[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 21 (Tuesday, March 1, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H815]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              AUSTRALIAN AND COALITION INVOLVEMENT IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Conaway). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor tonight to make 
what might be a shocking announcement, and that is an announcement of 
something that has not been very available in the United States news 
media, something that needs to be acknowledged on the floor of this 
Congress. And that is that one of America's most reliable and possibly 
historically are the most reliable American ally, an American ally that 
has been with us in virtually every major conflict throughout the 20th 
century, and is with us today in Iraq as one of our strong coalition 
partners, joining together with Great Britain and the other 25 or so 
coalition partners that are there.
  The nation of Australia has doubled their troop deployment to Iraq. 
They have done so at a time when there are other nations that are 
looking for opportunities to leave that area. And they have done so at 
a time with historical moment, when we are seeing people marching in 
the streets of Lebanon reaching out for freedom, acting upon the Bush 
Doctrine, standing up for freedom. The Australians are standing with 
us, as they stood with us in World War I, World War II, Vietnam and 
Korea and, as I said, virtually every major conflict.
  The 900 or so troops that are in there now are there to defend, in an 
interesting irony, they are there to defend the Japanese, who have also 
deployed to Iraq to provide engineering and other services there in the 
country at a time when it is pivotal and significant that we help them 
continue to grasp the freedom that they did when they reached to go to 
the polls on January 30.
  Now, the reason I make this announcement as an announcement is 
because I think it is pretty difficult for a regular American citizen 
who watches television every day and reads the paper every day, and 
maybe even surfs the Internet every day, to even know this significant 
piece of international news, a piece of international news that was 
published throughout a great number of Internet services, as well as 
mainstream media around the world, but not so well in the United States 
of America.
  So, I looked around and I asked the question, how would a person know 
this?
  I came across it because I picked up the Sunday newspaper in Sydney, 
Australia, and this is what I found. The countries that refuse to 
surrender, U.S., Australia and Britain, boost their troop numbers.
  Great Britain increased their numbers there, as has the United 
States, as has now Australia. And the national news media that handled 
it here in this country were few and far between.
  So how would a person go about finding this out?
  Well, I will go to Al Jazeera's Web page and see if I can find this 
little piece of information that I happened to have been coincidentally 
privy to. And I find on Al Jazeera's Web page dated February 22, 
Australia to send more troops to Iraq.
  I did not find that in major newspaper in America, with the exception 
of the Los Angeles Times and one other newspaper on the west coast. Not 
the Washington Post. Not the Washington Times. Not the New York Post, 
not the New York Times. Not generally available to Americans.
  Mainstream media broadcast TV, most of the cable networks had a 
little story, one blip. But on the mainstream media that was not 
something that came out on Peter Jennings, Brian Williams and not Dan 
Rather. But it did come out of Al Jazeera.
  These are our tried and true allies. The people that stood with us 
for over a century have doubled their troop commitments out of 
Australia, and there is a long list of them standing with us as allies, 
as has Great Britain, and as has a number of the other coalition 
partners.
  We need to recognize them, Mr. Speaker. We need to acknowledge them. 
We need to thank them for their service, not just to the support of the 
coalition troops, but their service to the freedom of humanity. And I 
challenge the news media to pick this up and try to scoop Al Jazeera 
next time.

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