[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 43 (Wednesday, April 13, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H1945]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H1945]]
               PEACEFUL CREATION OF DEMOCRACY IS POSSIBLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, last week Victor Yushchenko, the new 
president of Ukraine, spoke to a joint session of Congress. We were 
lucky to have received such a distinguished speaker, one who has done 
so much to encourage democracy over the last year, even overcoming a 
vicious poison attack by those who opposed his calls for democratic 
reform in the Ukraine.
  Mr. Yushchenko led the people of Ukraine through what is called the 
Orange Revolution. Ukrainian protestors bravely rejected an illegal and 
predetermined presidential election and demanded a new one.
  Since he took office after winning the second election, Ukrainians 
have been getting serious about fighting corruption, promoting fair 
competition and demanding transparent government business relations. 
Peaceful creation of democracy is possible.

                              {time}  1745

  As I listened to President Yushchenko, I could not help but note the 
irony that a man who has encouraged democracy through such peaceful and 
nonviolent means had been invited to speak to a joint session of the 
U.S. Congress, which is still working with the White House to create a 
democracy in Iraq through the barrel of a gun. The irony is that 
Ukraine, an Eastern European holdover from the Soviet Union's Communist 
bloc, understands the inner workings of democracy better than the 
President and Congress of the United States.
  I believe that the war in Iraq flies in the very face of democratic 
governance. Instead of upholding the tenets of democracy, the war in 
Iraq has violated democracy's core principles to a degree unimaginable 
when the U.S. declared war in March 2003. In January 2005, the Iraqi 
people held their first election in over 50 years, and I congratulate 
them for their bravery in accomplishing this feat. But the ends do not 
justify the means. From the very beginning, the President's case for 
invading Iraq was based on false premises and manipulations of the 
truth, hardly the stuff democracies are made of.
  We know now, and many of us knew back in 2003, that Saddam Hussein 
did not pose a threat to the United States. He never possessed ties to 
al Qaeda's terrorist network, and no weapons of mass destruction have 
ever turned up in Iraq. In fact, earlier this year, President Bush 
officially called off the search for the missing weapons of mass 
destruction. These are shameful and truthless grounds for fighting a 
war that has, so far, cost the lives of more than 1,500 American troops 
and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, not to mention more 
than 12,000 American soldiers who have been severely and permanently 
wounded in the war.
  The cost to our Nation's treasury has been just as staggering. After 
Congress puts the finishing touches on the latest supplemental 
appropriations bill, this war's total cost will amount to more than 
$200 billion in just over 2 years. Mr. Speaker, $200 billion in 2 
years. Just think about that amount. Adjusted to inflation, the 
combined costs of the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the first Gulf 
War are easily eclipsed by the war in Iraq.
  Sadly, a vicious insurgency still plagues the Iraqi people and 
America's brave soldiers on a daily basis. Yet President Bush seems to 
think that everything in the Middle East is going just fine. Yesterday, 
the President stated, and I quote him, ``More than 150,000 Iraqi 
security forces have been trained and equipped and, for the first time, 
the Iraqi Army, police, and security forces now outnumber U.S. forces 
in Iraq.'' Well, then, here is the question: Why do our young men and 
women continue to remain in Iraq if the Iraqi people are prepared to 
handle their own security? Why do our young men and women continue to 
die in staggering numbers if the Iraqi Army, police, and security 
forces are trained and equipped?
  The flip side of the President's boasts is that the American military 
presence is not helping matters. That is why, with the support of 30 of 
my House colleagues, I have introduced H. Con. Res. 35, legislation 
that calls for the U.S. to withdraw its military forces from Iraq. Let 
me be clear: the U.S. should not abandon the country it voluntarily 
invaded; but instead of maintaining a military presence in Iraq, we 
must invest in humanitarian and developmental aid that is so crucial in 
the peaceful advancement of a young democracy.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time to change direction in Iraq. We must begin to 
bring our troops home. It is time to give Iraq back to the Iraqis. If 
we need some guidance, I recommend taking a page out of the Ukrainian 
playbook on building a democracy. Because when it comes to advancing 
democracy, Ukraine seems to understand what many Members of the U.S. 
House of Representatives do not.

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