[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 161 (Thursday, December 15, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H11872]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                              A FREE IRAQ

  Mr. KING of Iowa. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take my 
Special Order at this time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Iowa?
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to be 
recognized on the floor of this United States Congress and the 
opportunity to address the Members.
  As I sit here and listen to this discussion that has gone on tonight, 
I would kind of like to unravel some of this from the top down and 
little bit. And, again, the lamentations come down about all the things 
that are going wrong in the world and particularly a list of things 
that are allegedly going wrong in Iraq.
  My colleagues might notice that my finger is purple today. And it is 
purple in celebration and in solidarity with the freedom of the Iraqi 
people. The people have gone to the polls three times in this calendar 
year, and each time they said it could not be done, and each time they 
did an even better job. The January 30 election that elected the 
interim government that has now put together the constitution; the 
October 15 election that ratified the constitution; and then today's 
election that concluded today, December 15 by their calendar, that has 
now elected a new general assembly that will select from them a prime 
minister. And he will be seated in March, and they will be the most 
sovereign, the most representative Arab country in the world. Imagine 
that, Madam Speaker, sitting at the United Nations with Iraq having the 
most integrity because they represent the real people in their 
government.
  The argument came from the gentlewoman that there were no weapons of 
mass destruction and that was allegedly the only reason that we went 
there. When did this country give up on liberation, Madam Speaker? Did 
we give up on this when we went to the Philippines after the USS Maine 
was sunk in Havana Harbor? We had the Spanish-American War that took 
place, and the USS Maine is still at the bottom of the harbor in 
Havana. But the Filipino people were liberated by the United States 
Marine Corps, and today, the Filipinos are grateful that the Americans 
came and liberated them, and we carried over there our way of life, our 
free enterprise system, our property rights concept, an educational 
system, an English language. And today, they are a prosperous people 
because they were liberated by Americans in 1898.
  And look at the liberation that took place in the Civil War, Madam 
Speaker. There the war was about States' rights. It was about saving 
the Union. Abraham Lincoln's efforts were focused on saving the Union. 
And then, later on in the war, he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. 
No one thought too much of it at the time. Now we remember that as the 
war to free the slaves.
  So sometimes we have to have a list of reasons why we have to go to 
war, Madam Speaker. And this is a war that has freed 25 million Iraqi 
people, 25 million Afghanis, has established the lodestars for the Arab 
world to follow this democracy that is going to be now a prosperous 
Iraq, and that can bring freedom to the entire Arab world, which brings 
peace to most of the world as we know it and eliminates the habitat for 
terrorists throughout the world.
  This is a very, very noble thing that this country has done. It is a 
very, very noble sacrifice on the part of the 2,100 and more Americans 
who have sacrificed their lives for the freedom of the Iraqi people, 
for the safety of the American people.
  It is not a terrorist center there unless you want to say a grave 
center for terrorists. They are taking 3,000 terrorists off the street 
every month between killed and captured. That is far more than the 
casualties that we are taking. Saddam Hussein was killing his own 
people at the rate of 182 per day, Madam Speaker. That adds up to over 
100,000 Iraqis that are alive today that would not be if Saddam Hussein 
were still running his torture chambers, still running his plastic 
shredder machine, and with weapons of mass destruction, real gas 
weapons of mass destruction, killing his own people. This adds up to a 
humanitarian effort that is not unsurpassed in the world but 
unsurpassed by other countries aside from the United States of America.
  The argument that we are using dollars to purchase propaganda in the 
Iraqi newspapers. Good night. How far do you to go to make an argument 
against the American people? Maybe we ought to spend these tax dollars 
to try to get the real news printed in the New York Times or the 
Washington Post, Madam Speaker. If that is what it takes, that is what 
we ought to do because part of this war is to defend our troops and our 
military. And I am tired of listening on this floor, and I did not hear 
it happen tonight, of people that say, ``I support our troops but I 
oppose the war.'' That means they oppose their mission, and they are 
asking soldiers to put their lives on the line for a mission that they 
do not believe in.

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