[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 115 (Wednesday, September 14, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H7936-H7943]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        WINNING THE WAR IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Speaker for the opportunity to 
address the House this evening, really by way of reporting on a 
congressional delegation trip that I had the privilege of leading at 
the very turn of this month, the very last days of August, the very 
first days of September.
  Our journey took us on a diplomatic mission through Egypt. We met 
with military commanders at Central Command in Qatar. But clearly the 
most memorable and meaningful time of our trip, which included the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling), who we will hear from in a few 
moments, and three of our Democratic colleagues, the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Davis), the gentleman from Hawaii (Mr. Case), and the 
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McIntyre), it took us for two full 
days into Iraq.
  I rise tonight anxious to hear my colleagues' reflections on this 
trip and trips that they have taken as the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. 
King) will join us. But I rise today to make a very simple assertion, 
that from what I saw on the ground, flying into Baghdad on C-130s, 
flying around to outpost bases far outside the Green Zone in Baghdad, 
far outside the safety net of the center of our operations in Iraq, 
what I herald from the soldiers, not just in official meetings but in 
informal interactions and what I heard from our commanders was a simple 
message: We are winning the war in Iraq.

                              {time}  1745

  I know, Mr. Speaker, that that is a very different message than most 
of the American people, some of whom may be looking in tonight, are 
getting from national television and from the newsprint.
  The headlines today were resplendent with over 100 killed in a series 
of car bombs and suicide attacks in Iraq; but let me say emphatically 
again, from our meetings with General Abizaid at CENTCOM, to General 
Petraeus in Baghdad, our meetings with members of the 3rd Infantry 
Division and A Company of the 138th Signal Battalion from Indiana in 
Ramadi, I heard it again and again: we are winning the war in Iraq.
  That is not a slogan. It is an objective fact, based on a few simple 
observations, because as many who are strenuous critics of the war 
would assert, we have endured casualties, the precise number still less 
than 2,000, but every single loss, including the 10 heroes from my 
congressional district, is grievous to every single family. I will not 
for a moment trivialize a single American loss; but as we heard from 
one soldier after another, some with four stars, some with one, some 
with

[[Page H7937]]

corporal bars sitting on top of amphibious assault vehicles in Ramadi, 
as I was with Lance Corporal Ty Cotton, but soldiers understand that 
you do not define victory in war by the absence of casualties.
  When the U.S. Marines went ashore in Okinawa in 1945, April, we lost 
10,000 soldiers in that military engagement and we won. We won the 
battle on Okinawa. It remains one of the great military victories in 
American history, because as we lost 10,000 American soldiers, the 
Japanese lost 200,000 soldiers in the same engagement.
  Let us begin there in the definition of victory in Iraq. While we 
have lost somewhere shy of 2,000 soldiers in 4 years of fighting, and 
today we have 140,000-some-odd soldiers within Iraq, according to 
information we received, enemy casualties run from 20 to 30 to one 
American casualty; and more compellingly to me as we were informed, the 
number of Iraqi military personnel fighting on our side in uniform 
compared to our casualties is three to one. Three Iraqis in uniform, 
fighting for their own freedom, have died for every American fighting 
for their freedom in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
  Beginning with that large statistic, Mr. Speaker, it is undeniable: 
we are winning the war in Iraq. As I will discuss later, literally 
hours before the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling) and I and our 
colleagues touched down at the landing zone at the military base at 
Balad, there had been a mortar attack, a pretty typical engagement with 
the enemy, as near as was represented to us.
  Two mortars were fired into the American base. They were tracked 
through extraordinary technology and professionalism from literally 
moments after they were fired, several thousand yards from the base. 
The incoming mortars were determined to be landing in an area where 
they did not threaten a significant amount of American military 
personnel. They did destroy two trucks, I believe, both of which were 
still on fire as we were landing on the base; but when we went into the 
command center at the Balad Air Base and saw the full report on that 
engagement, we learned that within 3 minutes of the launch of the 
mortars, American military personnel had identified where the mortars 
were fired.
  Within minutes after that, American surveillance drones, known as 
Predators, flying overhead were able to surveil and identify up to 13 
different insurgents who were making egress from the site where they 
had launched the mortar; and within 12 minutes from the time of the 
launch, all 13 of those insurgents were killed in a Hellfire missile 
attack on their location.
  The intelligence, the military precision, no American casualties, 13 
Iraqi casualties. We are winning the war in Iraq.
  As we sat with General John Abizaid at Central Command in Qatar, 
pictured here in this photograph, we had a very intense and intimate 
hour with the four star general at Central Command; and before I yield 
to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling), my colleague, I want to 
share with my colleagues, without compromising any confidence, a 
conversation that I had with the general, which basically was derived 
from a recent stop that I made at the American Legion Hall in Selma, 
Indiana.
  Mr. Speaker, Selma, Indiana, probably has the population of this 
House of Representatives when it is filled, maybe 500, 600 people. I 
popped into the Legion Hall about a week before I went to visit Iraq. I 
walked into the Legion Hall, and there were several guys, a few of them 
bellied up to the bar, a few more sitting around tables and chairs and 
playing cards; and as I said to General Abizaid, the guys at the Legion 
in Selma, Indiana, were concerned about what they were seeing on 
television. They wanted to know what is going on, did the soldiers over 
there have a cause, are we in this for the right reasons. I took by 
their meaning how are we doing in Iraq.
  I told them I was leaving in about a week and I called the question 
and I had asked the brass and the regular soldiers. So I asked General 
Abizaid that very question. I said, General, what do I tell the guys in 
the Legion Hall in Selma, Indiana? Four Star General John Abizaid said 
in words that still ring in my ears, sitting at this table, he turned 
and looked at me, me here, him there, in his private office and he 
said, Congressman, you tell them we are winning the war in Iraq.
  Then he explained it. He talked about that ratio of, yes, there are 
Americans that are dying, but 20 to 30 enemy insurgent soldiers are 
dying for every American that has fallen. Then he went on to point out 
that at no time in 4 years of fighting have we ever lost a military 
engagement to this enemy, never. Every time the enemy has engaged our 
forces, we have defeated them and defeated them summarily.
  Another statistic that General Abizaid shared with me was the simple 
statement that we have never lost a full platoon in a military 
engagement with the enemy in this theater of combat.
  He conceded that being a combat soldier, being a military man, 
knowing the ruthless nature of the perhaps even 10,000 insurgents that 
we are dealing with in Iraq, that he had assumed that maybe at this 
point they would have figured out how to launch and ambush, as they had 
done many, many times and maybe catch us unawares.
  The Confederate Army caught the Union Army at Shiloh completely 
unawares. In war, people make mistakes, people end up exposed. The 
general basically said, in 4 years of fighting, I would have thought 
that they would have figured out a way to defeat a full platoon, but 
they have never done it. Every time they have engaged our forces, we 
have defeated the enemy.
  He went on to say that the answer here is not entirely military; but, 
rather, that as we went out to Camp Caldwell along the Iranian border, 
as we went up to Balad, as we went out to Ramadi, we saw these are 
soldiers that are not only engaging the enemy successfully and not only 
defeating the enemy in military engagements, one after another, with 
professionalism and courage and precision, but they are also training 
Iraqi soldiers.
  These are the two hands. The American soldier in Iraq today is doing 
the work of defeating the enemy, and at the same time, many of the same 
personnel are also training Iraqis to provide their own defense, and 
the statistics are rather overwhelming and impressive.
  In the last 12 months, we have stood up in uniform over 100,000 Iraqi 
soldiers for the defense of their own country. Literally, 100 
battalions have been stood up, a little bit more than 100 battalions, 
but roughly 100,000. As the general told us and the men on the ground 
told us who are training these soldiers, they are on track to stand up 
another 100,000 Iraqis within 12 months, Iraqis who would be able to 
take over their own security of their nation, both internal and 
ultimately external security.
  Of the 100,000 Iraqis, roughly 30,000 of those are deploying every 
day with American soldiers. One full battalion, we were told, is fully 
independent and has to do with old tribal loyalties, and they can 
handle themselves and we let them handle themselves; but the balance of 
some nearly 29 battalions of nearly 1,000 men each are deploying either 
on point as we did along the Syrian border last week when literally 
Iraqi military personnel led the charge, defeating insurgents and 
killing insurgents along the Syrian border, or they are going right 
alongside with us.
  So for those who want to minimize that, it is an extraordinary thing.
  I will never forget it was Labor Day, the day that we were at the 
military base at Camp Caldwell near the Iranian border. So, of course, 
it is a military base, there was a Labor Day picnic going on. As the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling) and the gentleman from Hawaii 
(Mr. Case) and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Davis), who had an 
awful lot of Tennessee Volunteers there, National Guard from Tennessee, 
urged us, we went to the Labor Day picnic. What a sight it was to see 
the American military personnel letting off a little steam, of course 
playing blue grass music; but the most awesome thing was walking on to 
a volleyball court and half of the people playing volleyball in T-
shirts and shorts were Iraqis. Here I am at a Labor Day picnic at a 
military installation, along the Iraq-Iran border, and half the people 
playing volleyball with the Americans were Iraqis, the people that we 
were training.
  In fact, we learned there at Camp Caldwell that in a matter of 3 to 6

