[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 73 (Friday, May 4, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5614-S5615]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, this week a historic discussion began 
between Congress and the White House about the way forward in Iraq. On 
Wednesday, a meeting occurred between the President and congressional 
leadership following the President's veto of a spending bill that would 
have made America more secure, fully funded the troops, and changed the 
course in Iraq. It has taken almost 4\1/2\ years, but it appears the 
President finally is willing to consider what most Americans and 
Members of Congress have long known, that we must change course in Iraq 
and move toward a strategy that will make our country more secure.
  It took 6 years and 3 months for the President to accept Congress as 
a coequal branch of Government. Prior to last Wednesday, the President 
basically had ignored the constitutionally framed equal branch of 
Government, the legislative branch. From that perspective, it was a 
positive step forward.
  During the first 6 years of this congressional term, the President 
basically ignored us. There was a big rubber stamp. Anything the 
Republican Congress thought the President wanted, they gave him. But 
yesterday, the minority leader and I met with the President's Chief of 
Staff Josh Bolton to further that discussion that started Wednesday in 
the White House. I thought the meeting was constructive, comfortable. 
It is clear, at this early point in the negotiations, that nothing is 
off the table. We agreed to meet again early next week. Meanwhile, I 
will be talking with members of my caucus, Senator McConnell, and with 
our experts, and we will continue to work on ideas for a way forward in 
the quagmire in Iraq.
  I know many of my Republican friends in the Senate believe strongly 
that a change of course in Iraq strategy is needed, one that holds the 
administration and the Iraqis accountable for real results. I know many 
of my Republican friends intend to be part of that solution on the way 
forward. I look forward to working with them, as I have the last few 
weeks. Work is now in progress, and we will work to reach agreement on 
a bill that fully funds the troops while providing a responsible new 
course that makes America more secure and leads to an early end to 
America's involvement in the Iraq civil war.
  Events on the ground give this challenge great urgency. The month of 
April saw an American death toll of more than 100, making it the 
deadliest month of the year for our troops in Iraq and one of the 
deadliest in the 51 months of this war.
  The President's own Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction 
released his quarterly report last weekend which painted a dispiriting 
picture of waste, ineffectiveness, and failure to achieve even 
minimally satisfactory results. Despite burning through most of the 20 
billion American dollars planned for reconstruction, most Iraqis are 
without basic necessities such as electricity and clean drinking water. 
Only a third of Iraq's children are regularly attending school, and 70 
percent are suffering from symptoms of trauma that will likely paralyze 
an entire generation on which we are counting to harvest the seeds of 
democracy.
  Iraqi Prime Minister al-Malaki, a Shia, is accused of sabotaging 
efforts for peace and stability by firing some of the country's top law 
enforcement officials for doing too good a job of combating violent 
Shia militias. President Bush speaks of pressuring the Iraqi people to 
take responsibility for their own future. Yet while American troops are 
fighting and dying to secure the country, the Iraqi Government is 
planning a 2-month summer vacation.
  We throw around a lot of numbers and statistics to highlight the 
failures and high stakes of the war. We must also remember that behind 
each of these numbers--104 deaths during the month of April--is a 
personal story.
  Yesterday, a Las Vegas newspaper published an article about a 26-
year-old Nevadan named John Shoup. After surviving 7 months in Iraq, 
John returned home to Nevada without apparent physical injury. Many of 
his friends were not so fortunate, he said. At home, though, almost 
immediately, John's wife Lori knew he was not well. She said:

       I noticed in the first week he wasn't sleeping . . . he 
     started to get a little snappy . . . he started crying and 
     started throwing things.

