[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 119 (Wednesday, September 21, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H8238-H8245]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            PROGRESS IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Reichert). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to 
address my colleagues and the opportunity to raise some issues before 
the American people as we deliberate in this great body, the United 
States House of Representatives.
  During the period of time that the House is not in session during 
August, commonly referred to as the August break, seldom is it a break 
for any of us, except that it changes our rhythm and we go do some 
other things. Generally, we do things to reach out and serve the people 
that we have the privilege and honor to represent.
  This August was no exception. There were many Members who went out 
across the country and across the world and went on CODELs and traveled 
on their own accord and visited different places and brought back that 
breadth of knowledge. It occurred to me sometime in, I will say late 
May or early June, that it had been some time since I had been to the 
Middle East and been back to Iraq. I had been there twice in the past, 
but 12 months or more had gone by, and I had not been back there since.
  As I listened to the mainstream media and began to get a picture of 
what was going on over in Iraq, it was a pessimistic one. As I talked 
to the troops who were coming back, particularly in Iowa, I got a 
different picture. As I listened to the briefings that came from the 
Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 
General Myers, I got a picture that was consistent with the picture of 
our military that was serving on the ground in Iraq and in Kuwait and 
in supporting roles around that theater.
  Yet you can listen to all the information you want to listen to, you 
can read all the documents you like, you can read The New York Times 
and watch the mainstream television stations, and you can surf the 
Internet, but the perspective does not come until you go and put your 
own boots on the ground and look the soldiers in the eye that are 
serving there in that theater; those that have been there; those that 
have put their lives on the line; those who have risked their lives 
willingly in order to protect and preserve the freedoms that we have 
here and advance those freedoms to the people who live there.
  So we began to organize a trip to go during the month of August over 
to Iraq. I wanted to go also to Afghanistan at the same time. I was not 
able to add Afghanistan to this trip because there was an election 
coming up which just took place over in Afghanistan, so they were not 
going to allow Members of Congress in there to make their situation, in 
preparing for those elections, more difficult.
  But Iraq was still an open area that we could go into. As I looked at 
the map of Iraq and the places that I had been, and in talking to the 
Members of this Congress who have made, some of them, as many as four 
trips or more over into that region, there were some places that we did 
not have a lot of experience with, some places we had not looked at.
  In fact, this Congress appropriated $18.4 billion for the 
reconstruction in Iraq that included roads, sewers, bridges, electrical 
generation and transmission, and the oil distribution system; to 
upgrade the ports and upgrade the schools and hospitals, the kinds of 
things that would put Iraq up into maybe the last quarter of the 20th 
century or, if all goes well, at some time they will be into the first 
quarter of the 21st century.

                              {time}  2030

  But, Mr. Speaker, in spite of all of the things that we have done 
over there, the disaster that Iraq has been from the perspective of 
allowing their infrastructure to erode over the last 35 years and a 
dictator that had his power as his God, and his people at his feet, a 
person who took his death and destruction to many wings of Iraq, and 
starved them and kept them from getting medicine and education and 
health care, and sometimes shut off their water, as he did in the 
southern part of Iraq.
  But we invested in their infrastructure. The American people put 
$18.4 billion up front. And we said at the time it was about a $100 
billion project to try to get Iraq up into the last quarter of the 20th 
century, a more modern world.
  And if they cannot get their country more modernized, it is going to 
be significantly more difficult for them to be able to sustain the type 
of government that I pray will become a constitutional republic that 
represents the people in Iraq and the will of the people in Iraq.
  And so the $18.4 billion was invested. And most of it was committed 
to projects, and we knew that in this Congress. And we committed to the 
support of that. But no one had really been over there to follow and 
track the projects. And in fact I was not aware of a single Member of 
Congress that had gone into Basra in the south, in the British region. 
So we put that on our schedule.
  And the wetland area where the swamp Arabs lived, they were over 
800,000 strong. And when Saddam was finished putting down their 
insurrection that began about in about 1991 or 1992, he had killed 
approximately 120,000 of them and run off maybe 450,000 and there 
remained maybe 200,000 of the 800,000 swamp Arabs that lived in an area 
that was a wetland twice the size of the Everglades, Saddam drained it, 
turned the water away from it, and forced many of them out and changed 
their life.
  So we went to Basra and looked at that region in the south, and the 
oil region there. We went to the wetlands and flew over that in a 
British helicopter and looked at that, and we went up to Kirkuk in the 
north, another area that many Members had not seen.
  And in that process we came back down through Baghdad, and we did 
meet with a significant number of people who had been involved in the 
reconstruction of Iraq. We saw project after project that was there. We 
saw places where the money went. And along with that on that trip 
myself, and also the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) who was on his 
fourth trip, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar) from Laredo, who 
was elected to this Congress and sworn in here in early January of this 
year, and did not take him very long, he has made his trip to Iraq to 
start things out, and I appreciate your company along on that trip. 
Also

[[Page H8239]]

