[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 42 (Wednesday, April 5, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H1542]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  A NEW BEGINNING FOR THE IRAQI PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Westmoreland). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays) is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I want to salute tonight the brave men and 
women who are fighting in Iraq to bring democracy to the Middle East 
and hopefully help turn around nations, particularly Arab nations, that 
the U.N. has said when you add up the gross domestic product of all 22 
Arab nations, their gross domestic product is smaller than Italy's. 
This is a U.N. report that pointed out that in the last 10 years these 
Arab nations collectively have had declining productivity and that they 
have not brought forward any inventions or innovations to contribute to 
world prosperity.
  We are in Iraq to help the Iraqi people have a new beginning and 
hopefully change the face of the Middle East.
  I have been to Iraq 11 times, and I have had good visits and I have 
had bad visits. I have had visits where I have had tremendous hope and 
then the recognition that we have made some mistakes. In April, 2003, 
there was tremendous hope. But then we proceeded, unfortunately, to 
disband their army, their police, and their border patrol, and that 
resulted in the requirement of American troops and British troops and 
very few coalition forces to defend 24 million people in a country the 
size of California.
  So what I saw when I went back after April, 2003, when I went in 
August and then in December and then early in the spring of the next 
year, things were getting worse. But I began to see it turn around in 
June of 2004 as we transferred power to the Iraqis. A significant 
decision. It took it away from Defense and gave it to State Department, 
and State Department had a better sense of how to help this government, 
not how to fight the war.
  The war is still being fought by our own troops. But as well, we 
started to train their police, their border patrol, and their army, and 
they have become very confident.
  And what I then saw in 2005 were three elections in Iraq. I was there 
for the first one. I remember asking if I could stick my finger in that 
ink jar, and this Kuwaiti woman looked up at me and she said, No. She 
said, You are not an Iraqi.
  That gave me a chill because she did not say I was not a Kurd. She 
was a Kurd. She said I was not an Iraqi.
  And then what I saw was another election. I was there a week before, 
after now creating a government that was elected, creating a 
constitution and ratifying this constitution. This constitution was 
ratified with 79 percent favoring it, and then they proceeded to elect 
a government at the end of last year.
  I can tell you why I know it was a success. The press did not talk 
about it. Seventy-six percent voted of 100 percent. In other words, of 
all adults, not the two-thirds that bothered to register, not 76 
percent of two-thirds; 76 percent of all adults.
  And now we have seen a very dicey moment. The Sunni insurgents are 
playing their trump card. Not their last straw, not their final gasp. 
They are playing their trump card, and they may succeed if the Shiias 
give in to sectarian violence. And we are trying to make them 
understand that they are the majority and they can run this country. Do 
not allow the Sunni insurgents to get them to do what would be the 
stupidist thing, to give in to the violence, to give in to a civil war, 
and then fail.
  We are going to leave Iraq when the Iraqis ask us to leave or if they 
give up. If they give up to the sectarian violence, we will move our 
troops away from harm's way and we will take them out. But they are so 
close and they have done so much. I have met such brave Iraqi men and 
women.
  Quickly, one Iraqi man, Al-Alusi, after the election he lost his two 
sons. His security had been taken away because he had gone to Israel, 
and he came to visit me later in 2005, and I said, You cannot go back. 
You are a marked man. You are a dead man walking.
  He looked at me with some surprise and said, I have to go back. My 
country needs me.
  Which is to introduce one point I would love to make: When I ask 
Iraqis what their biggest fear is, it is not the bombing. Their biggest 
fear is that you will leave us, that you will give us a taste of 
democracy and then you will leave us.
  Let me just conclude by saying this: That very man who went back to 
Iraq is now an elected member of the assembly. He is a very brave man, 
and he is typical of the Iraqis who are grasping very hard to have a 
democracy and to have a better future.

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