[[Page H7938]]

months, when the Tennessee Volunteers, the National Guard, head back to 
Tennessee, they are not going to be replaced by American military 
personnel. They are going to be replaced by Iraqis, which is a 
statement of success. It affirms we are winning the war in Iraq. We are 
standing up an army, 100,000 now, and 12 months, 200,000 Iraqis in 
uniform. We are defeating the enemy. We have never lost a platoon or a 
military engagement.
  I say, Mr. Speaker, with great respect to my colleagues and anyone 
else listening in, we are winning the war in Iraq; and it is time the 
American people began to hear that and hear that consistently. We are 
winning the peace.
  As we prepare, we met with Prime Minister Jafari, we met with the 
ministers of interior and defense. October 15, the people of Iraq will 
vote to ratify, and it is my fondest hope and prayer that they will 
ratify, a constitution of their own making. This standing up of a 
legitimate government in Iraq, the standing up of an independent army 
of Iraqis in Iraq, and ultimately, the drawing down of American troops 
as Iraqis take responsibility for their political and security future 
is in the cards. It is happening. I know it is not making it on the 
evening news, Mr. Speaker; but I have seen it with my own eyes. I have 
heard it from our soldiers, not a one of which does not believe in the 
mission.
  I will yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling) with this 
final thought. We must have talked to thousands of soldiers in the 
field, and I say that with absolute sincerity. We spoke to them in 
official meetings. We spoke to them on C-130s flying into the country. 
We talked to soldiers who knew where we were and who we were and 
soldiers who did not know who we were and knew that we would never see 
them again. I did not meet a single soldier anywhere in Iraq in the 
uniform of the United States of America who did not believe in this 
mission.
  Every single soldier with whom I spoke said variations of the theme: 
we need to be here, sir; everything I have seen, we are doing what 
needs to be done; we have got to stop these guys right here.
  We are winning the war in Iraq because of that kind of courage, that 
kind of determination. So allowing for my passion on this point, I 
yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling), a colleague who 
journeyed with us on this trip; and if I may say without embarrassing 
him, at a time when his own family was dealing with the tragic 
circumstances around Katrina, his own father-in-law, grandfather of his 
children, out of communication in New Orleans, but he was still willing 
to go into harm's way to be among the soldiers, and I commend him. I 
commend his wife, Melissa, for their dedication to our country.
  Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and 
I especially thank him for his leadership in this body. As the chairman 
of the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus in Congress, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence), my colleague, his leadership is 
second to none in this institution.

