[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 107 (Tuesday, September 5, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8916-S8918]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               THIRD WAY

  Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, it is good to see you, and it is good to 
be back in the Senate with you and our colleagues. With tongue in 
cheek, people ask me what I like about the Senate. I draw an analogy 
about when I was in elementary school. What I liked most about 
elementary school was recess. Now that I serve in the Senate, I am 
still quite fond of recesses. It is a great time to go back home--
whether it is Texas, Delaware, or anywhere--and reconnect with the 
folks we serve and with our families.
  I just had an opportunity to talk to the Presiding Officer about what 
he did. It is good to be back and to recharge the batteries and to 
focus. Now that we are back, I look forward to doing that with you, Mr. 
President.
  Twelve years ago this summer, six Democratic centrist Senators pulled 
together to provide support for the founding and launching of something 
called Third Way. Third Way is a think tank which seeks to find a third 
way to

[[Page S8917]]

deal with some of the issues and some of the challenges that face us 
today--not necessarily a Democratic or Republican approach but a 
different approach. Thinking outside of the box, every month or so 
Third Way presents smart people who come to work there with their ideas 
and their thoughts on what we might do or should be doing differently 
to move our country forward.
  Just a few months ago, in one of the rooms outside of the Senate 
floor, a number of our colleagues, joined by General Wesley Clark, 
Congressman Steny Hoyer, the Democratic whip from the House, and a 
woman named Sharon Burke from Third Way, joined together to talk about 
the path and the course our country is on and whether it is time for us 
to continue the course or stay the course or whether it is the right 
time, in some ways at least, to change course.
  Third Way has done great work, working particularly with the 
situation in Afghanistan and Iraq, and offered some of their thoughts 
to us which are actually found in this document. It is not all that 
long. It is a very well documented and very sobering assessment. Given 
the source of their comments, I think it bears special attention. The 
world changed on September 11. I know that, and I think we all know 
that. In addition, the world has changed a whole lot since September 
11.
  This report from Third Way shows in ways which I think are sobering 
and compelling that some of those changes have not been for the better.
  I think if you ask most people in the Senate, both Republicans and 
Democrats, what they think about me, among other things they might say, 
I think a number of them would say they have found me to be someone who 
goes out of his way to try to bring people together, to try to find 
common ground, to try to come up with a better solution to the 
challenges that we face day in and day out in this country and in the 
Senate.
  I wish I could honestly say the same thing today about our President, 
but I am sorry to say that I cannot. I wish that instead of trying to 
politicize the war on terror and the situation in Iraq, or to insinuate 
that Democrats don't have the strength to stand up to our enemy, that 
he would sit down with us and talk about how we might move forward in 
Iraq and around the world.
  I am reminded of the 8 years when I was Governor of Delaware. Every 
week that the Delaware Legislature was in session I would host, as my 
predecessor, Governor Mike Castle, and my successor, Governor Ruth Ann 
Minner have hosted every Tuesday, a bipartisan lunch for the leaders of 
the house and senate. We would meet in the Governor's house, which was 
close to the capitol, where we may have lunch together and talk for an 
hour or so, and then we would go to work for the legislative day. 
Sometimes we would talk about our families, sports, or the weather. A 
lot of times we talked about the issues that were before us.
  One of the questions I would often ask of Democratic and Republican 
leaders in the house and senate who were gathered there in the 
Governor's house that particular day was whether they had criticism of 
a policy or an issue that we would propose. I would ask them: What do 
you think we should do? What do you like about what we are proposing 
and where do you think we could improve on our policies?
  And with respect to some of the policies of this administration--the 
President's policies--in too many instances they haven't worked. At 
least with respect to what is going on in Iraq today, they have not 
made us any safer.
  As one who served 23 years on active duty with the Reserve as a Naval 
flight officer, I served in a hot war in Vietnam and a Cold War for 
many years after that. I love our troops. I love the folks in the Army, 
Navy, Air Force, and Marines, people in the Guard and Reserve who serve 
with great distinction and honor. Anything I said or, frankly, we said 
as a group a few minutes ago when we released this report should be 
viewed as expressing our support and our thanks and gratitude for those 
serving us in harm's way together.