the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent).
  And the four of us were the compadres that visited that area. And we 
had an intense 5-day trip that compressed a lot of hours in Iraq and 
very quickly saw a lot of the country and met a lot of the people, 
including soldiers from our own districts in almost every stop, 
although there were a few Texans along almost everywhere we went.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent).
  Mr. DENT. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. 
King) for his leadership and for what he did to organize that 
congressional delegation visit to Iraq. I enjoyed that and learned a 
great deal from that experience, along with the gentleman from Texas 
(Mr. Cuellar) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess).
  I think what we learned in Iraq is that clearly there are problems, 
and those problems remain; but considerable progress has been made. 
That progress to me was best exemplified by a man from Pennsylvania 
named Albert Chowansky, Jr.
  And Albert Chowansky Jr., to me, exemplifies the spirit and sense of 
purpose reflected by American civilians working and serving in Iraq. 
This man, Albert is a Frackville, Schuykill County native who left the 
coal regions in late 1970s, at the time a rather depressed area of the 
State to study engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
  And this well-traveled engineer is now managing the construction of 
the Taza power plant near Kirkuk in northern Iraq, and this is that 
power plant that I am referring to. We learned a great deal from that 
visit.
  But this natural gas-powered plant, which Albert calls MOAG, or the 
mother of all generators, and it really is, is tangible proof of the 
positive reconstruction efforts proceeding in Iraq.
  Visiting Iraq, the four of us, we saw efforts to rebuild a country, 
not just from a recent war, but from decades in which its people and 
its natural resources were raped and ravaged by an evil tyrant, Saddam 
Hussein.
  As part of this bipartisan four-Member congressional delegation that 
visited Kirkuk, Basra, Baghdad, and Kuwait, we witnessed this and just 
a handful of the thousands of other coalition construction projects 
over a few days.
  You know, many of us marveled at the accomplishments of the U.S. Army 
Corps of Engineers under whose auspices much of this massive 
construction and reconstruction continues, simultaneously fighting an 
insurgency, reconstructing a nation, and at that particular moment we 
were there, assisting in the development of a constitution, the 
drafting and development of a constitution, which is a daunting 
objective.
  Security is intense. Most of the time we wore body armor and helmets, 
and we were protected by heavily armed personnel virtually all of the 
time. Nevertheless, I left Iraq feeling optimistic and hopeful that the 
slow gradual pace to normal life in much of Iraq is progressing, not 
without setbacks and heart-breaking loss of life, but still with 
purpose and determination.
  You know, the transporting of this particular MOAG, the mother of all 
generators, is a story all by itself. Moving a nearly 500-ton piece of 
equipment 600 miles from Jordan across the dangerous Al-Anbar Province 
in western Iraq to Kirkuk by convoy is testament to the extraordinary 
logistical capabilities of the United States military.
  You know, after a few ineffective, but still very troublesome, mortar 
attacks that landed near this particular power plant, Albert Chowansky 
worked with regional ethnic and tribal leaders to form a local work 
force, equitably distributing jobs to Sunni Arabs, Shiia Arabs, 
Tukomeins, and Kurds.
  This project is nearly complete, and there have been no more mortar 
attacks. These are just some of the circumstances under which the 
reconstruction of Iraq's infrastructure is occurring. But there you 
have an example of just a guy using his good common sense and, 
realizing there were some attacks, went out and met with local tribal 
leaders, talked with them, distributed jobs and they all worked well 
together. And just good old-fashioned American innovation working 
locally to solve a very different, difficult and complex problem.
  You know, our delegation also spent time in the southern Iraqi 
province of Basra at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. 
We visited the nearby port of Umm Qasr and rode with the Iraqi Navy in 
speed boats through the harbor.
  The Iraqi Navy is actually more like a coast guard of about 800 
sailors trained by the British Royal Navy and tasked with harbor 
security and with the protection of the oil platforms in the Persian 
Gulf. This is just a little picture of a meeting with some of the 
officers of the Iraqi Navy, myself, and the members of the delegation.

  But we had a wonderful experience with the Iraqi Navy. And you could 
just get a sense of the professionalism, and of course they were well 
trained by the Royal Navy.
  Flying with the British Army in a Merlin helicopter, we viewed the 
marshlands near Basra. And the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) just 
referred to those marshlands. These marshes were originally twice the 
size of the Florida Everglades until Saddam Hussein drained them as 
retribution to the marsh Arabs who rose up against him after the 1991 
Persian Gulf war.
  Saddam Hussein displaced and killed tens of thousands of these 
people, at the very least, whose civilization had lived in this ancient 
homeland for 5,000 years.
  It may again be possible to grow crops there, although it is unknown 
if we can ever fully undo the environmental terrorism of the deposed 
Iraqi leader.
  Militarily, the Basra province is relatively quiet and is one of out 
of 14 of 18 provinces that have seen progress with comparatively less 
insurgent activity than in some years of Iraq.
  The Royal Marines regional commander, General Jim Dutton, was quite 
confident in the capability of the Iraqi Army. We spent a fair amount 
of time with him. And he had quite high praise for the Iraqi Army in 
the southern region under his command.
  Our delegation later then flew into Baghdad via U.S. Army helicopter, 
Black Hawk helicopters; and we flew a few hundred feet above the 
ground. We were escorted by Apache helicopters. We flew from Kirkuk at 
this point back down to Baghdad.
  The British, we flew in the Merlin helicopters down in the Basra 
area. But from our view, and just a few hundred feet above ground, we 
could see oil pipelines and bridges across the Tigris River under 
construction, along with vacant gun embankments. It seemed like bone 
dry ditches just about everywhere, irrigation channels that were drug 
out and bone dry.
  But there were a lot of ditches and a lot of scars on the Earth, 
vacant pools of oil exposed next to bodies of water. You know, in 
Baghdad, in Baghdad's Green Zone actually, our delegation met with 
General John Abizaid and General George Casey, respectively, the 
military commanders for Southwest Asia and Iraq.
  The generals presented, I feel, a very sober yet hopeful analysis of 
the insurgency situation. Actually, there is not one insurgency in 
Iraq, but three disparate groups: The disgruntled Baathists, the Sunni 
extremists, and they are the most dangerous, of course, because they 
include both domestic and foreign al Qaeda-affiliated insurgents, and 
the third group are the so-called Rejectionists, a hodge podge of 
people who for whatever reasons are unhappy or angry but are more 
likely to be integrated back into the mainstream of society.
  But regardless, that group of Sunni extremists is the most dangerous 
because they are al Qaeda affiliated, many of whom are coming from 
outside of Iraq. The generals told us that every month 3,000 insurgents 
are taken off the streets. That is what the generals told us. Every 
month 3,000 insurgents are taken off the streets, that is, they are 
captured or killed, mostly captured.
  General Casey said that 180,000 Iraqi security forces are trained and 
equipped, and that number will be more than 200,000 come January. Our 
congressional delegation also met with embassy officials for an 
overview of the political reforms and progress on the constitutional 
convention that was occurring just down the street.
  Of course, this was just prior to the constitutional convention being 
adopted by those who were participating.