  John told his wife about the four roadside bomb attacks he survived.
  The article goes on to say, among other things:

       But the worst, [his wife] said, were the times he was 
     called to bag up body parts of dead soldiers who had been 
     blown up by improvised explosive devices on patrols ahead of 
     his platoon . . .
       With her husband displaying the same classic symptoms of 
     PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, she checked him into 
     a privately owned psychiatric hospital where he was treated 
     for major depression related to [post-traumatic stress 
     disorder].
       He was given anti-depressants and while he was there, she 
     said, his first sergeant called to inform him he would be 
     listed as absent without leave and his paycheck for May would 
     be canceled if he didn't report back to his squadron in Iraq, 
     one of the many regular Army units whose tours had been 
     extended.
       Lori Shoup said her husband told the first sergeant about 
     his battle with PTSD. The sergeant's response to him, she 
     said, was: ``How's that different from the way you normally 
     act?'' [She said] that really upset him. It was if they 
     didn't care.
       With his mental problems persisting, John Shoup met with 
     doctors at O'Callaghan Federal Hospital at Nellis Air Force 
     Base. Doctors there tried to help him, but on April 16, the 
     day before he was supposed to report to Fort Drum, his 
     condition took a turn for the worse. While at home, he took 
     too many drugs, described as a suicide attempt, and Lori had 
     to rush him back to Nellis hospital. His stomach was pumped 
     and he was put in supervised care.

  He continues to struggle with his illness and now awaits another 
transfer from the hospital at Nellis Air Force Base near his home in 
Nevada to Walter Reed here in Washington.
  We all know that war comes with casualties. I have talked about John 
Shoup. I have read quotes from Lori Shoup, his wife. She is also a 
casualty. She had to be hospitalized. She had a nervous breakdown.
  Our soldiers have always shouldered the burden when the mission is to 
protect America's security. John Shoup did that.
  What is our mission today? When he was asked that question, he 
replied:

       All we do is drive around and wait to get blown up.

  Our troops are interjected between warring factions, kicking down 
doors, trying to sort Shia from Sunni or friend from foe. Meanwhile, 
Afghanistan is deteriorating. Osama bin Laden remains at large, and al-
Qaida is rebuilding its strength. Our current strategy is not a 
strategy for success. It is a recipe for more death and destruction, 
overburdening our military and leaving America less secure.
  Today's USA Today newspaper talked about a lot of John Shoups. In 
fact, they said there are 150,000 brain injuries caused by what has 
happened in Iraq to our troops; 15,000 is what USA Today reports.
  We approach these discussions with the White House with an open mind 
and sincere desire to move forward. But John and Lori Shoup and all 
Americans deserve to know what our resolve to change course in Iraq 
will be. Our course cannot be one to waiver from doing everything we 
can to get the President to change the mission, to transition the 
mission in Iraq. Fifty-one months of what has happened in Iraq has not 
been good for the country, certainly not good for the world.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the article 
from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                 [From reviewjournal.com, May 2, 2007]

Iraq Deployment Changed Soldier: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Delays 
                                 Return

                           (By Keith Rogers)

       When Army Spc. John Shoup came home on leave two months ago 
     after serving seven months in Iraq, he wasn't the same man 
     his wife, Lori, had known since they married four years ago. 
     ``We noticed he was very different,'' Lori Shoup said Monday, 
     sitting on the porch of their Las Vegas condominium not far 
     from where fighter jets take off from Nellis Air Force Base. 
     I noticed in the first week he wasn't sleeping,'' she said. 
     ``He started to get a little snappy and stuff. . . . He told 
     me he didn't want to talk about it.''
       Before his two-week leave was over, the nightmares and the 
     horrifying memories of the so-called Triangle of Death in 
     south

[[Page S5615]]

