[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 71 (Wednesday, May 25, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5940-S5942]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
WAR IN IRAQ
Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, as we approach this weekend, I thought
I would give some thought to what occasions this commemorative holiday
and what I think about as we approach Memorial Day. I want to recall
some of the incidents, the results of war and its consequences.
It has been a historic week in the Senate. We averted a showdown that
could have permanently damaged this institution and destroyed the
unique American system of checks and balances that makes our Government
the greatest in the history of the world. This was the topic of nonstop
television coverage and a forest worth of newspaper articles.
In short, the story about the Senate's procedure for approving
judicial nominees totally dominated the news, but there was another
story this week, a story that did not receive much attention. It was
the story of at least 14 brave American soldiers who died in Iraq since
Sunday. These deaths came as a wave of bombings and suicide attacks
engulfed Baghdad and other cities.
While we go about our business in the Senate, while other Americans
go
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about their daily lives, the war in Iraq drags on. It has been a month
since the Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his new
government, and during that time at least 620 people have been killed
in Iraq, including 58 U.S. troops. During that time, it has been a
painful recognition for families across America and across my State.
Sadly, the American people have become so numb to these deaths that
they are no longer considered major news, and the administration has
not helped matters by continuing its questionable policy of banning
photographs or video images of the flag-draped coffins of our heroes
making their final trip home.
I have to ask a question: Is the purpose of this policy to hide the
sacrifices of our soldiers and their families? I am hard-pressed to
think of any other reason. This is an issue I have discussed on the
floor of the Senate before. It stuns me that at the moment of the
return of the remains of a family member, that casket covered in honor
by the flag of our country is hidden from the public. No photos are
allowed, no photographs allowed, and no attention paid.
As a veteran of an earlier war, I am very conscious of our
responsibility to veterans and to those who are fighting the battle for
all of us, and I wonder why the administration continues its policy of
banning photographs or video images of the flag-draped coffins of our
heroes making their final trip home. It seems as if they want to
conceal the sacrifices of our soldiers and their families. I am hard
pressed to think of any other reason.
As have most of my colleagues, where there has been a loss of life in
the State that they represent, we have gone to a funeral or a ceremony
acknowledging the sacrifice that these individuals have made and the
pain their families undergo. I was at a funeral ceremony at Arlington
when one of our New Jersey soldiers was buried. His family was present,
mother and father. He was a young man, in his early twenties. I watched
the ceremony as the Honor Guard escorted his coffin to the place of
burial. It was covered with a flag. The Honor Guard was so precise and
so immaculate in their appearance, so honorable. They took the American
flag and folded it so gently but ever so precisely until through eight
escorts and the captain of the Honor Guard, they made the folds so
carefully until they got it into a triangle, and the captain of the
Guard walked over to the man's mother and presented it to her. It was
such a touching ceremony, this recognition of honor, this understanding
of what this soldier who perished had done for his country.
I cannot understand why it is that we are not allowed to photograph
these coffins when they come home with the remains, when they come to
the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before they go to the mortuary
where the families have an opportunity to make certain that it is their
family member who is being buried. But there is no identification of
name, there is no ceremony. No family needs to feel as though its
privacy is being invaded.
So I question that. I think it would be appropriate on this Memorial
Day to start off after the Memorial Day recess and say, yes, anyone who
is returned in a flag-draped coffin is entitled to receive the honor
and the respect of the country that sent them there, our country. It is
appropriate.
The pain goes on almost every day--reports of car bombings, roadside
bombs, suicide attacks. They kill soldiers, they kill civilians, they
kill children, sometimes in the double digits in a single incident, 20,
30 people. What they are trying to do is crush the spirit of the Iraqis
who have been through so much at this point. Our people continue on
bravely serving their country, serving the orders that they get from
their Nation.
Within the last week, military leaders, however, had a change of tune
when the leading general in charge of our operations in Iraq described
as a sober assessment the situation in Iraq. That is the first that we
have heard about that. We have heard continuously that we have enough
troops to do the job, that the Iraqis are learning what they have to do
to take over. It is not true. I was in Iraq approximately a year ago
and saw how slowly the job of preparing policemen to take over was
going. It was painfully slow. Often the recruits were found to be
hopelessly untrained for the assignment, without the ability to drive a
car, no driver's license, not literate. They were training something
like 80 every 6 weeks.
So it is going to take a long time at the rate of 80 in 6 weeks to
get 50,000 policemen trained.
According to the assessment that we heard from the commanding
general, the bottom line was that American troops will probably be
there for years to come. For the 140,000 who serve there today, there
is no quick end in sight.
I do not take the floor to debate the wisdom of the war in Iraq or
the way it has been prosecuted. Today I speak to honor the more than
1,600 American soldiers who have given their lives in Iraq and more
than 170 who have died in Afghanistan.
In front of my office in the Hart Building there are pictures of
those fallen heroes identifying them by name as a reminder of what is
going on even as we discuss issues of some critical relevance and some
not so important. The most important thing is that we have people who
are in their young years paying with their lives for the battle in
which we are engaged in the Middle East.