[[Page H8240]]

Federalism, the role of women, women's rights, of course, role of 
Islam, and control of the country's premier resource, oil, are among 
the issues to be resolved.
  And I left feeling persuaded that all sides, Shiia, Sunni and Kurd, 
are dedicated to reaching an agreement. It was clear that they 
understood, even though the Kurds and Shiias represented a majority of 
the country, that they understood that they could not have a country 
without the Sunnis being included.
  And that is not an easy thing for them, given the maltreatment that 
many of them had received at the hands of largely Sunni rule or the 
Baathists for some time.
  You know, the American role in that constitutional process was not to 
impose a solution, but to facilitate discussion and present options. 
And in fact I just left the Capitol, the Cannon Building where I heard 
one of my constituents, Colonel Platte Moring give a presentation who 
helped there. He was in the Army National Guard. He made a presentation 
about his role in helping the Afghans develop a constitution about a 
year and a half earlier.
  And so there were some similarities there. Again, the American role 
was really to help facilitate discussion, present options, and help 
them when they got in trouble, not to impose solutions.
  I think that was very important. That was an experience here in Iraq 
and of course also in Afghanistan. That same day, we also had lunch 
with the American-Iraqi Chamber of Commerce, and we later met with 
three judges overseeing the special tribunal on war crimes who are the 
people who will try Saddam Hussein for crimes against his people.
  The judges impressed me very much with their knowledge, their wisdom, 
and dedication to the establishment of an independent, impartial 
judiciary. Probably one of the best aspects of that whole visit is 
meeting with these judges. You get a sense of their commitment to the 
rule of law and the importance that they have a transparent process and 
one that they can be proud to show to the world with respect to the 
trial that they will be conducting at some point in the not-to-distant 
future. I believe before the end of the year, we are likely to hear 
more about that.

                              {time}  2045

  We also spent some time in Kuwait. There we witnessed the up-armoring 
of the various American vehicles. We also witnessed the massive 
logistical support operation that dispatches convoys of 800 trucks per 
day carrying everything necessary to support an engaged military. More 
than 20 percent of the trucks carry water. Of those 800 trucks, over 20 
percent of them were carrying water. I met a gentleman from my 
hometown. Army Major Steve Miscenzski, an Easton native, was among the 
Pennsylvanians supporting this effort. We all dined with Steve and 
other Keystone State natives at Camp Arifjan. We also met some folks 
from Iowa and Texas. There are always Texans everywhere, a lot of 
Texans in the Middle East and everywhere we went. It was just great to 
see them all.
  Throughout the trip, we ate in these mess halls with soldiers and 
Marines whose morale was exceptionally high considering the 125-degree 
heat that we walked into in Kuwait while wearing full body armor and 
helmets. I think we all would agree, too, that the food was quite good 
and plentiful. Veterans of previous wars would be envious. We hear our 
uncles talk in World War II about the old K-rations. They would have 
been envious of the food, I think, that was being served.
  At every stop along the way, I was able to share some of the 
generosity of the people of the 15th Congressional District. I handed 
out phone calling cards as most of us did. I also handed out Gatorade 
mix packets to our troops from Pennsylvania and elsewhere, even some of 
our coalition partners from the UK and the Netherlands and Australia, 
for example. These items, by the way, were donated by the Dexter and 
Dorothy Baker Foundation and a drive led by Chapman resident Dottie 
Niklos of Blue-Star Mothers through the Lehigh Valley Military Affairs 
Council. These gifts were well received by our troops. We insisted that 
they call home and they seemed to do that on a regular basis.
  Leaving Kuwait, we flew home via Ramstein Air Force Base near 
Frankfurt, Germany. There we visited wounded troops in the Landstuhl 
military hospital. Many of the troops were wounded in Afghanistan as 
well as Iraq. At Ramstein, we briefly boarded an Air Force plane 
carrying wounded troops back to Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, 
D.C. On this plane, I had the honor and privilege to meet a young 
marine, Travis Gray, who was a fellow Allentown native. I do not know 
who was more excited by that, me or Travis, but I was just thrilled to 
meet this young man who was on his back in a stretcher in an Air Force 
plane. I am happy to report that Travis was in quite good spirits. I 
had called his mother shortly afterwards to give her a report on his 
condition. He seemed to be doing quite fine and he was improving. I 
think we had some pretty good news there for Travis and the whole Gray 
family.
  The harsh reality of war really struck me and I think it struck my 
colleagues as well as I stepped off that plane carrying Travis and his 
fellow comrades to make way for the final two passengers, two 
unconscious, critically wounded soldiers. Watching as these two 
soldiers were boarded was an emotional time, as 12 airmen methodically 
and gently lifted their stretchers and all the life-sustaining medical 
equipment onto the plane. It was quite a sight and quite emotional. 
That is where the harsh reality of war really strikes one, witnessing 
that particular procedure.
  I left Iraq feeling proud of the Americans serving there. The 
transition from Saddam's Iraq to a new country, establishing 
representative government consistent with the country's traditions, 
heritage and culture, has been painful, grueling and difficult. 
Nevertheless, our military's perseverance is inspirational, just as is 
the effort of our civilian personnel. In fact, one of those civilians I 
met there actually was a Capitol Hill staffer who I bumped into on a 
cold February night after being in Congress for about a month and a 
half. I met this young man. I was getting dinner and he was telling me 
he was about to head over, a civilian with DOD and who did I run into 
in Iraq, in Kirkuk, but this young man who was so proud of his service 
and will be home shortly. I have stayed in touch with him.
  The point is the dedication of our military and civilian personnel to 
their work and this mission is truly extraordinary. Many people ask me 
when American troops will leave Iraq. I cannot give a precise answer, 
but it is my belief there will be a military presence in Iraq and 
Afghanistan for the foreseeable future. The question is how many troops 
will be required and under what circumstances will those troops be 
there. I believe we will see an eventual drawdown of those troops.
  Like all Americans, I want our troops to come home safely. Like most 
thoughtful Americans, no matter how they viewed the circumstances 
leading up to the war or how it has been conducted, I understand that 
leaving Iraq prematurely without better stabilizing the country could 
yield catastrophic consequences.
  That said, as the political and military situation stabilizes and 
improves, the American presence in Iraq will diminish. For now, it is a 
matter of patience and will.
  The gentleman from Iowa again led our delegation and did a great job 
of it. I should note, too, that he was very gracious and on every 
occasion really did acknowledge the bravery not just of our personnel 
but also of the Iraqis who are serving there, many of whom are in the 
Iraqi navy, for example, and others in the security forces who really 
cannot tell many of their neighbors and friends what they do for a 
living. They cannot wear their uniforms to work. They serve at great 
risk to themselves and to their families but they believe that they 
have an obligation to make sure that country is stable and safe and 
free of the types of horrible violence that we have witnessed there far 
too often in recent days.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. I thank the gentleman from Pennyslvania for his 
presentation as well as his participation. It was an honor for me to 
have the privilege to go there with my colleagues and an honor 
certainly to look our soldiers in the eye and the nonuniformed

