[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 112 (Tuesday, September 12, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9323-S9325]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 12, 2006 (Senate)]
[Page S9323-S9325]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:cr12se06-161]                         



 
                 THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS TO THE NATION

  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I come to the Senate floor in sadness. 
The President of the United States gives an address about the condition 
of our country 5 years after the events of 9/11. He gives an address 
and lays out the scope of the problem we are confronting. There are 
people all across this world who subscribe to a radical, perverted form 
of Islam and want to destroy everything we believe in. That is the 
enemy we are confronting. We are in an active war with our military 
against them in Afghanistan and Iraq. That is the reality.
  The minority leader just referred to it as sectarian violence. What 
is that word? Religious? Religious violence. Radical Islam violence--
some Sunni, some Shia, but both are radical in their nature, and they 
are fighting us. That is the reality of the enemy today. The very 
people who planned the attacks are the people who are in Iraq. Al-Qaida 
is in Iraq causing that sectarian violence. Should we ignore that? I 
ask the Senator from Nevada, should we just ignore that, pretend they 
are not there, not talk about that last night, pretend al-Qaida is not 
in Iraq? Is this not part of the mission we are trying to accomplish?
  It is sad. We are at war against an enemy that I happen to believe is 
the most dangerous enemy ever to confront this country, and we play 
petty politics constantly here on the floor of the Senate--even after a 
solemn day of remembrance for the valued people who died on September 
11. It is chilling. We just cannot get past the politics around here, 
just cannot get past the partisan advantage around here. We cannot face 
the reality that we have a dangerous enemy out there who wants to 
destroy everything we hold dear, an enemy who is very clear about what 
they want to accomplish. How clear? They say it--not to Mike Wallace on 
``60 Minutes,'' I might add. No, when you are spinning in English in 
America, you put on the nice face, you put on the happy face that we 
want peace and want to live together in brotherhood and all this 
wonderful stuff.
  But that is a lie. When they go back and speak in Arabic and Farsi, 
they give a very different story. It is a consistent story, I might 
add. It is the destruction of the State of Israel, and it is the 
submission of the infidels to what they believe in. That is the enemy 
we confront. It is real. We can play politics about it and say it is 
not real. We can say it is a trumped-up war. They are at war with us. 
We may not want to be at war with them, but they are at war with us--
not just in Afghanistan and Iraq, not just in southern Lebanon, not 
just in Great Britain, but here. They want to defeat us. Their intent 
is to defeat us. They are motivating people in the Middle East and 
around the world to join their ranks and attack us.
  One of the things I learned from my days in Little League, and in 
everything else I have ever engaged in, is that one of the ways to lose 
anything you are engaged in with an opponent is not to take your 
opponent seriously, not to look at what they are really about, and not 
look at their capability. I remember early that in this war many were 
calling the terrorists cowards, as if these people were weak and they 
had no real resolve. These people are not weak. They are misguided--
horribly misguided--but they are not weak. They are a dangerous enemy. 
They are a dangerous enemy that has an ideology that is motivating 
people, and they have a tactic that is uniquely effective against us.
  As Osama bin Laden says, ``We will defeat you because you love life; 
we love death.'' And we do love life in this country because we have a 
lot to live for. We have great freedom, great material wealth. We have 
a wonderful culture. They, on the other hand, for the most part have 
none of those. They love death because they see death as better than 
life. They are willing to die. In fact, they want to die. We have never 
fought an enemy like this. We have never fought an enemy who wanted to 
die as part of the victory for them. We always fought enemies who saw 
death as a tragic consequence of war, and their objective was an 
earthly kingdom. Not this enemy. This enemy says death is part of the 
war--a desire for those entering into this battle--and their kingdom is 
not one they want to build here but one they want to achieve after 
death. This is an enemy who wants a nuclear weapon in Iran, not because 
they want to stave off attacks, no, but because they want to use it to 
pursue their messianic vision of the return of the 12th Imam, or Hidden 
Imam.
  I give speeches all across Pennsylvania and lay out for the people of 
my State this vision of President Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad and the rulers of 
Iran, the vision of the 12th, or Hidden, Imam, who is to return at the 
end of time. That is what the Shias believe. But President Ahmadi-Nejad 
and the rulers of Iran believe different than most Shias, thank God. 
They believe it is their obligation to bring about the end of time by 
the destruction of the State of Israel and by world chaos in which 
Islam is suppressing the infidels, and only at that time will this 
Hidden Imam return and the actualization of their religion come to 
pass.
  This is a serious enemy, an enemy with resources. This is an enemy 
with growing technology, and this is an enemy with fervent disciples 
who are willing to go around and kill themselves in pursuit of this 
objective. This is not something to be played politics with. This is 
not something to ignore and pass off as sectarian violence that we 
brought about because we happen to be there. These people have been at 
war with us for 20 years, and we have chosen to ignore them. We paid a 
very high price.

