[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.

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