[[Page H8241]]

people that are over there, especially the Americans but all of our 
coalition people that are sacrificing and committing to make that 
region a better place.
  Before you step away from the podium, one thing I would like to 
comment upon and that is your second picture over there to the left 
that shows yourself and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar) meeting 
some of the Iraqi navy. As you said, it is an 800-man navy. We don't 
expect the Iraqis to have a Navy, but there is, and trained by the 
Royal Marines, as you said. What impressed me as we went down that 
line, they were all lined up in rank order. As I went down that path 
and shook each one of their hands, and maybe there were 20 to 25 of 
them altogether, every single one of them looked me in the eye and 
every single one of them had some word of English that they must have 
practiced all night long that they could greet me and thank us for 
being there. We truly have partners and they are part of the coalition. 
When we say coalition troops, we mean American troops, all the troops 
that are part of that, and we mean the Iraqis. That picture brings that 
memory back. It was, I think, an unusual and unique situation that had 
taken place over there with our delegation that probably had not been 
the case in any of the others that had traveled over there. I wanted to 
point that out while I had the opportunity and I appreciate the 
gentleman from Pennyslvania's presentation.

  Also, you made remarks with regard to the fact that we ran into 
people from our prospective States. We sat down in the mess hall and 
broke bread with Pennsylvanians and with Texans and with Iowans and 
with many of the States in the union. We walked into a room one 
evening, though, and everybody in that room was from Texas except you 
and me. So the next time I climbed aboard a C-130 that was full of 
soldiers, I walked back over there and I hollered out, is there anybody 
here not from Texas? About half of them gleefully raised their hands.
  You are well represented over there. I bring this up in a humorous 
way to recognize that. At this point I would like to recognize the 
gentleman from Laredo, Texas (Mr. Cuellar) who joined us on that trip.
  Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Iowa and the 
gentleman from Pennyslvania, also the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Burgess) who joined us, also. I also want to thank you for your 
leadership, taking us, this particular delegation, the delegation that 
you took us on took us to different parts of Iraq that other 
delegations had not gone to, especially the southern part of Iraq.
  I would like to talk about three things that are really what I would 
call snapshots of this particular trip that I think are important to 
share with us here today. The first one, of course, has to do with the 
reconstruction projects. Sometimes I believe the media does not give it 
enough time to focus on the reconstruction work, the schools, the 
clinics, the hospitals, the electrical plants, the water plants that 
are built, those types of projects that really have changed the daily 
lives of the Iraqi people. When you are talking about a child that for 
the first time sees a board that you can actually get some sort of 
stick and write on, the blackboard, it is something they have seen for 
the first time, you are changing the lives of those young Iraqi 
children that will really make a big difference. I think you would 
agree with me that as we are able to get them educated, as we are able 
to see them, able to teach them the principles of democracy, the 
principles of being able to associate, that we really are making some 
changes that will transform not only Iraq but the Middle East and that 
will have a ripple effect to the other countries. I think you would 
agree with me on that particular point.
  The other point that I would like to talk about is also the 
commitment of the Iraqi people. I think the gentleman from Pennyslvania 
did a great job when he talked about the Iraqi businesspeople, men and 
women. All they want to do is they want to be able to have a business, 
be able to secure a future for their children and for their families. 
They want to be able to send their children without having to worry 
about being blown up in some bomb going to school. They just want to 
make sure they have a normal life just like you and I and a lot of 
folks want to have. I think seeing that in those Iraqi businesspeople, 
both men and women, was something that was very enlightening.
  The other thing that the gentleman from Pennyslvania touched upon 
which I think is important is the commitment of the judiciary. Having 
an independent judiciary is extremely important. If you recall when we 
were talking to the judges and we talked to three different judges, 
what we call the investigating judge, the judge that will do the trial 
work and, of course, the appellate judge, that gave us a pretty good 
sense of the work, the very difficult work that they have to do. I 
remember one of the comments they said. They said, all we want is we 
don't want the Iraqi politicians to get involved in our job. We want to 
make sure we do our job in an independent manner. That is important, 
because think about this. Those judges are probably targeted. They are 
people that do not want them to do their job. They do not want them to 
try Saddam, the evil dictator. They want to make sure that they don't 
do their job. But what they wanted, these jurists, all they wanted to 
do was to be free from any influences and do their job. I think that 
has to be admired, especially under those very difficult circumstances.
  The last point that I want to mention is also the commitment of our 
soldiers. When you think about it, when we were at that hospital in 
Germany, we had soldiers that had been injured, soldiers that were 
hurting. When we asked them what they were thinking about, the first 
thing they wanted to say was, I want to get well so I can go back and 
take care of my buddies and be with my buddies and my friends. That is 
a commitment of the U.S. military, that even when they are down, they 
are ready to get back and go back in the field so they can finish their 
job and the mission because they believe in what they are doing there.
  The last point that I want to bring about is, I have been in 
different town hall meetings and people asking us when are our American 
soldiers coming back. As I told them, and I think we all realize this, 
we need to finish the mission. We need to make sure that that country 
is stabilized, because we took out a power structure that was not 
taking care of its people, and we cannot leave that vacuum there. We 
need to make sure that we put a structure there, a structure of 
government, a constitution, the rule of law, the principles of a 
constitution so the people can follow the rule and the laws there. Once 
we establish that law there, then I think we can start bringing our 
soldiers home. I think the constitution and especially that election or 
that vote on October 15 is going to be extremely important. The 
elections on December 15 when they elect their representatives, that 
will be extremely important. But also the building up of the Iraqi 
military is important.
  I remember when I started back here with the gentleman from 
Pennyslvania back in January, we asked the question of the Department 
of Defense, how many soldiers do we have, Iraqi soldiers? At that time 
I recall it was about 120,000. We were informed last month that they 
had about 180,000. Sometime by the end of the year they should have 
over 200,000 soldiers, Iraqi soldiers. As one of the generals told us, 
when one Iraqi soldier stands up, one American soldier can go ahead and 
sit down.