  So what is our lesson? If you listen to the Democratic leader, it is: 
Let's continue to ignore them. Let's continue to play politics. Let's 
put domestic politics ahead of the security of this country.
  That is his message--that this is not real, this is trumped up, and 
if we leave them alone, they will leave us alone. Oh, really? Do you 
really believe that? If we leave these people alone, do you believe 
that somehow we would be safe here? We can just garrison America, make 
all public buildings like we have here at the Capitol--put Jersey 
barriers around everything and have police on every corner. We can 
protect ourselves from these people. Is that the America in which we 
want to live? Not me.
  We are at war--the most serious war this country has ever faced 
against an opponent like none we have ever faced. Yet we play politics. 
We ignore the reality. We can pretend they are just not there--at least 
until November, at least until we can get control. Then maybe we will 
come to our senses and recognize the grave threat that confronts our 
country.
  No, the President did not give a political speech last night. He 
spoke of

[[Page S9324]]

the reality of the conflict that is before us. It is not popular to do 
so, I know. It is not popular to stand up and support a conflict that 
is difficult to deal with every day. But understand that is exactly 
what they have in mind.
  Did you ever wonder why they don't kill 3,000 people in 1 day? They 
have the capability of doing so. You just send out, instead of 1 every 
day or 2 every day, you send out 200 in 1 day. Why not? Why don't they 
just have one mass, huge offensive? It is because that is not what they 
are all about. That is not a terrorist tactic.
  The terrorist tactic is to cause death every single day. It doesn't 
matter who but just cause death. So why? To defeat the military? No, 
their objective isn't to defeat the military or drive back the lines of 
our troops or to control more area. No, those deaths are not aimed at 
our military, they are aimed at us. Every day they want to make it 
harder for you and you and you and you to open the paper, to turn on 
the television, to see more death.
  This is the steady drumbeat of the psychological war of terror being 
inflicted on the American public. They will keep up the drumbeat every 
single day--not in big conflagrations but every day--to make it 
painful, to make it hard.
  They want one thing out of us. They know our military, and I am going 
to submit for the Record an assessment from a serviceman who wrote me 
who provided his experience in Iraq of success, I might add.
  Our military knows they must win this war, and they are succeeding at 
some level. They are not attacking our military. They are attacking us 
psychologically every single day until finally they get us to say one 
word--enough. Enough. We have had enough. We can't take this anymore. 
It is just too hard.
  They believe we will say ``enough'' because they believe we are weak. 
They believe we and the modern world just don't have the stomach to 
fight and die for what we believe in anymore. We like our ``things'' 
too much, and so we will just leave them alone until they get stronger 
and stronger and in a position to do more and more damage to our 
children and grandchildren.
  The President is right. This is our hour. We can play politics with 
the hour, we can seek political advantage to win the next election with 
this hour, or we can confront the reality of this hour and do something 
about it.
  On my watch, even though I am facing what many consider to be a 
difficult time back in Pennsylvania, I am going to confront the reality 
of the threat to me, to this country, and to our children and 
grandchildren. It is too important to walk away and play politics to 
get reelected. It is too important to the future of this country to 
minimize the threat that we are engaged in and play politics with it.
  It may win or lose elections. Matters not to me. It matters not to 
me. What matters is defending our country when it needs to be defended, 
not putting personal politics above what is in the best interest of the 
national security of this country.
  I believe the President, given all the mistakes that this 
administration has made in the conduct of this war--and they certainly 
are numerous--the President has it right. This is the greatest threat 
for our generation, and I pray we have the courage to confront it.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to print the assessment from 
1LT Jeremy Burke in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:


                               My Mission

       Foreign Military Advising by Military Transition Teams, 
     MiTTs, is currently the Main Effort for the U.S. Military in 
     Iraq. The current objective of CENTCOM is to build and train 
     the Iraqi Security Forces in order that they can take over 
     control of the security in their battlespace. MiTT teams 
     advise on everything from logistical planning, operational 
     management and command & control (C2) of their units. I was 
     an advisor for the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Division, Iraqi 
     Army.
       Overall assessment: I believe we have been extremely 
     successful in our efforts to secure peace and freedom in 
     Iraq. Many people in Iraq are now enjoying freedoms that they 
     never could before. For those born during Saddam's reign of 
     terror, they are tasting freedom for the first time. All over 
     Iraq we are turning over control of security to Iraqi 
     Security Forces like the Army, Border Police and the regular 
     Police. Our presence there as American military is to backup 
     the Iraqis when they need help. They are finally standing on 
     their own two feet. Now we're just letting them get balanced.


