[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 133 (Monday, September 10, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H10348-H10354]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   REPORT ON IRAQ BY GENERAL PETRAEUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. GINGREY. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. Speaker, as the gentlewoman from Texas who just preceded me 
stated, we just completed a memorial dedication remembrance ceremony on 
the steps of the Capitol as Members on both sides of the aisle came 
together led by our distinguished Speaker, our distinguished majority 
leader, and our distinguished minority leader. We came together in a 
very bipartisan way to once again pay tribute to the lives that were 
lost, indeed, and to their families, and to our first responders and 
the lives that were lost on their part and, of course, the City of New 
York on that great tragic day, that

[[Page H10349]]

great tragedy that occurred 6 years ago today, Mr. Speaker.
  Before we went to the steps, the majority leader made a statement to 
our colleagues on this floor, which I fully support and endorse. I 
paraphrase his comments, but basically what Mr. Hoyer said to us, just 
a few minutes ago, was that the terrorists, the extremists, those who 
hate our way of life and hate everything about this country, our great 
country, brought us to our knees, but they didn't bring us down. And 
they will never bring us down.
  I absolutely agree that it showed the resolve of the American people 
that they can't bring us down. They got our attention, absolutely. And, 
Mr. Speaker, today, of course, also is the day that General Petraeus, 
the commander of Multinational Force Iraq, the four-star general, the 
combatant commander on the ground in Iraq, along with our ambassador to 
Iraq, Ryan Crocker, gave their report to the American Congress, to the 
House of Representatives, they will do the same thing over the next 
couple of days to the Senate, and directed this report to the House 
Armed Services Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
  Mr. Speaker, there were 111 Members of those two respective 
committees present for this hearing today, which went on almost 7 
hours. It was an opportunity for Members on both sides of the aisle to 
come together to listen carefully to a report that we mandated in our 
emergency supplemental spending bill that was passed March of this 
year, some 6 months ago.
  Mr. Speaker, the thing that bothered me about this report was that in 
this town, last week, in this Congress, indeed, we heard nothing but 
negative comments about the messenger and what he might bring in regard 
to this report to suggest that it would be less than honest. Mr. 
Speaker, the New York Times today ran an article that basically showed 
a picture of General Petraeus and said, underneath the caption of that 
picture, General Petraeus is General Betray Us, to suggest, Mr. 
Speaker, that this general, our combatant commander of Multinational 
Force Iraq, would lie to the American people for some political 
advantage.
  At this time, Mr. Speaker, I want to yield to my friend from 
Mississippi. I think that he may have a copy with him of that 
particular ad. I will be happy now to yield to the gentleman from 
Mississippi (Mr. Wicker).
  Mr. WICKER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding. I thank him 
for the remarks that he has already made.
  Actually, it is not usually my practice to come before this House and 
defend the New York Times. But it was actually an advertisement, a 
full-page advertisement taken out in the New York Times by the ultra-
leftist group, moveon.org. I have a copy of it right here.
  Mr. Speaker, it is by George Soros and moveon.org. It says: ``General 
Petraeus or general betray us? Cooking the books for the White House.'' 
I was astonished to see even moveon.org attack the messenger as they 
did today and attack the credibility and integrity and, if you please, 
the patriotism of this great servant who has served so many years in 
the military and who was confirmed unanimously in the United States 
Senate. It was and is an insult. It shows the level to which the 
opponents of this surge and those who would legislate defeat in Iraq 
would go.
  I was glad to see Ranking Member Duncan Hunter and Ranking Member 
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen take this group to task during the hearing and to 
call on members of the committee at the hearing today to disassociate 
themselves, whether they agree with our policy in Iraq or not, to 
disassociate themselves from this type of smear tactic that we saw 
coming from moveon.org in the New York Times in the form of this full-
page ad.
  Frankly, