miguel. Once again, 
     people voted with the sound of howitzers in the background.
       Yet these elections proved how resilient democracy is, how 
     even in the most chaotic circumstances, meaningful elections 
     can be held.
       They produced a National Assembly, and a president, Jose 
     Napoleon Duarte. They gave the decent majority a chance to 
     display their own courage and dignity. War, tyranny and 
     occupation sap dignity, but voting restores it.
       The elections achieved something else: They undermined the 
     insurgency. El Salvador wasn't transformed overnight. But 
     with each succeeding election into the early '90s, the rebels 
     on the left and the death squads on the right grew weaker, 
     and finally peace was achieved, and the entire hemisphere 
     felt the effects.
       I mention this case study because we are approaching 
     election day in Afghanistan on Oct. 9. Six days later, voter 
     registration begins in Iraq. Conditions in both places will 
     be tense and chaotic. And in Washington, a mood of bogus 
     tough-mindedness has swept the political class. As William 
     Raspberry wrote yesterday in The Washington Post, ``the new 
     consensus seems to be that bringing American-style democracy 
     to Iraq is no longer an achievable goal.'' We should just 
     settle for what John Kerry calls ``stability.'' We should be 
     satisfied if some strongman comes in who can restore order.
       The people who make this argument pat themselves on the 
     back for being hard-headed, but the fact is they are naive. 
     They've got things exactly backward. The reason we should 
     work for full democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan is not just 
     because it's noble, but because it's practical. It is easier 
     to defeat an insurgency and restore order with elections than 
     without.
       As we saw in El Salvador and as Iraqi insurgents 
     understand, elections suck the oxygen from a rebel army. They 
     refute the claim that violence is the best way to change 
     things. Moreover, they produce democratic leaders who are 
     much better equipped to win an insurgency war.
       It's hard to beat an illegitimate insurgency with an 
     illegitimate dictatorship. Strongmen have to whip up ethnic 
     nationalism to lure soldiers to their side. They end up 
     inciting blood feuds and reaping the whirlwind.
       A democratically elected leader, on the other hand, can do 
     what Duarte did. He can negotiate with rebels, invite them 
     into the political process and co-opt any legitimate 
     grievances. He can rally people on all sides of the political 
     spectrum, who are united by their attachment to the 
     democratic idea. In Iraq, he can exploit the insurgents' 
     greatest weakness: they have no positive agenda.
       Of course the situation in El Salvador is not easily 
     compared to the situations in Afghanistan or Iraq. On the 
     other hand, over the past 30-odd years, democracy has spread 
     at the rate of one and a half nations per year. It has spread 
     among violence-racked nations and to 18 that are desperately 
     poor. And it has spread not only because it inspires, but 
     also because it works.
       It's simply astounding that in the United States, the home 
     of the greatest and most effective democratic revolution, so 
     many people have come to regard democracy as a luxury-brand 
     vehicle, suited only for the culturally upscale, when it's 
     really a sturdy truck, effective in conditions both rough and 
     smooth.

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