                              {time}  2100

  It means that the faster we can build the Iraqi military security 
forces then the faster they can start taking care of their homeland, 
and that is extremely important.
  So I certainly want to thank the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) very, 
very much for the opportunity that he provided the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) to 
go down there to see, first of all, the morale of our soldiers, to see 
the commitment of the Iraqi business people, the jurists, the people 
that want to have normal lives so they can have a future there. 
Certainly I want to thank him for giving me an opportunity to see the 
reconstruction projects, the schools, the clinics, the hospitals, the 
water plants, the electrical plants, to make sure that

[[Page H8242]]

they can have the basic utilities that sometimes we take for granted.
  I want to thank the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) for the 
opportunity and certainly the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent), 
one of my freshmen colleagues, for having an opportunity where we are 
able to ask the questions and share our thoughts and ideas in a 
bipartisan way. Because, again, we want to do the best thing for our 
country, and we certainly want to do the best thing for the Iraqi 
country over there, also.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from Texas 
(Mr. Cuellar) willingness to join us in that travel across to that 
other side of the world, along with the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Dent) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) and those kind of 
trips build bonds that will help us reach across the aisle and work in 
a bipartisan fashion beyond this subject matter and into many others, I 
hope. That is one of the residual benefits of those long and grueling 
days over there. It did get a little warm I understood, 128-degrees, I 
know we saw that, and looking back on the pictures, did it get a little 
warmer than that?
  Mr. CUELLAR. If the gentleman does not mind me interrupting for a 
second, I am from Laredo, Texas. It is one of the hottest places in the 
country, 104, 105, 107 degrees, but I have to say that being there at a 
place where it was 125 degrees, and I think that was a cool day 
compared to some of the days, that has to tell us that our soldiers 
have to go through very difficult times, but at the same time, the 
morale was good. They were doing their job, and they believed in what 
they were doing.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I have seen over there on different 
occasions when the temperature cooled off down to 106, I have seen the 
Marines go out at three o'clock in the afternoon and play basketball in 
106 temperature because it has cooled off.
  I got an e-mail from a lieutenant colonel that we met over there at 
Camp Arifjan, Lieutenant Colonel Gary Ace, and he happens to be an 
individual that helped set up a trip a year ago last 4th of July for my 
staff and their families to take a bus and go up to Gettysburg for the 
4th of July with the Army historian, to travel throughout all 
Gettysburg and review that on the historical day with the Army 
historian.
  Lieutenant Colonel Gary Ace, who was deployed to the Middle East and 
met us there at Camp Arifjan at really our first stop, it was quite 
ironic. He sent me an e-mail a couple of days ago that said it has 
cooled off down to about 110 or 112, and it seems ironic to say so, but 
it is a relief from the heat.
  I would just like to go through a number of the things that I 
reflected upon as I listened to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Dent) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar) speak on this issue 
and refer back to a colloquy, if I might.
  You brought a number of things to mind that I would like to embellish 
a little bit. One of them has to do with the heat and the water, and 
the gentleman from Pennsylvania's (Mr. Dent) remarks in particular, 
when he said bone-dry ditches. Certainly they are there and the 
fighting positions that have been dug for the tanks and armor, we see 
that from the air, especially in the north around the Kirkuk region, 
where we were.
  Yet, in the south, there are irrigation ditches down there that have 
been hand dug and have been maintained for centuries. The water stands 
near the top of the ditch because it is the water that comes down the 
Tigress and Euphrates and it fans out in that delta. It is not sand. It 
is soil. It should be productive soil, and I looked at that from the 
air I do not know how many times. We finally got down on the ground and 
got a chance to look, and I could never understand why you could not 
see anything growing next to those ditches full of water, in the 
summertime, from the air, nothing green to be seen from the air.
  That is because nothing grows there in those particular regions. So 
my old farm boys unlocked the key to that inadvertently when they stuck 
a thermometer in the soil. We plant corn in the spring in Iowa after 
the frost goes out and soil temperature gets up to 54 degrees. The soil 
temperature there, about that far down in the soil, was 154 degrees, 
and I am sure the broccoli I had a couple of days ago had not reached 
that temperature when they served it to me in the restaurant.
  So that is some sense of what kind of heat there is, that relentless 
sun, and how that builds up in the soil. It would sterilize most sees. 
So they have to have a different kind of agriculture than I am used to, 
but maybe in Laredo, they could figure that out.
  The American-Iraqi Chamber of Commerce, and the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent) referenced that and I think both of my 
colleagues did. It was an interesting surprise to me. It never occurred 
to me that there was a chamber of commerce in Iraq, and yet to find out 
that the Americans that were there teamed up with the Iraqis that are 
there, and they are seeking to build a free enterprise, retail 
organization that can help develop the kind of commerce that they need 
to grow that city and grow every city in that country.
  To walk in there and have them ask, well, we would like to have you 
give a speech to the Baghdad Chamber of Commerce, now there is an 
ironic twist of fate in this life that this fellow from the cornfield 
never anticipated.
  I looked around, and went, well, where is my interpreter; I guess I 
will be willing to do that. They said you do not need an interpreter, 
sir; they speak English here in Baghdad. So they set the microphone up 
and gave an introduction, and we all came and sat at the table, and my 
colleagues actually mixed around with them at their tables and gathered 
together afterwards. I gave a little speech there in English.
  I could tell they understood me. They responded, smiled and laughed 
and clapped and frowned all at the right times. It occurred to me that 
if they could pull that off in Baghdad, we can pull that off in the 
United States of America, that English speech to the Chamber of 
Commerce in many of our major cities, but just a little bit of life's 
irony there.
  They were open, they were welcome and curious. When that was over, 
all of us had a cluster of Iraqi Chamber of Commerce members around us 
with their business cards. They want to do business and trade cards and 
do commerce, and they are eager. In fact, we were in the Al Rasheed 
hotel. That was in the green zone, but that is the hotel that Deputy 
Security Wolfowitz was in when it was rocketed a year or more or so 
ago. That is one of those little ironies.
  The other one that the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar) mentioned, 
the odd request, and I was very curious about the judicial branch of 
the Iraqi government. I had, I will say, a friend and colleague from 
Iowa, the U.S. Attorney, Charles Larson, Senior, who served over there 
for more than a year, and I believe it was 15 to 16 months, trying to 
get the Iraqi judicial branch up to speed and trying to teach them what 
we know from our rule of law in the United States. He served over there 
intently and in a very dedicated way, along with his son, Major Chuck 
Larson, Junior, who served as a Army Reservist in the same area.
  I have seen pictures of them together, and Chuck Larson, Senior, the 
U.S. Attorney, brought me back, an Iraqi flag, that flew over Baghdad 
the day of their first election they had when we saw those fingers 
dipped in purple. These gentlemen convinced me that we should take a 
look at the judicial branch of government in Iraq. That is what 
precipitated the request.
  We wanted to go over to the courtroom. I wanted to sit in the 
courtroom where Saddam would be tried for his crimes. I sat in two of 
his thrones, and that was kind of good, kind of fitting, but I really 
wanted to go sit in the chair where he was going to be, really sit in 
the witness chair where people would testify against him. Because of 
security reasons we could not go out of the zone, across the street and 
into that building. So they brought the three judges to us.
  We sat down and talked with them, and these people, they risk their 
lives. They are dedicated to the rule of law. They want the politicians 
out of that decision-making process. They do not want them leveraging 
the rule of law decision.
  I am going to shift into my interpretation of what I heard that day, 
and I am not going to represent it as being a verbatim transcript of 
what came out of their mouths but how I sort it

[[Page H8243]]

through because we're working through interpreters, but it works like. 
I was curious. I wanted to know was Saddam Hussein up for the death 
penalty. Could they sustain the death penalty? Was there law in Iraq in 
the face of the changing situation of the Constitution and the 
ratification that is pending for October 15, when he is queued up to go 
on trial October 19.
  I asked the question directly: Will Saddam face the death penalty? 
The answer was, well, Mr. Congressman, we could not be commenting on a 
case that could come before this court. It sounded like an American 
judge, and it was the right answer.
  Then I had to ask this long, convoluted, hypothetical question, and 
when I got all the way around the Horn, it might have been a double 
figure eight before I got back with my hypothetical, and then the 
answer was, if someone who might not be related to this case, that 
could have committed a crime similar to the one you have described that 
was similar to the one we may think Saddam has committed, could be up 
against a charge that would start the way they do in the United States 
with death first and then life in prison and then the penalty goes on 
down from there.
  One of the other judges was eagerly shaking his pencil. He wanted the 
floor, and as I understood this and interpreted this, it was the 
paragraph that applied in that case to the crimes that I had described 
only provided for one penalty and that was the ultimate penalty. At 
that point, I volunteered if they could not find someone in Iraq to 
carry that out, I would be willing to do so provided he had been faced 
with the rule of law and had a just trial.
  So I look forward eagerly for that trial to ensue, but it was an 
interesting and a unique experience to have that. It presented us also 
with a very neat, octagonal box of dates, that high class, and that is 
one of the things that Iraq does export. They export some oil, and they 
export quite a lot of dates, and those are about the only two products 
that leave that country to bring cash flow back in.