                              {time}  1800

  I am happy to call him my leader in the Republican Study Committee 
and to call him my friend. I was very grateful, Mr. Speaker, that he 
would invite me to join him on this trip over to Iraq.
  It was very important for me, Mr. Speaker, that I travel over to 
Iraq. I thought it was important for a couple of reasons.
  Number one, I thought it was very important to say ``thank you'' in 
person to the brave men and women who don our Nation's uniform and put 
themselves in harm's way so that we can live in a safer and more secure 
America. It was very important, I think, that these people hear in 
person, face to face, where they are sitting and fighting the battle 
for freedom and security, that they hear from us in person the Nation's 
gratitude for what they do.
  I know it has been said before, but I do not know where our Nation 
finds such brave men and women to go and do this. It is so heartwarming 
that we in America have an all-volunteer military that produces such 
great men and women. So I wanted to thank these people in person.
  Second of all, Mr. Speaker, as a Member of the United States Congress 
who has supported these troops in the field, we all know here in this 
institution that we are privy to a lot of briefings by three- and four-
star generals. It is not that often, however, that we can get briefings 
from three- and four-stripe sergeants, those who are truly on the front 
lines of this effort; and I thought it was very important that I speak 
to these men and women as well.
  I want to echo what my colleague had to say, and that is that we are 
winning this effort. That is not to deny the reality of what we see on 
the news every night and, as my colleague said, not to trivialize it, 
because the cost of this war is incredible. It is a terribly costly war 
in terms of blood and in terms of money. There is no denying that 
reality.
  But in our living rooms back home, Mr. Speaker, and I come from 
Dallas, Texas, there is another reality that somehow never makes the 6 
o'clock news, nor does it ever make the front page of my daily 
newspaper.
  For example, no television station has ever shown up at my home in 
East Dallas at 8:30 p.m. to film either my wife or myself tucking our 
two children into bed in a safer, more secure America. No film crew has 
ever come to film that.
  In my home of Dallas, no film crew has ever gone to the Northpark 
Shopping Mall and reported, ``Today there was no suicide bomber at 
Northpark Mall.'' You will never read that story back home in Dallas, 
Texas.
  You will never read a newspaper headline saying, ``Today no one 
rammed a car filled with explosives through Mesquite Poteet High 
School.'' You will never read that story.
  Yet I believe that because of what we are doing in fighting this war 
against terrorism, because of Operation Iraqi Freedom, we do live in a 
safer and more secure America.
  Now it is no accident there has not been another attack since 9/11. 
That is not to say one could not happen tomorrow, but we will never win 
this war playing defense. We will only win this war playing offense. 
For the sake of our Nation, for the same of this generation and the 
next, we must win this war on terror. And there is no substitute for 
actually going to a place, Mr. Speaker, and talking to people and 
observing for yourself.
  There are a lot of different statistics I could quote in how we are 
winning the war on terror, but let me share a few stories, a few 
observations I have which really spoke volumes to me.
  First of all, traveling around Baghdad in an Army helicopter, all 
over Baghdad we saw the rooftops riddled with satellite dishes, 
something that was illegal in the regime of Saddam Hussein. The seeds 
of freedom of speech that have been planted in that country are 
fundamental to growing this democracy, this nascent democracy in this 
very vital part of the world. Satellite dishes all over Baghdad with 
now multiple sources of information and news that has not been seen in 
Baghdad in decades and decades and decades.
  Now one of the programs they apparently receive on this satellite 
dish, and I did not see it myself but I had a soldier describe it to 
me, is a program entitled ``Angry Mothers.'' I guess in America the 
show would be part of our reality TV series. But when we watch American 
television, we only get the indication that all of the Iraqi people are 
either insurgents and terrorists or they cower in their homes. But that 
is not the reality that we saw. In this program entitled ``Angry 
Mothers,'' apparently when some of the insurgents are captured, they 
allow the mothers of those who have been wounded or killed by the 
insurgents to confront them. And although I do not know nor do I care 
to know how to curse in Arabic, I assume a fair amount of the show has 
to be censored.
  We never see those pictures of the Iraqi people themselves 
confronting the insurgents and confronting them about their evil deeds 
and their evil purposes, but, Mr. Speaker, it takes place. It takes 
place every day, and it is taking place throughout the Iraqi television 
network.
  Something else. In going to these various military bases that my 
colleague, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence), described, whether 
it be Camp Caldwell or Camp Liberty, it was described to us that about 
6 months

[[Page H7939]]

ago there might be two or three mortar attacks every day, and today it 
may be two or three a week. Mr. Speaker, it is still war, but it is 
progress. It is progress.
  We heard a tragic story, and we have seen it in the news before, how 
at one of the many recruitment stations, where the Iraqi people will 
volunteer to help rebuild their country and be a part of their military 
service or to be a part of their police force, how at one of these 
recruitment stations the insurgents successfully bombed and killed many 
of the recruits. Well, Mr. Speaker, 24 hours later they had that 
recruitment station back open, and the exact same number of recruits 
showed up again. They knew what had happened. They wanted to be a part 
of building the new Iraq. Again, Mr. Speaker, I believe that is 
progress. That is helping win this war.
  Human intelligence is a very vital aspect of fighting this war. Now, 
increasingly, more of the Iraqi people are helping locate the bad guys. 
We heard a story about an insurgent who was armed and who broke into a 
house. When Iraqi and American troops, working together, managed to go 
to this home and knock on the door, this insurgent informed the troops 
that he was the cousin from Baghdad of the lady of the house. 
Notwithstanding the fact she knew this insurgent had a gun, she said, 
``No, sir, he is a terrorist. Take him away.'' That might not have 
happened 6 months ago in this country, but it is happening today, Mr. 
Speaker. And that is more and more progress in this war against 
terrorists.
  Mr. Speaker, again let me just go back and talk a little about all 
the troops we met and reinforce a point that was made by my colleague 
from Indiana. Again, I am just so proud that I had an opportunity to 
meet with these brave men and women.
  I remember hopping on a C-130 with a corporal out of Las Vegas, 
Nevada. He had just come back from 2 weeks of R&R, rest and relaxation, 
back home, and he has a family. He is married, and he has children. I 
said, ``Corporal, I guess you wish you were still back home.'' And he 
said, ``No, sir. Today my unit needs me more than my family.'' Mr. 
Speaker, that is the incredible level of commitment that we see.
  I remember meeting a young captain from Indiana, the home State of my 
colleague who led this delegation. We asked him about what does it mean 
to him and his family to be there. He said, very sincerely, ``I hate 
being here. I hate being here, but I love my job, and I know how 
important it is to my country and my family that I succeed.'' Mr. 
Speaker, that is an incredible, incredible level of dedication that we 
have.
  So some days, Mr. Speaker, it may be three steps forward and two step 
backwards. I am not here to say that this is easy work. I am not here 
to say that it is going to happen tomorrow. We cannot pick up democracy 
through a drive-in window. There is no such thing as McDemocracy. It 
takes a long time to develop it. But, Mr. Speaker, it is not 
democracies that threaten us, it is these authoritarian, despotic 
regimes that harbor terrorists, that train terrorists, that finance 
terrorists, and that seek weapons of mass destruction.
  I agree with our President, though some do not, but I agree with him 
that there are some threats that you must meet before they fully 
develop.
  Who, looking back at the pages of history, if they had an opportunity 
to stop Nazism and Adolf Hitler in 1930 would not have done it? Who 
would not have done it? If you had an opportunity to stop what the 
Soviet Union did in taking over Eastern Europe and holding it captive 
for 50 years, who would not have stopped that?
  Well, I think we have an opportunity to stop this terrorist movement 
that is taking place and emanating from the Mideast. But we as an 
American people have to realize that this is not a sprint, Mr. Speaker, 
this is a marathon. It is a marathon.
  The cost of cutting and running is too high, because the elements 
that would come back and take over in Iraq are the same people who were 
part of the Hussein regime. They are the same people who put together 
the despotic regime in Afghanistan. These are the people that would 
threaten the lives of our fellow countrymen, and that cannot be 
tolerated.
  So, again, Mr. Speaker, I was very proud to be a part of this 
delegation led by the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence). I learned so 
much. I am so proud of our soldiers, and I wish everybody could see the 
day-to-day progress, this kind of sloppy, halting, but inexorable 
progress towards democracy that is taking place in Iraq today. Like I 
said before, some days it is three steps forward and two steps 
backward, but it is progress. We see it, we know it is happening each 
and every day, and because of it, I believe ultimately our country will 
be more safe and more secure.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I will yield back to my friend from Indiana.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for his powerful 
reflections on an extraordinary trip.
  Before I yield to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King), who led his own 
delegation in August to Operation Iraqi Freedom, I wanted to reflect 
for just a few minutes, Mr. Speaker, on a few of the soldiers I met 
from Indiana, the kind of people the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Hensarling) was just talking about.
  In fact, a very detailed version of this appears on my Web site, 
MikePence.House.gov on our Web log, or blog as it has come to be known. 
I literally sat down on the airplane flying back from Iraq and typed up 
my reflections and remembrances while they were still fresh, and I want 
to excerpt them for just a second, if I can.
  This first photograph is my conversations with Sergeant Matt Wright, 
an extraordinary young man from Muncie, Indiana, and part of A Company 
of the 138th Signal Battalion stationed in Ramadi. To speak about the 
kind of dedication that my colleague just reflected on, as I talked to 
Sergeant Wright, he said, with the same kind of smile you see in this 
photograph, he said, ``Yes, sir, it is good to have you here. Yesterday 
was supposed to be my wedding day.'' And I said, ``Did you put it 
off?'' He said, ``No, sir. We moved it up 9 months so we could be 
married a couple of months before I deployed for 18 months to serve my 
country in Iraq.'' I mean, here was a man's dedication to his beautiful 
wife and his dedication to his country on full display. Sergeant Matt 
Wright.
  We began making our way to the mess hall that evening, Mr. Speaker, 
in Ramadi. And Ramadi is principally the location of an enormous 
division of Marines who engage every night in the very dangerous 
patrols of this provincial capital of the west, of Iraq. In fact, many 
of the military commanders with whom we spoke said, even more than 
Baghdad, in the months ahead as we make that steady, to use my 
colleague's term, sometimes halting progress towards democracy and 
stability, much of the future fighting will take place in Ramadi, and 
it will be done by these brave Marines.

