[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 21 (Tuesday, March 1, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S1816]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Texas for her 
kind comments. I ran into a number of great troops from Texas, from Ft. 
Hood, TX, and individuals from Texas who are doing a fabulous job, 
putting their lives on the line and showing the definition of courage 
and honor. Those guys go right into the face of the fire, and when the 
fire fight comes when the bullets are flying, they are running towards 
the fire. It was really a beautiful modern-day story of courage under 
fire and of doing the right thing.
  That right thing is now yielding, in the last week, multiparty 
elections in Egypt. Mubarak has not stood for elections in 25, 30 
years. It is going to do that. With a protest now taking place, the 
Lebanese Government has withdrawn and is asking Syria to withdraw and 
to allow democracy to flourish in Lebanon. Saudi Arabia had flawed 
local elections, but they at least had somewhat of an election.
  I met with officials in Iraq who are now discussing how to maintain a 
balance of power and an open society. The policies in Iraq are yielding 
enormous fruit--still difficult, still very fragile, but those soldiers 
who have put so much on the line are really changing the world. I thank 
my colleague from Texas for her support in that effort. What we are 
seeing taking place in that region is amazing.
  Our troops are in harm's way. We continue to see the number of 
improvised explosive devices about the same as they have in the past, 
although our number of wounded troops has gone down in the last 2 weeks 
about 40 percent, which is encouraging. That also means, apparently, 
that more of the attacks are directed at the Iraqis. We saw yesterday 
the horrific tragedy, over 100 Iraqis killed in a massive car bomb, 
that clearly the insurgency, much of it commanded and controlled out of 
other countries--and Syria has complicity of allowing some of this 
operation to take place--has to be pressured against that. But we have 
to get at that command and control structure of the insurgency and 
break that to be able to stop some of this incredible carnage that is 
taking place, people being killed in a country that just seeks to be 
free, seeks to be an open, fair society. It is difficult. In the early 
stages of democracy there will be flaws and missteps, but it is really 
changing the face of the region.

  I met with Prime Minister Allawi. I met with the head of the Kurdish 
group, and Shias, Dr. Joffee. Each is talking about bringing in the 
Sunnis, working together, creating an open society. I am concerned 
about the issue of the role of Islam in the constitution. That is 
clearly one of the key issues being negotiated.

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