[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 119 (Tuesday, July 24, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H8392-H8394]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             CODEL TO IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) is recognized 
for 14 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I come to the floor of the House tonight 
having just returned from the country of Iraq yesterday afternoon. And 
even given the lateness of the hour, I wanted to come address the House 
because there are some issues that are, in fact, very timely and time-
sensitive, and I thought it was important to get them spoken on the 
floor of the House.
  My intention is to come back with the other Members who were on the 
trip with me, Mr. Carter of Texas, Mr. Brady of Texas, Mr. Jordan of 
Ohio, Mr. Davis of Tennessee, and talk about this in some depth in the 
weeks to come. Mr. King of Iowa was also with us on the trip. But 
because of the lateness tonight and the lateness that we are likely to 
go tomorrow night and Thursday night, it may be next week before we can 
actually do that formal presentation, and there were some things that I 
wanted to get on the floor of the House this week.
  Madam Speaker, I would report to the House that as of the third week 
of July 2007, it is still a very mixed report about the situation in 
Iraq. My overall impression from this latest trip is that significant 
successes have occurred and are likely to continue to occur as far as 
returning control of the country to the Iraqi Government and delivering 
it out of the hands of criminals and murderers. At the same time, it is 
still a very dangerous situation, and the sacrifice is very real.
  Madam Speaker, the future of America is vastly different depending 
upon the outcome of what happens in the country of Iraq. A stable 
country, a country with a representational government, a country able 
to act as a partner for peace in the Middle East would be vastly 
preferable to a lawless land ruled by terrorists and criminals 
providing a base for training operations and, Madam Speaker, a source 
for funding for further enlargement of their activities.
  Almost without question, the divergent future was on the minds of 
almost everyone I talked with during the 2-day trip. Certainly 
America's best interest is going to be served by stability in that 
country and with their active participation in stabilizing a very 
troubled region.
  It has been just over a year since I last traveled to Iraq. A lot has 
changed both at home and in Iraq over that time. There is no question 
that the news reports coming out of Iraq have almost been universally 
pessimistic for about 10 months' time. I was obviously very concerned 
about what I would encounter upon my return to that country, but the 
trip made over the weekend, a Saturday and Sunday, a very condensed 
time frame with a great deal to see, we learned a great deal.
  Starting with a 2 a.m. departure from the military airport in Kuwait 
City, we loaded on the C-130 for the flight into Baghdad. The plane was 
cramped and fully loaded. Already at 2:00 in the morning, it was over 
90 degrees. The plane contained a large number of soldiers and marines 
who were returning to Baghdad. Because of the very early hour and the 
loudness of the aircraft, there was not much time for conversation; but 
after the plane landed and the engines were stopped, there was a brief 
episode where conversation was possible.
  For most, this was their second or third rotation. Their deployments 
had been extended through 15 months, and most would not go home for 
almost a year from that point. When several who were standing next to 
me learned who I was, there was obviously an eagerness for 
conversation.
  Since February, there has been a change in how they have done their 
work. Now most were placed alongside Iraqi soldiers in smaller groups 
around town. They were no longer attached to the larger, more protected 
bases, and the soldiers were clearly seeing a greater amount of 
activity, and it concerned them.
  I spoke in some depth with the soldier in front of me. He had 10 
months left in his rotation, and sometimes he wondered if the generals 
knew what they were up against in this deployment. He complained about 
the long hours and the heat. He complained about being separated from 
his family. He had been reading a book on the plane, and I asked him 
about this. He said it was a book about philosophy, so I naturally 
assumed that upon leaving the Army at the end of his deployment, he 
would likely return to school, or perhaps he had a job waiting for him, 
and I asked him about this. He looked at me strangely. ``Well, I just 
reenlisted for 5 years,'' he said tersely.
  We left the plane and parted ways. He got on an armored convoy, and 
we were loaded in Blackhawk helicopters for the next leg of our trip 
down to Ramadi. It was still very early in the morning, and the sun was 
barely breaking through the low dust layer that always seems to hang 
over Baghdad in the summer. The temperature was already in excess of 
100 degrees, but in many ways my conversation with this soldier 
underscored the ambiguities, the inconsistencies, and the incongruous 
nature of life in Iraq.
  Over the next 48 hours, we would see stories of great heroism and 
great hope. At the same time, the frustration of buying time and space 
for a young government, sometimes a dysfunctional government, of a war-
torn country was underscored at several junctures.
  From a military perspective, success has been made and continues to 
be made on a near daily basis. Indeed, the primary enemy, al Qaeda, has 
not only been beaten, but vanquished every time there has been an 
encounter. And because of the increased military activity, the 
encounters have been more frequent. At the same time, a very young 
government seems to have already developed entrenched bureaucracies 
because of the centralized nature of the government in Iraq. As 
military successes are happening around the country, aid from the 
central government is slow to be dispatched out to the outlying 
communities.
  As is probably the case with every other conflict in our Nation's 
history, there are widely distributed data points, and one can take one 
or two of these and make virtually any argument that one wishes to 
make. It takes a more disciplined outlook to analyze the data, look at 
the trendlines, but that is a discipline that must be exercised.