                              {time}  1815

  So we stopped on our way to the mess hall, and these five politicians 
started reaching up and shaking hands on these enormous amphibious 
vehicles, and suddenly I heard a voice say, Are you not going to say 
hello to the only Hoosiers here?
  I stopped and looked up and saw this bright, freckled red head, a 
huge, strapping Marine named Ty Cotton from Anderson, Indiana. Ty 
leaned down and helped me climb up on that vehicle where we had a 
chance to visit for just a few minutes. As I talked to Ty about his 
mom, Marla, back in Anderson, I promised to look in on her and give her 
a report on how well he looked. We heard the commander in the 
background yell, 5 minutes.
  I asked if there was anything we could do, if he had everything that 
he needed. And he said shyly, Sir, we have everything we need. I am 
with a great unit. Then I heard a shout, 2 minutes.
  As I started to move toward the edge, I said, Ty, I want you to know 
the people back in Anderson are praying for you, and he looked at me 
with that shy smile, and he said, Glad to do it, sir.
  We made our way to the mess hall to meet with the balance of the 138 
Signal Battalion. I do not know what I expected when we went there. I 
sure did not expect to see this bright, good-looking group of men and 
women, faces shining like the morning, morale high, proud to be where 
they are, even though they are 8,000 miles away from their families. I 
sure did not expect to hear the optimism in their voices. One of the 
soldiers said it got way better in

[[Page H7940]]

Ramadi in the last year. To hear soldiers say it has got way better, 
the people on the ground living it, was very encouraging to me.
  I was profoundly moved when one soldier after another asked about the 
families and communities affected by Hurricane Katrina. These soldiers 
are 8,000 miles away from their families, moms and dads, wives and 
kids, in 110 degree heat, and they are asking about New Orleans. They 
are Americans. They are an extraordinary lot.
  As our Black Hawk helicopter lifted off from Ramadi, I watched the 
front lines on the war on terror, and I felt humbled by the men and 
women of the 138th that you see in this picture; and I felt more 
confident than ever in the justness of our cause and the war against 
terror and the belief it is vital to provide these men and women the 
resources to succeed. That begins by understanding that they are 
winning the war now, based on their professionalism, their commitment, 
their courage and the faith I encouraged in them, faith in God, faith 
in the country, and I say again, their faith in this mission.
  I am going to go home this weekend and spend time with people at 
home, but I know the most bone-jarring thing that I have said to my 
constituents and colleagues, in two 20-plus hour days in Iraq, I did 
not meet a soldier who did not believe in the mission. General Mark 
O'Neill of the 3rd ID, I looked at him and said we appreciate your 
leadership. He said to me, Sir, it is a privilege to be here, but we 
have to stop these guys right here.
  General Abizaid said to us, I think the most unreported story in 
America is how dangerous these guys are. If they get hold of this 
country the way they want to and become a petroleum power, these guys 
are the Nazis from the 1920s.
  To understand that in this environment, as tough as it is, these 
soldiers are winning the war in Iraq. They are winning it because we 
have never lost a military tactical engagement. We have never so much 
as lost a platoon. They are winning it because we have stood up 100,000 
Iraqis in uniform in the last 12 months and are on track to stand up 
another 100,000 in the next 12. And they are winning it because 
democracy is steadily advancing in a nation conditioned by thousands of 
years of authoritarianism, but it is advancing nonetheless with a 
constitutional referendum around the corner. We are winning the war in 
Iraq.
  Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. 
King), who has been a tireless advocate of our soldiers in the field in 
Iraq and Afghanistan. He has just returned from leading his own 
delegation there, and I thought it altogether fitting that he and other 
colleagues associated with his travels might seize the opportunity of 
this Special Order to reinforce our firsthand account of what is really 
happening in Iraq, because what is happening is we are winning in Iraq.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Indiana 
(Mr. Pence) and count it a privilege to stand on the floor of the 
United States Congress with the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling) 
and a number of our colleagues who have come down here to speak out in 
defense of our country.
  I consider it also a duty to go to the Middle East from time to time 
and Iraq in particular and visit with our soldiers over there. The 
first time I went was in October 2003. I had some trepidation on my way 
over there, not so much concerned about myself because once the 
decision is made to go, security is out of my hands and into the hands 
of others. But I did not want to be in the way. I did not want to go 
over there and have people who had a duty to do look and say, What is 
that Member of Congress doing here? Is he here for political reasons? 
What is his gig, so to speak.
  I had that same feeling when I went to the hospitals at Bethesda and 
Walter Reed to visit the wounded soldiers. I asked myself, how are they 
going to react? I found out that they are glad to see a face that 
cares, a face that is interested in what they are doing and is part of 
the team. We are part of the team.
  As the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence) mentioned, the kind of 
spirit, the shining faces that are there, and I wrote down a couple of 
things. It shifted my agenda here. One is it is an image that I will 
never forget and it was perhaps a year ago. I went to the hospital at 
Bethesda and I am scheduled to do that about every quarter to make sure 
that I have the feel for the kind of sacrifice that these brave men and 
women are making.
  I remember walking into a room. There was a Marine captain in the 
room who had lost a leg right below the knee. His spirit was good, and 
he was strong. I said, what is in your future? And he said, I am going 
to stay in the Marine Corps. I am going to get therapy and get this 
prosthetic leg and be going, and maybe I cannot get back into combat; 
but I am a Marine, and that is my profession.
  I asked, Is anything else going to change? He said, Yes, my wife and 
I are going to start a family right away. That is the kind of 
dedication that is there.
  Also, one of the other anecdotes that came to me, when I visited with 
the 168th National Guard unit out of Sheldon, Iowa, and fortunately I 
was able to break bread in the mess hall with them, a couple of them 
had been back home for their 14 days of leave. They were the two with 
suntans, and they had gotten their suntan in Iowa. One of them said, I 
have been here, serving here for months and I went home for my 14 days 
of leave and I started watching television. I thought gracious, things 
have gotten a lot worse since when I went on leave. I wonder what it is 
going to be like when I go back. He came back, and it was just the same 
as when he left.
  The question I continually get asked is, It is our duty to fight the 
enemy, but why do we have to fight the United States media at the same 
time?
  The media is always looking for the very worst component of the worst 
element they can find so they can get the maximum kind of 
sensationalism, but not get that broad perspective of what is going on 
over there.