  Back in 2003, it was estimated there were roughly over 5,000 
insurgents in Iraq. That was 3 years ago. Now we believe there are more 
than 20,000 insurgents in Iraq. In Afghanistan, the number of Taliban 
attacks has skyrocketed in the past 3 years.
  We learned this week that opium production is up almost 60 percent 
from last year. Listen to this: Afghanistan is now producing a third 
more opium than the world's heroin addicts are crying out for. They are 
producing more heroin in Afghanistan than this country and the rest of 
the world can consume. Who is profiting from this drug trade? The 
Taliban and the Afghan insurgency who are trying to destabilize the 
government we put in place.
  Meanwhile, Iran and North Korea, emboldened by our distractions in 
Iraq and the lack of effective diplomacy by the United States, are now 
defying the international community in their pursuit of nuclear 
weapons.
  It is clear, at least to me and I believe to a lot of the people I 
talked to back in Delaware over the course of the last several weeks, 
that we need a new direction from this President, from this 
administration. At least so far we have not seen or planned to correct 
some of the mistakes we have made to put us back on the right track.
  None of us have all the answers. I don't; I don't believe any of us 
do. But I do know one thing: Our President needs to get over his 
ideological aversion to diplomacy if we are going to solve the other 
problems facing us in Iraq and around the world.
  As one of our American Ambassadors said to me not long ago when I was 
overseas: Just because we ignore someone doesn't mean they are going 
away.
  With all due respect, I believe our President needs to reach out to 
the international community, to moderate Arab governments, to broker an 
agreement between sectarian governments in Iraq to head off civil war.
  When I was abroad this last December, I met with officials from 
Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq. I heard from a number 
of folks from a number of the countries, and the leaders of those 
countries that we visited, that they have tribal relations--tribes in 
Saudi Arabia, for example; Jordan has tribal relations with the tribes 
in the country of Iraq. Saudis, Egyptians, and others are majority 
Sunni, and they have relations there as well. Some of those countries 
have a lot of money. A good deal of it is our money because we buy 
their oil products. They have a number of incentives not to want to see 
that part of the world devolve into terrorism, to see Iraq become a 
hotbed of terrorism and to be destabilized. It is not in the interests 
of any of the countries I have mentioned and some I have not mentioned.
  We have to be smart enough as a country and with our administration 
to call on the other countries to bring to bear not just their money to 
help the situation in Iraq but the relationships that their people have 
with the tribes in Iraq and, frankly, with the Sunnis and with other 
elements of those of the population in Iraq. We need to work with our 
allies to establish a real and credible roadmap to peace in the Middle 
East.
  I remember having lunch about 15 months ago, in Washington on the 
other side of the Capitol, with Palestinian President Abbas, along with 
some of our colleagues. He had been in office for 5 months. He was 
elected in January of last year. Over lunch, I asked: President Abbas, 
when do you think it would be an appropriate time for us, for this 
country, to put in the Middle East a high-level, full-time envoy, to 
work every day to implement the roadmap to peace? When would be a good 
time to do that?
  This was June of last year. He had been elected January 6 last year. 
I will never forget what he said to me. He said: Five months ago.
  I was convinced that day, convinced when I have gone to the Middle 
East, I am convinced today that we have let a great opportunity slip 
through our fingers. One of the reasons the Taliban, al-Qaida or the 
other terrorist groups were able to recruit people to blow themselves 
up, to terrorize those countries and to try to kill the rest of us is 
because of their ability to point to the Middle East and say: Look at 
the Americans, they are only for the Israelis. They have no interest in 
the Palestinians having a homeland of their own.
  To the extent we could have brokered over the last couple of years 
and put

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the kind of energy, time, and investment into getting a negotiated 
settlement in the Middle East, as we have put other kinds of 
investments in Iraq and in Afghanistan, both we and those countries 
and, I think, our people and other people would be better off, but we 
have missed that opportunity. My fear is we are missing it again today. 
The roadmap for peace has become in the Middle East, at least for now, 
a roadmap to war.
  Let me close by saying what is needed in this capital, in this 
country, is leadership that fosters a cooperative spirit. That may be a 
tribal man's hope over peace, triumph over reality as we approach an 
election 2 months out, but I believe that is what is needed--the kind 
of leadership that fosters a cooperative spirit. If we cannot get that 
leadership now before the election, my God, I hope we can find it when 
this election is over. I hope our President can give us that kind of 
leadership and work with those who are anxious and willing to truly 
make this country and the world a safer place during his 2 remaining 
years in office.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Burr). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. CORNYN. I ask unanimous consent to speak for a minimum of 15 
minutes in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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