[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 36 (Monday, April 4, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S3124]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EIGHT-DAY BIPARTISAN CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I have remarks that I would like to
make on two different subjects. One has to do with a visit by a
delegation of Senators led by the Democratic leader, the Senator from
Nevada, Mr. Reid, and then a brief remark about the proposal that we
use the supplemental appropriations bill to turn State driver's
licenses into national identification cards.
First I will comment on the 8-day congressional delegation that I was
a part of over the last recess. It was led, as I said, by the
Democratic leader. Let me say first how much I appreciate the style of
his leadership. He is the Democratic leader, and occasionally there is
a partisan word in this place, but this was a bipartisan delegation. We
visited eight countries in 8 days, including Jerusalem, Israel, the
Palestinian territories--visited leaders of the Palestinian Authority--
we visited Kuwait, Iraq, Georgia, and the Ukraine. In France, we
received a NATO briefing from our ranking general.
I think it is important for this body to know that in all of his
public and private comments, the Democratic leader spoke for the
administration of the U.S. Government. In other words, whatever his
private views of policy difference might have been, he did not express
those outside of this country. I was not surprised by that--I think
that is the way it ought to be--but I was impressed by that. I was
impressed by that part of his attitude, by the bipartisan quality of
the delegation, and by the hard work he expected of those on the
delegation. I appreciated the chance to be included, and I appreciated
his leadership.
As I am sure the Senator from North Carolina, who occupies the chair,
knows, and the Senator from Texas feels the same way, there are so many
thousands of people--in my case, Tennesseans--serving in Iraq and
Kuwait that I almost felt at home visiting there last week. My wife
Honey and I were greeted at the Kuwait Airport by an Army reservist who
is publisher of the Dyersburg News and copublisher of the State
Gazette. We had dinner with the 844th Engineer Combat Battalion, which
is based in Knoxville, which includes more than 500 Tennesseans. One of
those reservists is SGT Amanda Bunch, a nursing assistant at Asbury
Acres in Maryville, my hometown where my mother and grandfather lived
for a few years. The school superintendent from Athens, just down the
road from my hometown; the president of the Lexington Rotary Club in
west Tennessee, a physician; three Blount County deputies, from my home
county--all among those serving in the Tennessee National Guard.
I may have felt at home, but as LTC Don Dinello, who commands the
844th, reminded me, no place there is entirely safe. A few days
earlier, a patrol had discovered explosives on a bridge over which the
colonel's soldiers might have traveled. Thankfully, the explosive
device was disarmed before anyone was hurt.
In Baghdad, I ate lunch with three marines who were recent high
school graduates from Savannah, Manchester, and Tullahoma, TN. Their
mission is to guard the U.S. Embassy. I asked one of these young men
what a U.S. Senator should know about their work. Andrew Pottier of
Savannah told me:
Not much to know, sir. They shoot at us and we just shoot
them back.
Not even in the Green Zone, where several thousand Americans work
every day, was it entirely safe. The protocol officer greeted us
wearing a nice green dress covered by a flack jacket. When one of the
members of our delegation, a female Senator, went to the ladies
restroom, a female soldier with an AK-47 went first, inspecting every
stall.
I was reminded just a couple of days ago how dangerous it can be when
I went to the funeral in Sevier County of SGT Paul W. Thomason, III,
the first member of our National Guard unit, the 278th, to be killed.
It is very difficult to grasp the reality of the security situation
in Iraq. It is hard to grasp it from television. On the one hand, there
is the danger I just described. On the other hand, our casualties are
significantly down. Twelve of the 17 Iraqi provinces, we were told by
our commanders there, are relatively without incident. An average of
800 supply trucks convoy each day from Kuwait to the edge of Baghdad.
Since August, there have been 166 attacks on these trucks, killing 2
soldiers.
Forty percent of those serving in Iraq and Kuwait are reservists or
guardsmen. Several thousand of them are from Tennessee. Most left
behind families, jobs, and mortgages for up to 18 months. Far from
home, they are dealing with child custody, insurance, births, and
deaths. Thirty percent of the members of the 844th unit, with whom I
visited, are continuing their education online. I brought home
information so I could help seven reservists who are having trouble
with their citizenship applications.
Here are three other thoughts from that visit:
One, armored vehicles. Commanders in Kuwait assured me that no humvee
or truck is now going into a combat zone without Level I or Level II
armor.
Second, in the training of Iraq forces, we met with GEN David
Patraeus, the former commander of Fort Campbell's 101st Airborne
Division and one of our most accomplished military leaders. He
persuaded me and I think most other members of our delegation that
training is proceeding in an impressive way. It is not complete, but we
are making progress.
Finally, infant democracies. We have sacrificed many lives and paid a
heavy price in dollars to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein, but
without that decision there would be no infant democracies in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Georgia, Ukraine, and Kuwait would be less democratic, and
Syria would not be pulling troops out of Lebanon. We in the world are
safer without Saddam Hussein, who the new Prime Minister designate of
Iraq, if he is elected, told us, in his words, that Saddam had buried
alive 300,000 people.
When will our troops come home? I do not know. I believe we must have
a success strategy, not just an exit strategy. This strategy should be
based on whether Iraqis can reasonably defend themselves and whether
they have some sort of constitutional government. Having liberated
Iraq, it is now not our job to stay there until there is a perfect
democracy.
We Americans are very impatient. We also sometimes have short
memories. We are expecting the Iraqis to come up with a constitution by
August. It took America 12 years to write a constitution after
declaring our independence, another 130 years to give women the right
to vote in this country, and nearly 200 years before African Americans
were allowed to vote in every part of America.
I hope after the two Iraqi elections scheduled for the end of 2005
that we will begin to see large numbers of Tennesseans coming home; for
our average stay in other instances where the United States has helped
build nations, as in Germany and Japan, has been about 5 years.
The Presbyterian Chaplain of the 844th--which I visited--Rev. Tim
Fary from Rhea County, I discovered I had met before. He was then 8
years old and I was Governor of Tennessee. I was playing a piano
concert with the Chattanooga Symphony at a July concert at Chickamauga
near Chattanooga. Tim Fary, 8 years old, was lost.
He told me:
When I found my parents 2 hours later, I had a handwritten
note that read, ``Dear Tim: Thank you for your advice.
Governor Lamar Alexander.'' That note kept me out of trouble.
I still have it.
We hope Tim's prayers, as well as our own, will keep our brave
Tennesseans safe so they can accomplish their mission and come home
soon.
____________________