  So I went over on the 15th of August and came back on the 20th. The 
heat got up to 128 degrees. A piece of information that I received from 
those Iowa farm boys, I could never figure out why is it nothing was 
growing along the irrigation ditches, why there was water and not a 
blade of grass next to it. Those Iowa farmers, they put a thermometer 
in the soil, 154 degrees was the soil temperature. We plant corn at 54 
degrees. At 154 degrees, it sterilizes the seed and would cook anything 
to some of the level that they do in the restaurants in this city.
  We went to some unusual places. I asked to go to some of those places 
because I think we need to hear some from that area. I believe we were 
the first congressional delegation to go down to Basra in the south. We 
went in there to that region, and there are two ports where the Tigris 
and the Euphrates rivers come together. There are two ports and most of 
the water freight that comes in and out of Iraq has to go through 
there. We visited a port where there is an Iraqi manager who has been 
there for 8 months. He increased production by 400 percent in 8 months. 
He did not understand the free enterprise system, however. He did not 
understand that gross receipts were not profit; you had to subtract the 
expenses. They are missing a little free enterprise culture, and we can 
help them with that.
  I took a ride in an Iraqi navy patrol boat. Most Americans do not 
think about Iraq having a navy. They have an 800-man navy being trained 
by the British Royal Navy. We took a flight right around the harbor. 
They are proud of what they do.
  I was standing there in the headquarters at the command central, the 
command headquarters in Basra of all of the provinces in the southern 
part of Iraq, and I looked around me and I started to identify where 
some of these soldiers were from. I started to look at the flag on 
their shoulders. In that group of about 15 or 18 soldiers, I picked out 
soldiers from the U.S., Britain, Australia, Iraq, they are part of the 
coalition, they are with us, the Netherlands, Romania, and Denmark, all 
in that cluster of 15 or 18 soldiers, that many different countries 
represented. I hear the criticism, this is not a coalition. Yes, it is. 
They are working with each other.
  I received a briefing from the British general, General Denton. He 
filled us in on the current events and the tactics. It is fairly stable 
in the southern part

[[Page H7941]]

of the country. One of the things that he said that will stick with me 
is, ``I can think of no alternative but optimism.'' I like that phrase. 
If you do not believe that Iraq can be a free people, it can be a 
stable country, an oil-producing country, a country that starts to 
export dates again and the 28 million people there can put their lives 
back together again, what is your belief? How would you construct an 
Iraq? How would you want to direct that country if you were not an 
optimist?
  I do not want to be involved in any planning done by anyone other 
than by optimists. I cannot have a pessimist there, I cannot even have 
one of those realists there because realists, just by definition, 
cannot follow a dream. They want to drag down someone else's, but they 
cannot follow a dream. Our soldiers are there, and they are following a 
dream. The Iraqi people are following a dream. They have their first 
grasp at freedom.
  We looked at the oil field in the south, the distribution lines, the 
platforms where they load the oil out on supertankers. There is a lot 
of oil in the south in Basra. The equipment that is there is archaic. 
It goes back to the 60s, and it is going to take a lot of capital to 
get those oil fields back up to the level they need to be to get the 
country back on a fiscal track so they can fund their own construction 
and fund their own growth and development of Iraq. They are a long ways 
away from that.
  The country is far more stable, but they need outside capital from 
other countries in the world and from multi-national corporations that 
will go in and place a bet on Iraq. It will be a very safe bet because 
the oil is there. There is no question the market is there. With $70 a 
barrel oil, that makes Iraq look even better from an economic viability 
standpoint.
  From there we boarded some British helicopters, and the British are 
great. Their service is good; they are professional. They give you a 
sense of security. They showed us the ports, and then we landed and 
walked around and took a look and had a briefing. After we looked at 
that, we flew over the wetlands where 800,000 Iraqis lived up until a 
little more than a decade ago when some of them rose up against Saddam 
Hussein, and he went down and killed about 120,000 of them, drove 
between 400,000 and 450,000 out of there, and shut the water off.