                    Areas of Success with Iraqi Army

       (1) Control of Security: We started out August 2005 and our 
     Iraqi counterparts were assessed at being able to take over 
     control of their battles pace no earlier than 18 months. 10 
     months later, in June 2006, they completed their validation 
     exercise and we transitioned battle space authority over to 
     Iraqi Army control.
       (2) Communications: At onset of our mission our Iraqi 
     counterparts were severely limited in communications and they 
     could not talk between 2 of their 3 battalions nor their 
     Brigade rear location. We needed to locate the appropriate 
     equipment for them and get it issued out. Then we had the 
     task of training them how to utilize all their commo gear and 
     put it into use.
       Now they have a Codan radio base station set up at their 
     Brigade (BDE) Headquarters, BDE rear and at each Battalion 
     location. Each location is now capable of communicating 
     across their entire battle space, 16,000 sq KM.
       Their vehicles now have mobile Codan radios to communicate 
     between their maneuver elements and their headquarters.
       They now have Internet access to send status reports to 
     Division headquarters and to receive and send information 
     from their battalions.
       Command & Control: When we arrived in August of 2005 they 
     had no functioning Tactical Operations Center (TOC) in which 
     to manage subordinate units, track convoys, manage 
     information flow and oversee operations.
       After months of training and preparation, we helped them 
     open the first Iraqi Army Brigade TOC on January 15, 2006.
       All IA BDE communications are handled out of their TOC.
       A representative from the S2 (Intelligence) and S3 
     (Operations) is working in this TOC all day and in the 
     evening. At night there are two enlisted soldiers manning the 
     radios and acting as a runner.
       The S3 is tracking units on the ground with large wall 
     sized maps that we provided for them. The S2 tracks enemy 
     activity or a long period of time on an exact replica of the 
     operations map.
       As the Coalition Forces Liaison Officer (LNO), I worked 7 
     days a week in their TOC providing classes on: map reading, 
     Intelligence Analysis, and reporting.
       Now that our IA counterparts have taken over control of 
     their battle space a U.S. LNO will work in their TOC as a 
     means of bridging communications between the IA units on the 
     ground and U.S. units providing support. Examples of this 
     function are when an Iraqi convoy is hit with an IED attack 
     they call back to their TOC, then the Iraqi officer in charge 
     would request assistance and I would call in a MEDEVAC 
     request to the U.S. Headquarters in the area.
       Pay & Promotions: At the beginning of our mission, 
     approximately 75 percent of the IA Brigade we advised had 
     some sort of pay or promotion issue. The most common example 
     of this was a soldier was promoted but the Ministry of 
     Defense, MOD, had yet to recognize the promotion so they were 
     still being paid at their old pay grade.
       When I left Iraq, the Brigade's pay issues were down to 4 
     percent.
       The Brigade S1 and the Division G1, Personnel, now work 
     closely together and get actively involved in resolving pay 
     issues to include traveling to Baghdad to meet directly with 
     the Personnel Department at MOD.
       MOD still has problems recognizing promotions when they 
     come but at least now the soldier might only have 1-2 months 
     to wait for it to be resolved as opposed to years as it was 
     before.
       (3) Vehicle Maintenance: This is still a difficult problem 
     for the Iraqis but they are slowing making headway. They are 
     facing a difficult task with maintenance because their 
     culture has not adopted the idea of operator maintenance as a 
     personal responsibility. The wealthy would just abandon a 
     vehicle if it died on the road. The lower classes simply use 
     a Duct Tape resolution to solve maintenance issues. One of 
     their problems now is that since they didn't conduct 
     periodic maintenance on their vehicles they have a lot of 
     work to catch up on as they get more involved. Upon our 
     arrival in August 2005, they had dozens of deadlined, 
     inoperable, vehicles just strewn about their bases, which 
     made their motor pools look more like junkyards.
       U.S. advisors in Baghdad worked with MOD to set up a 
     National Maintenance Contract for the Army's vehicles. For 
     our unit they bring all their vehicles back to the Division 
     base where the maintenance facilities are and can get any 
     kind of repair done they need--to include newly issued 
     HUMMWVs.
       In December of 2005 we started sending soldiers from our 
     Brigade to the maintenance course also run by the NMC group. 
     Soldiers become qualified to perform various levels of 
     maintenance on their vehicles. After the course they spend 
     time at the maintenance facility to get ``on the job'' 
     training before returning to their units.
       (4) Logistics: Logistical support, in my mind, is now their 
     biggest obstacle to being a successful, self-sustaining 
     military.
       MOD has not come up with appropriate plan to provide fuel 
     for the Iraqi Security Forces, ISF. Currently the U.S. 
     supplies some fuel to the ISF but that is being cut off--
     probably by August 2006.

[[Page S9325]]

       Life Support Contracts are set up and managed by MOD but 
     there is no MOD rep to monitor them locally except for an 
     army officer. In some cases this has led to corruption, in 
     other cases it has allowed local vendors to operate with no 
     quality control.


                 overall sentiment of the iraqi people

       Generally the people of Iraq are appreciative of the United 
     States, want our Military to stay as long as possible to 
     ensure their safety and security.
       Some portions of the population are happy that we can 
     provide for their safety and are grateful that we ousted 
     Saddam. But they will be equally as happy when we leave. This 
     is more of an Arab cultural thing. Arab culture is driven by 
     pride and shame. These people might be embarrassed that they 
     could not secure their freedoms themselves and now would like 
     us to leave so they can take over from here. And some simply 
     don't want Westerners controlling their future.
       When we traveled to various villages we were typically well 
     received. Kids run out to the convoy in hopes that they'll 
     get candy or water. Village leaders come out to greet us and 
     invite us in to sit and talk while we drink Chai. When we 
     entered a village and people looked away or closed their 
     doors to us, it almost always meant that they were being 
     intimidated by the terrorists. It was these villages that we 
     spent more time. We'd come back as often as possible, 
     bringing clothes, food, and commanders of all levels from the 
     Iraqi Army and the Coalition to meet with tribal 
     leadership. When we caught Saddam Hussein, there were 
     celebrations at every village we went to. People were both 
     relieved and overjoyed. And they thanked us in whatever 
     way they could. When U.S. forces killed Abu Musab Zarqawi, 
     people celebrated in the streets firing their guns in the 
     air, they offered us food and gifts when we visited 
     villages. These were true inspiring patriotic moments for 
     Iraq.
       When a suicide bomber attacks an Army or Police recruiting 
     station and kills many people, the following day the lines 
     waiting to join up are 3-4 times larger. People are looking 
     for jobs and they see joining the Iraqi Security Forces as a 
     great opportunity to make a living and do their part in 
     getting rid of the terrorism rampant in their region of the 
     world.
       We are seeing lots of economic expansion everywhere. Strip 
     malls are being constructed, businesses are expanding and 
     franchises are popping up. New homes are being constructed 
     all over the country. And people are spending money, looking 
     for new types of goods to buy and they desire goods and 
     services that are currently available throughout the rest of 
     the world. Satellite TV has been a big help with this.


                               obstacles

       Fuel--Currently fuel is a major crisis not only for the 
     Iraqi Security Forces but for the general population as well. 
     The issue is not for a lack of oil, but a lack of functioning 
     refineries--2 shut down in November. It has started to limit 
     the ability of the Iraqi Security Forces to conduct long-
     range operations.
       Border Crossings--Foreign Fighters and Terrorist support 
     still continues to flow across the Syrian Border. Smuggling 
     of fuel, cigarettes and other goods is commonplace and put a 
     big strain on the ability of the Border Police to shut down 
     the border. Lack of fuel has reduced the number of border 
     patrols that are conducted. Long lines at the Point of Entry 
     have caused many people to come across illegally. Some 
     smuggling is being conducted as a direct support mechanism 
     for terrorists.
       Corruption: Very problematic in all areas of the Iraqi 
     Security Forces. But it is also misunderstood. Some levels of 
     corruption are generally accepted in Arab culture. It is the 
     way they have done business and government for so long that 
     they have come to allow it--to an extent. Some of the areas 
     of corruption that we've seen are when soldiers or police at 
     checkpoints or border crossings do not check cars as they 
     come through. They will sometimes take payments in order to 
     speed a vehicle through the checkpoint. We began cracking 
     down on this during Spring of 2006. There are also kickbacks 
     with contractors--this is very typical and also very 
     accepted.

  Mr. SANTORUM. I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Illinois.

                          ____________________