[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 7 (Monday, January 31, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S623-S624]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         FREEDOM RINGS IN IRAQ

  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, this is a very pleasant and happy day 
for the Senator from New Mexico, and I hope for many Senators, 
Americans, and people who like freedom around the world.
  I congratulate the President of the United States. He has had a very 
powerful commitment to freedom and democracy in Iraq. There has been 
discussion for many months about whether our mission in Iraq would work 
and about why we are there, but I think today we have seen the first 
giant step toward freedom for the wonderful Iraqi people who have 
suffered so long under tyranny and were made slaves, whose loved ones 
suffered, were enslaved, murdered, entombed, and killed. Thousands 
emigrated from that country. This is a great day for them, and I think 
they showed us that it was a real issue.
  I am sure many did not believe these people would risk anything 
serious, including their lives, to have a chance at freedom. The 
President, by his strength of character and commitment against many 
odds, carried this issue forth to an electorate and an election, and 
has stayed with it until this great day when we saw grassroots freedom 
come alive.
  This is an occasion when some might wonder whether we ought to have a 
free press over there observing things, especially in a war zone so to 
speak, but this is an occasion when it is obvious that it worked. Even 
skeptics who were there could not deny reality. The reality was that 
people, young and old, were not afraid of the threats of terrorism and 
risked everything for that little idea of exercising their franchise. 
We saw them putting up their inked finger indicating ``I voted.'' I 
thought it was tremendous. For that, I am very proud that I supported 
the President in this. I hope he is proud of what he has done.

  I don't want anyone to think the Senator from New Mexico does not 
understand there are many pitfalls, and there may still be some that 
are difficult to overcome.
  Ultimately, freedom and democracy are not the end. You have to have 
some kind of economic prosperity, stability, and law and order. I have 
said democracy and freedom do not work too well if you are hungry, if 
you are starving. That makes it pretty easy for people who would 
overturn freedom and democracy. The Iraqis are a fortunate people. They 
have a lot of resources. Let's hope they can develop them to the 
betterment of all their people.
  There are three things I am thankful for today. The second is the 
U.S. military. We send our military to do much on behalf of the 
American people and to accomplish missions we think are important. This 
one I am sure many people looked at and said: They are just not going 
to be able to do it; this is not a role for American fighting men; they 
can't help with the voting; they can't get rid of the terrorists in 
sufficient numbers, even with sufficient intelligence and planning, to 
let an election move on. A lot of people thought that.
  I submit that those who run the American military at the top, and 
those whose boots are on the ground and who run the machinery and 
equipment, are sending a signal: You asked us to do something. Give us 
some time and we will solve the problems and we will do it.
  Didn't they do that and prove it yesterday? Did anybody think it 
could be so peaceful in so much of Iraq? There was so much opportunity 
for people to walk to the polls and not get killed, to see their 
neighbors going and then get sufficient strength and courage to join 
them because the terrorists were not there. There was some terrific 
plan, with the Iraqi soldiers who were getting trained, and ours, to 
create this safe haven, a significant safe haven. I surmise that a lot 
of hard work took place in the rooms where planning is done, in the 
evenings when people work, between our military leaders and the new 
budding leaders of the Iraqi military and Iraqi law enforcement.
  I think the Iraqi police and military probably were invigorated by 
this event, and I would think that they, too, will be stronger and 
better for it.
  Again, as I have on a number of occasions in my years as a Senator--
it is going on 33, so I have seen a few victories--I have seen a few 
involvements where it was very difficult. I have seen the Vietnam war, 
seen the Korean war a little bit; I have seen great achievements and 
otherwise, but I think this is a rather significant indication of how 
our military will help us if we will help them.
  I am so proud we did not get to the point where the naysayers in 
America made it impossible for the military to do their jobs. It was 
getting ever closer to that, but it did not get there. I think that is 
very fortunate for freedom, liberty, and the whole Middle East--a 
terribly important part of the world.

  Then, lastly, I congratulate the Iraqi people. Many of those who did 
not like what was going on over there, many who voted for us to go in 
and changed their minds--there were 77 Senators who voted for us to do 
that, go in--to some who had just been against it turned and were 
accusatory of our President. Some called him a liar. Some said he had 
misled. That is for another day, another argument, which I have already 
made that I think clearly indicates those kinds of things were not 
true. There were no weapons of mass destruction, but that doesn't mean 
there were lies about it.
  But some said the Iraqi people should have been dancing in the 
streets as our military marched through and went to Baghdad in such 
fast order, you recall, with very few lives lost in the American 
military, and very few Iraqis. But there was not laughter and joy and 
marching bands in the streets. But when the day finally came, when the 
people thought they were really rid of the tyranny of Saddam, they did. 
They did come forward with joy in the streets and hope in their eyes, 
feeling very satisfied with the job they were doing by going to vote.
  So it is a very pleasant task for a Senator to come to the floor 
after having heard so much negative about that, even negative about our 
military leaders, and to say to them, to the Iraqi people, the 
President, to the American people who have supported this effort for 
freedom--we all have supported it with a lot of our tax dollars, along 
with our best men and women and a great deal of equipment and other 
things--Job well done. May the next set of actions that are required 
come forth and be as good as this for the people there in Iraq and the 
Middle East. I only hope that as we look at this and are rather pleased 
as Americans, that some of our normal and natural allies in the world 
who have become pointedly in opposition to what we have done and have 
carried it even further, to where people seem to think Americans are 
not their friends and they don't want to be our friends and we have 
qualities and attributes they don't like, I hope this sends a signal 
that maybe they ought to become more rational and reasonable about what 
we mean to each other. After all, we have been through a lot together--
France, Germany, Italy, Belgium. We don't have to worry about the 
English. They have been with us all the way. We have been through a lot 
of sweat and blood in the name of freedom with those allies, to our 
cost in lives and to our cost in billions of dollars. It is not that 
they owe us anything. But I think they might at least say they might 
have been wrong

[[Page S624]]

in this or at least maybe the American President had a reasonably good 
idea and how we ought to get together and hope that together we will 
try to make it work. I hope that is not asking too much.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Vitter). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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