                              {time}  1830

  That area is twice the size of the Everglades, 8,000 square miles; 
and Saddam drove the population from 800,000 down to about 200,000 by 
drying them out, starving them out, and just going down and killing 
them. That was an impressive thing to see; and it is another place that 
has now been recovered, about 40 percent of the 8,000 square miles, 
because we have turned the water back into the wetland rather than 
diverted it away.
  And then from there we went up to another place that a lot of Members 
have not gone to, but some have been up there, and that is up to Kirkuk 
to the oil fields in the north. And up there, there is so much oil that 
some of the oil seeps to the top of the ground. Where there is a pool 
of oil in what one might call a sand trap, there is a puddle of oil in 
there. It is not a spill. It is natural flowing oil that seeps to the 
top of the ground.
  And there were oil spills too, as one might expect in a country like 
that. A lot of oil in the north that needs a lot of development, too; 
and they need to be able to get it to market. And here is one of the 
reasons why not. This is a pair of bridges, and these bridges were 
blown during the liberation of Iraq. If I have got the bridges right, 
and I believe it was this one, there were nine pipelines tied to that 
bridge that went underneath there, and, of course, all nine pipelines 
got knocked out.
  So we put a lot of those pipelines back together, but one of them is 
a 40-inch pipeline, a pretty good size pipeline, 40 inches in diameter, 
so 3\1/2\ feet; and each time we would put that back together, then the 
enemy would blow it again. So we brought a contractor in there to take 
that 40-inch pipeline and lay it underneath the Tigress River, 25 feet 
under the Tigress River, by the way, so it is a little hard for them to 
dig down there and blow that up, and that will give it a little more 
security. It is one of the pieces of the infrastructure that has been 
put together.
  After Hurricane Katrina, $18.4 billion almost sounds like loose 
change but $18.4 billion across a country of 28 million people the size 
of California that had been allowed to depreciate, erode, dilapidate 
itself over the last 35 years or more and a country that needs to be 
brought back up into the modern era. A country that could not produce 
enough electricity so they had to turn the lights off periodically, 
even in the cities that got the preferred power. And now we are 
distributing power to everybody equally, and the power is up to about 
13 hours a day, kind on an average for everybody in Iraq.
  But every time we raise the generation up and produce more 
electricity, then more Iraqis go out and buy the satellite dish, I say 
to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling), or they go out to buy an 
air conditioner. And if I had to choose between the two, I would take 
the air conditioner and skip the television, by the way. But when they 
buy the air conditioners, the demand for power goes up and up and up, 
and we cannot quite catch up with the equation of how much generation 
do we have to put in place before it meets the demand. But we are 
putting generation in place.
  I have here a picture of the mother-of-all-generators. This generator 
came across 1,057 kilometers of not always friendly territory. In fact, 
a lot of it was hostile territory. It came in several loads, but there 
were two big loads. For me, I am a guy who has hauled some heavy loads. 
A 400-ton generator, 325-ton turbine, and they came in a caravan with 
other equipment that was about a mile long, and this has all been set 
up now and up and going. Actually, it is going to be formally put on 
line in about January.
  But this mother-of-all-generators has been brought all across that 
territory, could not have a bullet wound in the generator, came through 
safe and sound, the generator, the turbine, and the rest of that. And 
they have constructed this together near Kirkuk, and this power will go 
to a number of the outlying communities as well as Kirkuk, and it 
dramatically kicks up the generation capacity.
  So I went to see where the money went that would build the 
infrastructure of Iraq. And I saw renovated swamps. I saw sewer plants 
and lines that have been constructed. This generation that is here, I 
am watching them as they are constructing, not exactly a refinery, but 
it is a preliminary process to, I think, take the sulfur out of the oil 
that is there. I have watched work around that country, and I have 
watched the spirit of the people. And then from Kirkuk, we flew across 
in Black Hawks down to Baghdad across that vast open space and arrived 
in Baghdad.
  We had to push and hurry because I was scheduled to meet with the 
Iraq Chamber of Commerce. I did not think about Iraq as having a 
chamber of commerce, and they are affiliated with the Americans in a 
way; so I believe they call it the American-Iraq Chamber of Commerce in 
Baghdad. They asked me if I would give a speech.
  Yes, I will do that, but where is my interpreter?
  Well, you do not need one because these people all speak English.
  And I thought that was kind of a telling thing, and there were, I 
think, 56 of them there, somewhere between 55 and 60 Iraqi business 
people that are members of the chamber of commerce that want to do 
business. They want to get free enterprise going, and they just want to 
have a chance. The message that I carried to them was a message that 
America is not going to be the economic salvation for Iraq. Iraqis are 
going to be the economic salvation for them. They are going to need to 
build those traditions of free enterprise. They are going to have to 
build the institutions of business that go along with this free 
enterprise structure and culture that we have in the United States of 
America.
  They have got a great start if that many of them can communicate with 
the rest of the world through a common form of communication currency 
called English. But they have got a lot of cultures to establish. If 
the manager of the port city down near Al Basrah does not understand 
the equation between gross receipts less expenses equals net income, it 
does not mean he is not a good manager. It just means

[[Page H7942]]

that there is a blank space in their upbringing, and I want to see the 
free enterprise culture established and grow. We can use American 
business people over there.
  The security part is the part that I have the least amount of advice 
for because we have the highest degree of professionals that are there 
providing security. Soldier after soldier, when I looked them in the 
eye, I came back from that country, my third trip over there, more 
confident than ever in the job that they are doing and the security 
that is being provided. I believe that because of the National Guard 
and our Reservists, added to our active duty personnel, the people that 
have more experience than most, that bring their professionalism with 
them, I believe that we have fielded a military here of the highest 
quality of people ever to go to war, and that is our soldiers that are 
over there who are putting their lives on the line.
  General Casey said something that I think we need to remember, and 
that was, ``The enemy cannot win if the politicians stay in the 
fight,'' and I believe that he meant the politicians here on the floor 
of Congress, Mr. Speaker. I believe he meant the House and the Senate. 
I believe he meant the people who believe, that are setting up 
quasiforeign policy, the people that the enemy are listening to. We 
need to send a solid message over to them: we stay in the fight here; 
the Iraqis stay in the fight there.
  As the politicians and the military, we will have 200,000 in uniform 
by next spring, and they are leading the battle over there; and 
Americans are stepping back. And we have handed over a base now to the 
control of the Iraqi troops. Signs are positive. The free enterprise 
side is coming along. They will get a constitution ratified. When they 
do, they can sign a contract to develop that oil. When they develop 
that oil, that money will come into their coffers, and they can develop 
their country. That is the formula for success in Iraq.
  I appreciate the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence) yielding to me, 
and I appreciate his leadership on this; and I look forward to the day 
that we can celebrate a victory in Iraq.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for 
his tireless efforts to see firsthand. This is a congressman from Iowa 
who, when there are controversies in the Federal courts, is on the 
steps of the courthouse. I know for a fact this weekend that he was in 
a Black Hawk helicopter flying over New Orleans and dining and supping 
with the people that are dealing with Hurricane Katrina. For him to be 
here tonight to add this critical, important dimension, as the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling), whom I will yield to in a 
moment, and I were there focusing on the security in the Sunni 
Triangle, for him to come here and add to the record tonight that in 
realtime in the last several weeks the investment the American people 
are making in reconstructing this country is working. It is having its 
good effect. An Iraqi chamber of commerce is not something we are 
seeing on the CBS Evening News, but it is happening; and I am grateful 
to the gentleman from Iowa for bringing that perspective to bear and 
just for being who he is.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling) for 
any closing remarks he might have.
  Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to 
me.
  I just wanted to say that I have been privileged to have a number of 
profound moments in my life; but I have to tell the Members, Mr. 
Speaker, one of the most profound moments I had was traveling to 
Baghdad, traveling to these military installations, meeting with our 
brave men and women, and reaching into my wallet, Mr. Speaker, and 
pulling out this very small photo of my two children, and looking these 
privates and corporals and sergeants in the eye and saying, Thank you. 
Thank you for what you do to keep my little 3\1/2\-year-old Melissa and 
my almost-2-year-old Travis alive in a safer, more secure America. And 
having them pull out photos of their children and having them tell me 
how they know how important it is that they fight for their families 
many, many thousands of miles away.
  That was a profound moment in my life because, Mr. Speaker, I still 
do not know if the American people realize what the threat is. There 
are terrorists who have sworn publicly. This is not hyperbole. This is 
not exaggeration. They have said on the record they want to kill our 
children. It is that serious. They want to get their hands on weapons 
to attack and annihilate Western Civilization as we know it. This is 
their aim.
  Mr. Speaker, the insurgents have proven very adept at taking innocent 
human life. They are very good at it. But what they have not proven 
adept at is halting this occasionally slow, awkward, clumsy, but 
inexorable, march towards democracy in Iraq. They have not stopped it, 
Mr. Speaker. People show up. They brave bombs and bullets to cast their 
ballots. And as we help this democracy flourish in Iraq, not only are 
we helping this people in this great and wonderful civilization. More 
importantly, we are making America safer and more secure. And that is 
what it is all about, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for 
his comments.
  I cannot add to that closing, but will simply repeat, Mr. Speaker, we 
are winning the war in Iraq. And, Mr. Speaker, to anyone who is 
listening in tonight to hear the passion of the gentleman from Texas 
(Mr. Hensarling), to hear the progress on the ground on civil society 
that the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) described and to hear about 
these soldiers and our effectiveness, we have never lost a military 
engagement in 4 years with this enemy. We have never lost so much as a 
platoon. We are taking the enemy down at a rate of 30 to one that they 
are taking down our military personnel. That all spells victory. We are 
winning in Iraq.
  But let me leave with one image. As we flew over Baghdad and over 
Ramadi, 150 feet off the deck, Black Hawk helicopters flanked by Apache 
helicopters, really scary-looking aircraft, I lost count of the number 
of men and women and little boys and little girls running from their 
homes and waving at our helicopter as we sped by.
  And then what broke my heart was to see the helmeted soldier take one 
hand off that enormous 50 caliber machine gun and extend a gloved hand 
hurriedly out of the helicopter to wave back to those children and men 
and women. They were running towards the American helicopters. They 
were waving at the American soldier.
  This was not a put-up job for some politicians flying through 
Baghdad. It was hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people in Baghdad 
and Balad and Ramadi throughout the Sunni Triangle who were giving the 
thumbs up in a wave of friendship to their liberators, to the people 
who are fighting and sacrificing and succeeding in bringing them 
freedom and stability, which they so richly deserve.
  With that I thank the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) and the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling) for joining me tonight. And I 
close with the thought we are winning the war in Iraq. Never doubt 
that.