     Baghdad had set in. ``He started crying and started throwing 
     things,'' she said about her 26-year-old husband from 
     Frackville, Pa.
       Little by little, though, the things he didn't want to talk 
     about came to light. Among them were the four roadside bomb 
     attacks that he survived but left some of his buddies 
     wounded. But the worst, she said, were the times he was 
     called to bag up body parts of dead soldiers who had been 
     blown up by improvised explosive devices on patrols ahead of 
     his platoon, a mortar troop of the 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry 
     Regiment from the 10th Mountain Division out of Fort Drum, 
     N.Y.
       With her husband displaying the classic symptoms of PTSD, 
     or post-traumatic stress disorder, she checked him into a 
     privately owned psychiatric hospital where he was treated for 
     major depression related to PTSD. He was given anti-
     depressants and while he was there, she said, his first 
     sergeant called to inform him he would be listed as absent 
     without leave and his paycheck for May would be canceled if 
     he didn't report back to his squadron in Iraq, one of many 
     regular Army units whose tours had been extended.
       Lori Shoup said her husband told the first sergeant about 
     his bout with PTSD. The sergeant's response to him, she said, 
     was: `How's that different from the way you normally act?' 
     That really upset him. It was as if they didn't care.''
       With his mental problems persisting, John Shoup met with 
     doctors at O'Callaghan Federal Hospital at Nellis Air Force 
     Base. Doctors there tried to help him, but on April 16, the 
     day before he was supposed to return to Fort Drum, his 
     condition took a turn for the worse. While at home, he took 
     too many drugs described as a suicide attempt, and Lori had 
     to rush him back to the Nellis hospital. His stomach was 
     pumped and he was put in supervised care.
       In the meantime, Lori has been struggling to make ends meet 
     by continuing to work as a bartender at a cantina on the 
     Strip while caring for their 3-year-old son, Levan, and her 
     8-year-old daughter, Emily, from a previous marriage. ``I'm 
     at wit's end,'' she said. ``There's no way I can do it all by 
     myself.''
       Her father, Joseph Godlewski, a retired Army staff 
     sergeant, has been trying to help with babysitting. He is 
     also helping his daughter understand what John is trying to 
     endure. ``The poor kid has seen so much death,'' he said. 
     ``Once the smell of death is in your nose it never goes 
     away.''
       For Lori, the gravity of the situation became too much last 
     week, when she experienced a nervous breakdown that resulted 
     in a trip to the Nellis hospital emergency room. Now back at 
     home, she was feeling better Monday even though she learned 
     that John's status with his overseas unit had officially 
     changed to AWOL while he's still at the federal hospital. His 
     paycheck had not been deposited. ``I couldn't believe it. My 
     heart went right down into my stomach,'' she said.
       In a telephone interview from his hospital room, John Shoup 
     said he had served his four-year obligation but his orders 
     had been extended. He said his first sergeant had called him 
     to say he had ``better hurry up and stop fooling around and 
     get back to Iraq.'' ``All we do is drive around and wait to 
     get blown up,'' he said. ``I just want to get back to the 
     Army and get out and get back to my family.''
       On Tuesday, a spokesman at Fort Drum acknowledged that John 
     Shoup had called the fort to say he needed mental help. They 
     directed him to the Nellis hospital to continue PTSD 
     treatment until he was well enough to return to Fort Drum. 
     ``Then they would make a determination if his future is best 
     not serving in the Army,'' Fort Drum spokesman Ben Abel said.
       Given the current circumstances, Abel said he could not 
     foresee the Army sending him back to Iraq. As for stopping 
     his pay, that was a misunderstanding that stemmed from his 
     overseas unit, Abel said, noting, ``It's on its way to being 
     cleared up.''
       Lori Shoup said, however, that her husband won't be 
     returning to Fort Drum immediately. Instead, he will be 
     transferred today from the Nellis hospital to Walter Reed 
     Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
       In the meantime, she wants to see ``all of our boys come 
     home'' from Iraq. ``I believe our job is done there. . . . I 
     believe that our troops are doing a lot of good there. I back 
     our soldiers 100 percent. I've heard it referred to as a 
     modern-day Vietnam. ``It's getting uglier and uglier. It's 
     really unfortunate because our society is going to suffer 
     from it because there's a lot of fathers and sons and 
     brothers who will never return. And some will never return 
     the same people they were when they left.''

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