  The areas around Basra have a tremendous amount of oil reserves yet, 
and the wells, the pipelines, the distribution system, the refineries 
are not in the most modern of conditions. They need capital investment 
from outside, and it needs to be upgraded into the modern and efficient 
world. That is a factor of the depreciation that comes from the years 
of neglect, in addition to some of the sabotage that has taken place, 
but the years of neglect would debilitate that system anyway. All that 
oil that they have is not coming to market as quickly as it should, Mr. 
Speaker.
  Then we went up to the Kirkuk area, and I think we pointed this out 
in the helicopter, but we did not have very good audio there. There 
were areas where there was pooled oil that was not oil spilled. It was 
oil that had seeped to the top of the ground. There was that much 
concentration up there.
  I am told that the oil reserves down south by Basra are larger and 
greater than those up by Kirkuk, but there is where I saw the oil that 
had seeped to the top of the ground. There is where I saw the most 
need, I think, for new drilling, new pipelines, new distribution 
systems, new refineries, and up there is where they had nine pipelines 
that crossed the Tigress River on a bridge.
  During the operations in March of 2003, our air force went in and 
appropriately cut off that transportation route by blowing the bridge. 
When they did, nine pipelines, of course, were severed at the same 
time. They have all been reconnected, except for a 40-inch line that 
each time that they tried to lay that across the river, it would get 
sabotaged.
  So they awarded a contract to lay it under the river, a 40-inch 
pipeline, 40 inches in diameter, so 3 feet and 4 inches in diameter. 
They have been trying to bore underneath there. Now, they are going to 
put it underneath in an open cut. I guess that is the kind of thing 
that I am interested in in my business, but to lay that pipeline 25 
feet under the bed of the Tigress River, a 40-inch line, so that if the 
insurgents, or enemy, seeks to come along and detonate that, I suspect 
they will not have the ability to get down there 25 feet below the 
bottom of the Tigress River to blow up that 40-inch line. When it is 
running, it will help the cash flow of Iraq.
  Speaking of that cash flow, the things that are missing, one thing 
that is missing from this discussion tonight. We have not talked about 
tactics, military security. We have referenced the bravery of our 
troops, the dedication, the sacrifice of our troops but not the tactics 
because, and I will just say this, is that as we looked at the 
condition of security in the country, as we listen to our military, our 
officers and our regular soldiers that come from our regions, that look 
us in the eye and speak with our accent and we know they tell us the 
truth, were not concerned about whether we could hang on to that 
country from a military tactical standpoint. It was never raised as an 
issue. They are doing their job, and they know they are doing the best 
they can with the security, and they feel in control of the situation.
  It also was the case with the generals that briefed us, including 
General Dutton of the British, who said I can think of no alternative 
but optimism, and what would you do if you were not optimistic, if you 
did not think there was a positive solution, then what would your 
alternative be? Of course, there is no rational answer to that. He is 
right in kind of a clear, succinct, British way.
  General Casey and General Abizaid briefed us. He said the enemy 
cannot win, if the politicians stay in the fight, and we had a 
discussion on the way back. The question was, did he mean American 
politicians or did he mean Iraqi politicians. We were kind of split 
down the line on that. It was a really good, healthy discussion, and I 
have just come to the point that I do not want to resolve that 
question. I want that to stand out there that he meant both. The Iraqi 
politicians and the American politicians must stay in the fight.
  If we do that, if we send a consistent, solid message that we stick 
with this till the end, that America stands with the Iraqis until the 
Iraqis stand on their own, and by the way, they also advised us that a 
base would be turned over to the Iraqis for their control, and that has 
happened, and it has happened more than once since we have been back. I 
saw the clip a couple of days ago. Several bases now are Iraqi-run 
bases that we have.
  Americans are stepping back. Iraqis are stepping forward. When it was 
America leading operations, the combat operations, it was Americans 
with Iraqis trying to lead them into combat in the early stages.

                              {time}  2115

  Now it is the Iraqis leading with American support, and sometimes it 
is Iraqis only. And you will see they have not cracked. They have not 
run. They have held together.
  Far different than that first operation of sending Iraqis in April of 
2004 into Fallujah. Those Iraqis were undertrained and underequipped, 
and we sent those Iraqis in there with berets and pistols on their 
belts and no radios and no armor, to fight alongside Marines that were 
trained and equipped and had communications. We should not have been 
surprised if they did not stand and fight. They were not ready. But 
they are getting ready.
  It is not easy to establish a military tradition. I believe, though, 
that that security is coming. And when General Casey says that the 
enemy cannot win if the politicians stay in the fight, that means he 
has confidence in the security situation and the military situation 
that is there. I do too. I believe that in the history of this country, 
and probably in the history of the world, there has never been a nation 
go to war with a higher class of people that are in uniform on the 
ground in Iraq and in Afghanistan today.
  And I say that for a number of reasons. One of them is that it is an 
all-volunteer military force. I do not know if we have ever done that 
before to this scale and for this duration to this scale. And we also 
have so many National Guard and so many reservists that add to our 
Active-Duty personnel that are extraordinarily professional. And these 
Guard and reservists have other professions that they bring in that add 
to the level of technical abilities, training and professionalism in a 
technical age, when if it goes beyond picking up an M-16 and putting on 
a

[[Page H8244]]