                            Two Days in Iraq

                     (By Representative Mike Pence)

       Sept. 6, 2005.--Our two days in Iraq began with a prayer 
     and a brief reading from Psalm 91. After a short delay caused 
     by an engine failure, we lifted off in the cargo hold of a C-
     130 aircraft filled with soldiers and materials returning to 
     Operation Iraqi Freedom. On the faces of the soldiers we met 
     aboard the aircraft, most of whom were returning from leave, 
     was the evident anxiety of men returning to battle and sober 
     determination. I overheard one soldier tell a colleague, 
     ``I'm here for my family, my kids and my grandkids . . . so 
     they don't have to deal with these guys.''
       Upon arriving at Baghdad airport, we donned the helmets and 
     body armor that would be our wardrobe for the duration of our 
     stay and climbed aboard a Blackhawk helicopter, destination 
     Phoenix Base, Green Zone, Baghdad.
       The copters moved fast and low across the landscape of this 
     city of several million. Different from my visit to Baghdad 
     in 2004 when the streets were barren, the city sweeping past 
     me below our helicopter was filled with people bustling about 
     and large roads filled with traffic. The city of Baghdad is 
     no longer the deserted war zone I saw before. Despite the 
     violence of insurgents, Baghdad is alive again.
       We landed at Phoenix Base in the Green Zone and attended 
     meetings with the American Commander and the American 
     Ambassador for situation reports. In our previous meetings in 
     Qatar, the diplomatic and military authorities spoke of 
     steady progress and a determined enemy, but there was no hint

[[Page H7943]]