  Madam Speaker, the city of Ramadi in the al-Anbar Province in Western 
Iraq was the first stop for us on Saturday. This is a city the size of 
Fort

[[Page H8393]]

Worth, Texas, back in my home district. One year ago when I was in 
Iraq, Ramadi was held by insurgent representatives of al Qaeda. In July 
of 2006, there would have been no way for a congressional delegation to 
travel to this city as it would have been seen as too dangerous a 
mission.
  But things began to change last February. The historic tribal leaders 
began to clearly understand that life alongside al Qaeda was not going 
to improve; and in a stunning reversal, the town's leaders began to 
seek out and embrace American protection. Popular support was now no 
longer available to al Qaeda in a city that had been destined to be the 
provincial capital of the resurgent Caliphate. This represented a 
striking strategic failure for the enemy. Their shadow government which 
had intended to establish a capital of a radical Islamic state was 
forced out of the city, and, indeed, subsequent armed attempts to 
retake control were successfully repelled. People in town began 
identifying where the terrorists lived, who was making the bombs, who 
was putting the city and their daily lives in jeopardy.
  Now, the task of rebuilding a civil society, the municipal government 
has certainly significant tasks ahead of it. And, Madam Speaker, I 
might add to that it was the additional soldiers and marines provided 
by what is called the surge last February, particularly the soldiers of 
the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Unit force just north of al-Anbar, that 
made a lot of this possible. They intercepted the vehicle-borne 
improvised explosive devices as they were on their way down to Ramadi; 
they found the factories where these were manufactured, and were able 
to provide additional breathing space and additional room as the city 
was recontrolled by the Americans.
  Because of the distance from Baghdad and the central government, 
there has been some isolation, and significant efforts have been made 
by the Army to ensure that the local mayor has the ability to provide 
for his citizens. And this, Madam Speaker, underscores one of the real 
difficulties ahead for this country. As areas are reclaimed and 
stabilized, the central government must be able to quickly provide the 
financial and security support that will be required to sustain this 
early success.
  This also underscores one of the important recognized benchmarks, 
that of holding the provincial elections. During the electoral process 
2 years ago, most of the Sunni population was involved in an electoral 
boycott. Now they see the fundamental error of that decision, and they 
are eager to see new elections that would permit a more popular 
representation.
  After 2 or 3 years of serious brutality at the hands of al Qaeda, the 
population now sees America as helpers and sees Americans as 
protectors. The tribal leaders had originally feared that Americans 
were occupiers, that they would stay forever, but now they have come to 
understand that the Americans have no such interests. The same could 
not be said for al Qaeda's interests. Their clear intent was to hold 
the town for their purposes for the foreseeable future.
  The point was made during our visit that there are no overnight 
solutions to the problems in Iraq. Leadership cannot be bought, and 
this has to be an evolutionary change. But this change can occur if the 
correct environment is provided.
  As if to underscore the recent success in Ramadi, we were taken out 
of the military base, down the main street of town, right into the 
marketplace. We were permitted to walk freely in the marketplace and 
observed many of the items for sale in what appears to be a very normal 
Arab market.
  Madam Speaker, I did provide a photograph from that visit, and here 
you can see again one of the stalls of the market. You can see the 
goods for sale, the pots and pans up there, coolers for water or 
whatever other beverage one might want to have. You can see the smiles 
on the young children. They didn't know we were going to come to town 
that day; it just happened that we showed up, and they were apparently 
glad to see us. You see the men there bargaining in the background. It 
doesn't really look like a street scene of people that are under great 
stress or duress. It looks like a normal marketplace with normal people 
doing normal Saturday-morning activities.
  The vehicle you see just a portion up here at the edge of the 
photograph was actually a municipal vehicle, a city vehicle. They were 
repairing one of the sewer lines in the street. Many of the sewer lines 
and water lines in this town had been broken by improvised explosive 
devices that had gone off during the more active and kinetic phases of 
the retaking of the city from the al Qaeda groups. But it wasn't 
Americans who were out repairing the sewer pipe, it was actually the 
municipal government of the city of Ramadi who was taking care of that 
task, as they should, as is appropriate for a municipal government, the 
appropriate way for a municipal government to behave.
  I would also point out some of the clothing that is for sale.
  Madam Speaker, I just have to say in this trip to Iraq one of the 
things I saw that really struck me as being significantly different 
from other trips, not just in Ramadi, but in Baghdad and some of the 
other areas we visited, many more women were in evidence out on the 
streets and out in public, significantly different from other times 
when I have been there. And I take that as a good sign, a good sign as 
for the resurgence of civil society.
  But there is pretty striking evidence of the prior combat in the town 
all around us. But the evidence of active reconstruction and a crew 
working on the sewer line in the middle of the street as we walked 
through town really again gave me some hope that there was some 
stability for these young children.
  And let me talk about the future for a moment. That is a future that 
these young men now have that actually was going to be denied to them 
just a few short months ago. And, again, you can see the look of 
curiosity on these boys' faces. This boy is not quite sure whether to 
smile or run away. But, nevertheless, these kids were all over in the 
marketplace.
  And you see back there again some of the brightly colored glass and 
things that weren't for sale in the market. I don't know where these 
shirts came from; presumably that represents some sort of local sports 
team. But, again, a very different scene in Ramadi today than would 
have been evident a year ago.
  When I returned yesterday, one of the things that I encounter in the 
headline in the Washington Times was also of encouragement to me. We 
had spent some time during the trip on Saturday at a place called Camp 
Taji, which is north of Iraq.

