[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.
____________________