     of defeatism or pessimism. As we learned of over 100 Iraqi 
     Battalions deployed with American forces, schools, basic 
     services, agriculture, one is left with the sense that our 
     folks in Baghdad have a plan and are working the plan 24/7. 
     As one soldier told me, ``defeat the enemy, rebuild the 
     country and give it back to the Iraqis.''
       From our meetings with American leaders, we boarded our 
     motorcade for meetings with the Prime Minister of Iraq and 
     the Ministers of Defense and Interior, three of the most 
     important leaders to the present and future of Iraq.
       Prime Minister Jaafari greeted us in a formal setting and 
     spent the first 15 minutes expressing the heartfelt 
     condolences of the people of Iraq for the loss of life in 
     Hurricane Katrina. He seemed most determined to convey that 
     the insurgents engaged in violence do not represent the 
     feelings of the people of Iraq. I asked him, ``Who is the 
     enemy?'' and he replied with a litany referring to Beirut in 
     1983, 9-11, Sharm El Sheik, as all the work of ``the 
     terrorists.'' He actually seemed slightly indignant about the 
     question . . . as though anyone, with any common sense, would 
     see that the enemy in Iraq is simply ``terrorists.''
       In our meetings with two government leaders, two moments 
     stood out. The Minister of Interior, a studious, bearded man, 
     said the greatest challenge he faced was ``changing the 
     culture of authoritarianism'' that followed the repressive 
     history of Iraq. As we walked out, he and I spoke further 
     about this point and I was moved by his ambition for 
     his people to live under a just system of law and not of 
     men.
       The other moment came when another Congressman asked the 
     Minister of Defense, ``what neighboring nation represents the 
     greatest challenge to peace within Iraq'' to which he 
     replied, ``all of them'' then added, ``Kuwait is ok.'' It was 
     an illuminating moment. I will never forget that this new 
     Iraq is, with one exception, floating in a sea of 
     authoritarian regimes with long histories of association with 
     terror among their people and their governments.
       Our helicopters set us down at ground zero for American 
     forces in Baghdad: Camp Liberty-home of the legendary 3rd 
     Infantry Division under the Command of General Mark O'Neill. 
     As we learned earlier, most of the terrorist violence in Iraq 
     is taking place in 4 of the 18 provinces . . . a1l 4 are in 
     the area under the control of the 3rd ID. But Gen. O'Neill, a 
     thick-necked warrior with the mind of a CEO, said, ``Hey, 
     it's what we do sir and we're glad to do it . . . we gotta 
     stop these guys right here.''
       After getting an update on action and progress, we headed 
     to dinner with the troops including Evansville native Sgt. 
     Dave Newland. Dave is part of force protection for the 3rd ID 
     and is approaching 20 years and retirement but, from what he 
     told me, there is no place he'd rather be. When I asked about 
     the mission, he replied with a smile, ``We need to be here 
     sir.'' We spoke of home, of his plans to move to Washington, 
     Indiana and work for Crane. We spoke of the White Steamer, a 
     diner in Washington, which turned out to be his Dad's 
     favorite stop and one of mine. For that time we were not what 
     we are doing (soldier/congressman), we were just a couple of 
     Hoosiers swappin' stories from home. I told him everybody 
     back home was praying and was proud and he said quietly, ``I 
     know that, sir.''
       As our C-130 took off from Baghdad airport, I thought of 
     the men of the 3rd ID. I thought of the mission. And I 
     thought of Sgt. Dave Newland. By God's grace does this nation 
     still produces men like that.
       Day two began at 3:30 a.m. as we headed for a day that 
     would take us to four American bases in some of the most 
     violent sectors of the ``Sunni Triangle.'' First stop, Camp 
     Caldwell, near the Syrian border which is home to the 278th 
     of Tennessee. We were the first delegation of elected 
     officials to ever visit this base and the soldiers seemed 
     delighted to see us...especially Tennessee Congressman 
     Lincoln Davis. When Lincoln presented the command group with 
     a coin bearing the US Capitol and spoke of the time when 
     these Tennessee Vols would ``be a 'comin home,'' there wasn't 
     a dry eye in the room.
       It being Labor Day, the base had a picnic going on for 
     soldiers off duty, so we made our way over to throw 
     horseshoes and listen to blue grass music. I asked one 
     soldier after another, ``What would Labor Day be without 
     havin' a bunch of politicians show up to spoil your 
     picnic?!'' While the atmosphere was festive, when I would ask 
     ``How ya doin?'' or ``How's everybody back home holdin' up?'' 
     one soldier after another would pause and get that far away 
     look that you would expect from any soldier on a 
     distant frontier. This unit has lost 12 men but defeated 
     the enemy in every engagement. Their effort in training 
     Iraqis has been so successful that their unit actually 
     will not be replaced by American forces when they head 
     home in a few months. Iraqis will take over Camp Caldwell. 
     Mission Accomplished Tennessee.
       Our Blackhawk helicopters and their Apache helicopter 
     gunship escorts lifted off from Camp Caldwell at midday for 
     the American airbase at Balad, another region of recent and 
     intense insurgent activity. As we approached the base by air, 
     I took note of a large column of black smoke billowing from 
     the far end of the base. As we learned upon our arrival, at 
     approximately 6 a.m. the base came under mortar attack by 
     insurgents. While some equipment was damaged, as we learned 
     later in the command center from a videotape replay, the 
     enemy fared much worse.
       Using our battlefield technology and real time 
     intelligence, our forces identified where the mortar was 
     fired and tracked 10 insurgents evacuating the area. With 
     incredible precision, a hellfire missile scored a direct hit 
     on the enemy as the eerie infrared video replay showed. The 
     professionalism of these forces, young men and women who had 
     to make split second decisions to save American lives, left 
     most of us speechless.
       We spent lunch with American soldiers in Balad at a huge 
     mess hall while our colleague from Hawaii, Rep. Ed Case, held 
     his own townhall meeting with the 29th National Guard out of 
     Hawaii.
       Our last stop of the day was Ramadi, the new home of the 
     Anderson, Indiana based 138th Signal Battalion under the 
     command of Captain Keith Paris of Marion, Indiana. Capt. 
     Paris and Sgt. Matt Wright of Muncie met us at the landing 
     zone and escorted us to the long, sand colored two-story 
     building that these Hoosiers will call home for the next 
     year. Capt. Paris is a determined professional whose 
     patriotism, love of family and God exude from every pore of 
     his body. In a short briefing in his modest 12x12 
     headquarters office, he explained how A Company was actually 
     supplying all the real time communications for the ongoing 
     battle in Ramadi, a city of some 500,000, that is the 
     provincial capital of the west and a Sunni elite dominated 
     area. Their sandbag reinforced and camouflaged operations are 
     smack dab in the middle of a bustling base filled with moving 
     tanks, armored vehicles and soldiers . . . and they all 
     depend with confidence on the 138th.
       Sgt. Matt Wright of Muncie was an impressive young married 
     man who actually told me that his wedding was to have 
     occurred the day before I arrived, but when word came of his 
     deployment to Iraq, he and his fiancee decided to move it up 
     nine months to accommodate their devotion to each other and 
     our nation.
       On the way to the mess hall, we encountered a Marine unit 
     of armored vehicles headed out for maneuvers. As we reached 
     up and shook hands with one soldier after another, I heard a 
     voice from atop a tank yell, ``Hey, aren't you gonna say hi 
     to a fellow Hoosier?!'' I looked up to see the broad smile of 
     redheaded Cpl. Ty Cotton of Anderson, Indiana. He reached 
     down and shook my hand as a voice cried out, ``5 minutes!''. 
     . . the time the unit would roll to its duties in Ramadi. I 
     climbed up the side of the vehicle so we could talk over the 
     din of engines and troop movements. He told me to say hello 
     to his mom, Marla, back in Anderson and I told him I'd look 
     in on her and tell her how good he looked. As the commanding 
     officer yelled, ``2 minutes!'' I told him the folks back home 
     were praying for him, proud and grateful for his service. As 
     I climbed down the side of the combat vehicle, Ty smiled and 
     said modestly, ``Glad to do it, sir.''
       In the mess hall, the young men and women of the 138th 
     joined me for dinner. I don't know what I expected to find 
     among these troops but what I did find was good spirits, high 
     morale, fitness and a matter of fact attitude about the work 
     ahead. I asked about the war and many spoke of steady 
     progress, even in Ramadi. One soldier who had already seen a 
     year in theatre said, ``It's gotten way better here in Ramadi 
     from a year ago.'' They were confident Americans doing a hard 
     job in a hard place, but no complaints.
       Mostly they wanted to ask about home. We talked about 
     Indiana's response to Hurricane Katrina. They were concerned 
     about how the country was holding up after such a tragedy. In 
     a war zone, working in 110-degree heat, sleeping behind 
     sandbags and 8,000 miles from Mom, Dad, wife and kids . . . 
     and they were worried about us. Where do we get men and women 
     like these?
       As our Blackhawk helicopters lifted off from Ramadi, I 
     watched the sun set over this desert encampment on the front 
     lines of the war on terror and I felt humbled by the men and 
     women I saw, especially the Hoosiers of the 138th. I 
     scribbled the names of the men and women I met and purposed 
     to pray for them and their families until they return home . 
     . . victorious, safe and sound.
       And I felt more confident than ever that this war is just, 
     the battle against terror is vital and the enemy can and will 
     be defeated here and now. I believe that not because of the 
     armor, the firepower or the technology that swept beneath me 
     as we passed over one base after another. I believe that 
     because I have looked into the eyes of the men and women 
     fighting this war at every level, and their faith and courage 
     has never and will never be defeated.

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