pair of boots, these guys are professionals in a lot of ways and are 
specialists in a lot of ways. And I think it is the best quality that 
has ever gone to the war. And every time I look them in the eye, they 
convince me of that. And certainly they did over there.
  Mr. Speaker, I have a lot more to say about this, and I will probably 
take a shot at it, but I want to take a moment to bounce this back over 
to my colleagues, who certainly have their minds on what we are talking 
about here, and surely there is a gap or two that my colleague from 
Pennsylvania may want to fill, and so I yield to him.
  Mr. DENT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for this colloquy, and 
he made a point that I think needs to be repeated. General Casey 
pointed this out to us. We were in Iraq in August, and of course there 
was a lot of press attention about the situation in Iraq, and much of 
it very negative press. But General Casey said to us, have you read any 
stories or heard any stories about Iraqi soldiers leaving their 
positions? Have you seen any stories like that lately? We said, well, 
no, we have not. He said, well, the reason that is the case is because 
that does not happen anymore.
  My colleague pointed that out, that the Iraqi Army is much better 
trained and equipped than they had been earlier. So sometimes what we 
do not hear is very important; that the Iraqi Army is standing in, 
standing much stronger and is much better trained and equipped at doing 
the job that we expect them to do in many cases. They are not where 
they need to be just yet, but they are making great progress, and that 
is a story that has not been told very well, and I am glad the 
gentleman has raised that tonight.
  Another thing the gentleman mentioned, too, about Iraq that again has 
not been discussed very much out in the public, is one of the people 
who joined us on that trip was a gentleman from the Army, an Assistant 
Secretary of the Army named Dean Popps, who was part of the CPA, the 
Coalition Provisional Authority, at one point. We had a discussion. We 
all know how Congressmen are. We can get very unfocused. We get into 
our business and we can get a little scattered. But there we were in 
Iraq and just focusing on the situation in Iraq. And I remember what 
Mr. Popps said; that when he was with the CPA, he said he looked at 52 
state-run businesses, government-run businesses in Iraq, and many of 
these companies he said were dual-use companies. That is, in the front 
of, say, a fertilizer factory; yes, they were making fertilizer, but in 
the back it was chemicals. Or in the front of a sheet metal shop; yes, 
they were doing sheet metal in the front, but it was rockets or rocket 
launchers in the back. He even mentioned that anthrax grinders were 
found over there. He made a lot of comments to us that sometimes you 
just have not read a lot about that.
  I thought that was a very interesting part of our experience, talking 
to people like the Assistant Secretary of the Army, who had been there 
for some time and actually been on the ground meeting with the people 
who ran those state-run businesses, to give us a bird's-eye view of 
what is really happening there.
  Something else my colleague mentioned that is worth repeating. In 
Iraq, of course, we all know that they have these tremendous oil 
reserves, but their refinery capacity is really quite limited. So they 
produce the crude oil in Iraq, they send it out of the country, have it 
refined, bring it back into Iraq, and then they sell it at 13 cents a 
gallon. Of course, they are losing money selling gasoline. Again, 
coming out of this Saddam legacy of really a closed economy, it has 
created tremendous problems for the people of Iraq.
  Electricity. Another thing we learned about. Electricity is not paid 
for by people. So, of course, if you do not pay for a particular 
commodity, you will tend to utilize more of it. So, of course, they 
have all kinds of problems with electricity. Lights do not go on, and 
there were many, many problems there.
  We also learned, too, about the damage that Saddam Hussein had 
wreaked upon his people. Much of it was psychological damage. I think 
that is one thing our troops and the British learned, that it is 
difficult for many of the Iraqis to make decisions because their 
experience had always been that they had to get approval from Baghdad, 
from the central government. So decisionmaking was not something they 
were used to, and that is part of this transition from where we are 
today in this situation in Iraq.
  We went through a liberation phase, an occupation phase, and we are 
now in the third phase. And this is a planned phase of our time in 
Iraq, is this partnership stage. We are in there now, but as we move 
and transition to a self-reliant stage, part of that transition really 
requires helping the Iraqis develop the ability to make decisions once 
again.
  We saw the same thing in the old Eastern Bloc, after the Soviet Union 
collapsed and the Communist nations became free. Many Western people 
would go in and say the people had a hard time making decisions. They 
were never able to do that. And that is kind of what we see in Iraq. 
And part of our job is to help them, help them make this transition and 
help them to understand their options and to make decisions.
  One other thing worth noting, too, that I find very interesting is 
that as we met with that Iraqi American Chamber of Commerce, I really 
enjoyed those conversations. When we were there, too, this whole notion 
of federalism was a very big issue to the Iraqis, and they were 
obviously quite concerned about the issue. They were sweating the 
issue. What do we do about federalism? And as Americans, you almost 
have to chuckle a little bit and say, you know, we had a little trouble 
with federalism ourselves. We set up these Articles of Confederation 
after the American Revolution. Things did not work out well with the 
Articles, and we developed the Constitution, which is a great 
Constitution, a great document, but not a perfect one. We made 
mistakes. And ultimately the issue of federalism was settled in our 
country by a Civil War in the 1860s. And to this day we are constantly 
having debates in this great Chamber about what is the role of the 
Federal versus the State Government. And my advice to some of the 
Iraqis there was do not feel as if you are going to get this question 
of federalism right on the draft. You are going to have to do the best 
you can.

  And I think that is what they did in the document that they adopted. 
And coming from the State of Pennsylvania, I feel like I have some 
ability to talk to Iraqis on that issue, given that Philadelphia is the 
birthplace of American democracy, and of course Pennsylvania is the 
State where oil was first discovered, in western Pennsylvania. Not 
Texas, I say to my colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar).
  But nevertheless, I was most impressed again by the trip and that 
experience, and it is something I will remember for the rest of my 
life. And having said all that, I yield back to the gentleman from 
Iowa.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his comments. 
And in the short time we have left, Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar).
  Mr. CUELLAR. Just one minute more, and I thank my colleague for 
yielding to me, Mr. Speaker, and then I will let him close after this. 
Thanks to my colleague from Iowa and also to the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent).
  And my colleague was right, the Assistant Secretary of the Army, Dean 
Popps, we all had different conversations; and if you will recall, one 
of the conversations that we had was how do we get the free enterprise 
system to work? How do we get foreign investment to come in? It is hard 
to attract foreign investment to Iraq if they do not have a 
constitution or the basic laws, if they do not have some of the basic 
things we take for granted. In other words, who is the owner of the 
property? Where is the title to the property? How do you borrow money 
if you do not have collateral to go in?
  So there is a lot of work that needs to be done. But I have a lot of 
faith in the Iraqi people, and especially having had that opportunity 
to talk to some of the business people and some of the folks there. It 
gave me the optimism and the faith that we are doing the right thing. 
And I think once we finish this mission, then we need to do everything 
to bring our soldiers back safely to the United States, the men and

[[Page H8245]]

women from all across the United States.
  And, of course, I have to say that Texas had a large delegation there 
from San Antonio, Laredo, a couple of the places, New Braunfels. But 
again I do want to say thank you to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) 
for this opportunity, and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent), 
and of course our doctor, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess), who 
also went with us.
  This is something that allows us to make better decisions here in 
Washington, being able to go and see what is happening in Iraq 
firsthand. So I thank my colleagues.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues. I appreciate 
their willingness to do this travel, along with my other colleague, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess). I said when we got off that plane 
that I would go make that trip all over again with you, and I mean that 
sincerely. It is not always the case.
  There are a couple of things that need to be fixed over there, and 
one of them is the constitution. Get it ratified, have the legitimate 
election, get the sovereignty established with legitimacy in Iraq so 
that they can sign contracts, and get that oil developed with foreign 
capital so that that capital can grow and flow and they can do business 
across the world. When that happens, the enemy will have to give up and 
recognize that they have lost.
  While that is going on, the Iraqis are taking care of their own 
security. There is light at the end of this tunnel. There is a bright 
spot. And the least concern we have is whether our military is doing 
their job. They are doing their job. And now free enterprise needs to 
take hold to lift that burden off our military.
  So I appreciate my colleagues' involvement here, and my hat's off to 
the United States military and their efforts over there and all around 
the world.

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