                              {time}  2345

  Camp Taji is where a good number of our soldiers are stationed, a lot 
of our National Guardsmen are stationed. And again, Camp Taji, the same 
situation: they've moved soldiers out the relatively large base. 
They've moved out to work with the Iraqi units, to work in the towns. 
And one of the things we learned on that trip through there this 
weekend, the commander told us that there had just been a meeting with 
150 sheiks, both Sunni and Shiia, and the reason for the meeting, the 
meeting was called by the sheiks. They wanted to meet with the American 
military, and the reason for that meeting was they wanted this same 
type of success for their communities. They wanted to ask if the same 
type of return to civil society that is going on, that's breaking out 
in the country of Ramadi, they wanted to know if it was possible in 
their communities. And, again, not just Sunni leaders, Shiia leaders as 
well.
  And I'll quote from yesterday's, this is the Washington Times from 
Monday, July 23, 2007. And it says: ``U.S. forces have brokered an 
agreement between Sunni and Shiia tribal leaders to join forces against 
al Qaeda and other extremists extending a policy that has transformed 
the security situation in western Anbar province, and they wanted to 
extend that to this area north of the capital.''
  A startling story. We just heard about this on Saturday when we were 
there. In fact, I was kind of given the impression that it was so new 
that maybe we shouldn't talk about it. But here it is on the front page 
of the Washington Times, so I'm going to assume it is okay to bring 
that up. Very significant because, of course, in the Sunni areas of 
Iraq, al Qaeda's dominant. In the Shiia areas the Mahdi

[[Page H8394]]

Army from Maktadar al Sadr was dominant. Neither one of these groups is 
seen as really furthering the common interests of the country of Iraq, 
and both Sunni and Shiia were asking for help from the Americans.
  Another headline that greeted me Monday morning when I woke up in 
Germany on the way back, one of the generals, General Mixon, has 
proposed a shift in strategy in Iraq. He says, they're so calm up 
north, maybe we should be able to bring some of our troops from up 
north down to the areas around Baghdad to provide additional security 
there because, quite frankly, they're not needed in Nineveh province. 
They're not needed in these areas where just a year ago there was 
significant terrorist activity occurring and United States troops were 
required.
  Madam Speaker, you have been very generous with the time. I hope to 
be back here next week with the other members of the congressional 
delegation that went to Iraq. We'll talk a great deal more about this 
subject, but some of these issues were time sensitive and I wanted to 
get them on the record while they were still very relevant.

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