Monday is Memorial Day. It is a day when our Nation honors the fallen
heroes of all of our wars. I hope every American will pause for a
minute during the day and reflect on the price that is being paid for
our freedom and on those who have paid that price. The wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan so far have claimed 56 sons of New Jersey, sons who died
pursuing the battle in Afghanistan. Thirty were killed since last
Memorial Day. Eleven have died this year. The wars have produced
funerals and wakes and I have met the grieving families.
One of the most recent funerals I attended was for PFC Min Soo Choi.
Here is a picture of the young man. His family came to America from
Korea 5 years ago, in search of a better life. I have met his parents.
I saw them this week again.
His story struck a chord with me because many years ago my parents
were also immigrants, and I also enlisted in the Army as a young man. I
enlisted when I was 18 years old. Min Soo was killed by a roadside bomb
in Iraq on February 26. He wasn't even a U.S. citizen, but he loved
this country and what it stands for.
At Min Soo's funeral I heard about what a unique individual he was. I
felt the void that his death had left in the lives of his family and
friends, and that is true of every 1 of the 1,600 who have died in this
war. Each death leaves an ache that will never heal in the heart of a
parent or spouse, brother or sister, or a small child. So on this
Memorial Day I will pause not only to remember our fallen soldiers but
also the loved ones they have left behind.
Mr. President, I know the hour is late, but I hope you will indulge
me by allowing me to read into the Congressional Record, where they
will be enshrined for all times, the names of the 56 soldiers with New
Jersey connections who have given their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan:
SGT Steven Checo, Elizabeth; Corporal Michael Edward
Curtin, Howell; Specialist Benjamin W. Sammis, West Long
Branch; Staff Sergeant Terry W. Hemingway, Willingboro;
Specialist Gil Mercado, Paterson--The city I was born in;
Specialist Narson B. Sullivan, North Brunswick; Specialist,
Kyle A. Griffin, Emerson; Sergeant First Class Gladimir
Philippe, Linden; Specialist, Richard P. Orengo, Perth Amboy;
First Sergeant Christopher D. Coffin, Somerville; Petty
Officer First Class David M. Tapper, Atco; Captain Brian R.
Faunce, Ocean; Staff Sgt. Fredrick L. Miller Jr., Jackson;
Specialist Simeon Nathaniel Hunte, Essex; 2nd Lieut. Richard
Torres, Passaic; Sergeant Joel Perez, Newark; Specialist
Marion P. Jackson, Jersey City; Specialist Ryan Travis Baker,
Browns Mills; Major Steven Plumhoff, Neshanic Station; Staff
Sergeant Thomas A. Walkup, Millville; Specialist Marc S.
Seiden, Brigantine; Second Lieutenant Seth J. Dvorin,
Pennington; Private First Class Bruce Miller Jr., Orange;
Specialist Adam D. Froehlich, Pine Hill; Second Lieutenant
John Thomas Wroblewski, Oak Ridge; Lance Corporal Phillip E.
Frank, Cliffwood Beach; Specialist Frank K. Rivers, Newark;
Specialist Phillip I. Spakosky, Browns Mills; Sergeant Frank
T. Carvill, Carlstadt; Specialist Christopher M. Duffy,
Brick; Sergeant Ryan E. Doltz, Mine Hill; Sergeant Humberto
F. Timoteo, Newark; Chief Warrant Officer Nicholas P. DiMona
II, Barrington; Sergeant Alan D. Sherman, Ocean; CPL Terry
Holmes Ordonez, Paterson; Lance Corporal Vincent M. Sullivan,
Chatham; Specialist Anthony J. Dixon, Lindenwold; Army
Special Forces Michael Yury Tarlavsky, Clifton; Specialist
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Yoe M. Aneiros, Newark; Specialist Bryan L. Freeman,
Lumberton; Corporal Tyler Ryan, Gloucester City; Private
First Class Stephen Benish, Linden; Specialist David P.
Mahlenbrock, Maple Shade; Lance Cpl Brian P. Parrello, West
Milford; 1st Class Sgt. Paul Karpowich, trained in
Pennsauken; Specialist Alain Kamolvathin, Blairstown;
Sergeant Stephen Sherman, Neptune; Corporal Sean P. Kelly,
Pitman; Lance Corporal Harry Raymond Swain III, Millville;
PFC Min Soo Choi, River Vale--his picture is here; Captain
Sean Grimes, Mother lives in Dover; Major Steven W. Thornton,
based at Fort Monmouth; Private Robert C. White, Camden;
Major John Charles Spahr, Cherry Hill; Staff Sgt, Anthony Lee
Goodwin, Mt. Holly; Lance Corporal Jourdan L. Grez, Long
Branch.
I also want to mention two civilians from New Jersey who were killed
while supporting the war effort in Iraq: Paul M. Johnson of Eagleswood,
and Thomas Jaichner of Burlington City.
I know each of my colleagues will join me this weekend in paying
tribute to the brave soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for our
country.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent I be allowed to
speak as in morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(The remarks of Ms. Snowe related to the introduction of S. 1127 are
printed in today's Record under ``Statements On Introduced Bills And
Joint Resolutions.'')
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