[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 123 (Monday, July 30, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10209-S10210]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IRAQ
Mr. REID. Mr. President, last week was a very productive week for the
Senate and the American people. With Democrats and Republicans working
together, the Senate was able to pass the conference report
implementing the 9/11 Commission recommendations. Also, we passed the
Fiscal Year 2008 Homeland Security appropriations bill and the Higher
Education Reauthorization Act.
This week, we will turn our attention to important domestic
initiatives, including reauthorizing the Children's Health Insurance
Program and passing the ethics conference report to strengthen the
integrity of our Government. That legislation is completed. The House
will pass it tomorrow. Without any qualification or reservation, it is
the most significant lobbying and ethics reform in the history of our
country. I hope we can do this piece of legislation without a lot of
turmoil. I hope that people understand how important it is to the
American people.
As we focus on issues that will lead to a better and brighter future
for millions of Americans, two new reports illustrate that neither the
present nor the future seem particularly bright for the Iraqis and Iraq
itself, where our brave troops are fighting in this intractable civil
war.
One report that came down this morning is from a humanitarian
organization. The other is from President
[[Page S10210]]
Bush's own Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
According to the first report--released by Oxfam, an international
aid organization, and the NGO Coordination Committee network in Iraq--8
million Iraqis are in need of immediate emergency aid. So according to
this first report, 8 million Iraqis are in need of immediate emergency
aid. That is probably more than a third of the population. It means
they are desperately lacking basic daily necessities such as food,
water, and sanitation.
Even more troubling, these conditions are worse now than before the
war started. Before the war, 19 percent of Iraqi children were
malnourished. Today, that is 28 percent. And 50 percent lacked adequate
water supplies before the war; that is now 70 percent. So 70 percent of
all Iraqis live without clean water.
With awful and deteriorating conditions such as these, it is no
wonder a recent poll of the Iraqi people showed 70 percent of the Iraqi
people believe the American presence is making them less safe.
Our troops are certainly not to blame for these failures to make the
Iraqi people safer or healthier. In the war's 4-plus years, they have
accomplished everything they have been asked to do. They took down the
Iraqi dictator. They have heroically battled those who seek to
destabilize Iraq and the region. They have provided time for Iraqi
factions to come together and negotiate a peaceful settlement of their
differences which, unfortunately, these factions have not taken
advantage of.
These failures lie with the President, who took us to war without a
plan for peace, and the Defense Department generally, which has not
managed to administer a strategy for success, and the Iraqi Government,
which hasn't taken responsibility for their country's own future.
The second new report, from the Inspector General's Office for Iraq
Reconstruction, sheds new light on how thoroughly our efforts in that
area have failed to help Iraqis and how dearly that failure is costing
American taxpayers.
This inspector general's report tells us Iraq's central government
has refused to take responsibility for more than 2,300 reconstruction
projects America has already paid close to $20 billion to construct.
The result is many projects are lapsing or continue to rely on
American funds only.
I say this in the background of the Iraqi people having arguably the
largest oil reserve in the world. When I met those in the first Iraqi
Government, along with Senator Frist, one of the Iraqis proudly said of
the governing body: People say we have the second largest oil reserves
in the world, but we have the largest oil reserves in the world.
I don't know whether it is first or second, but they have a lot of
oil, which translates to money, and they are not helping at all with
these projects.
Not a single project has been turned over to the Iraqi Government in
more than a year. Even among those few that have been turned over,
many, if not most, are now failing.
As a result, our almost $6 billion investment in Iraq reconstruction
is largely being wasted. What would happen in America? We would not
tolerate $6 billion being wasted in taxpayer dollars, and we should not
stand for it in Iraq--especially when it is our taxpayers' money that
is being wasted.
As long as we continue our open-ended commitment of troops, the Iraqi
Government has no incentive to step up. As long as we continue
financing projects that they let lapse, they will continue to let our
troops and taxpayers shoulder the burden.
The father of a soldier from Nevada wrote me recently to tell me how
that burden is affecting his son and his son's fellow soldiers. He gave
me permission to read this when I called and asked him after reading
this heartfelt letter. He asked me not to mention his son's name, so I
am not going to do that. I will not mention the man's name who wrote
the letter. If anybody has a question, I will be happy to show them the
letter in my office.
He wrote:
Our son is a 20-year-old cavalry scout in the Army. He and
his best friend quit college their first semester to ``make a
difference.'' We are a close-knit family and although we only
get to speak to Mike once every 3-4 weeks, the conditions,
morale and circumstances he deals with are like nothing we
read about in the press.
I have always supported our troops but cannot support the
war anymore, particularly when I continue to receive
information from my son that is upsetting to me. He has not
had a day off since his deployment in early January. He has
had his hummer blown up and narrowly escaped death, seen his
close friend blown to pieces 30 yards away, had a suicide
bomber blow up a hummer in his unit 50 yards away, and the
stories go on.
My concern is no days off, 7 days a week in combat, 4 hours
of sleep per night and no days off in sight for the future. I
have to buy a good deal of equipment for him to send over to
Iraq . . .
I am a successful local businessman and a very patriotic
person . . . but we feel helpless and do not know who to
speak to . . . What do our soldiers have to look forward to
except fighting every day, looking death in the eye daily, no
days off, strategy that changes daily, 125 degree weather,
[and] little communication with the outside world . . .''
The Presiding Officer, from firsthand experience, knows what this man
is talking about. Most of us don't.
This young man from Nevada, fighting with bravery far beyond his 20
years, deserves better.
As his father said, he signed up for the Armed Forces to ``make a
difference.'' There are challenges facing America in nearly every
corner of the globe--real dangers that will affect our security for
generations to come. This young soldier should be helping us wage a
real war on terrorism that goes after those who attacked us. He should
be involved in peacekeeping missions to stop genocide and spread peace.
Instead, he is stuck in an endless war that even President Bush's own
military experts admit has no military solution.
It is long past time to end this preoccupation with Iraq. It is time
to rebuild our overburdened military, so this young soldier from
Nevada, and 160,000 more just like him, have the rest and care they
need to do their job effectively.
As we work this week to make life better for millions of Americans at
home--especially children--we continue to think of our troops and the
Iraqi people who suffer abroad, and we will continue to work every day
to bring about the new course our troops and all Americans deserve.
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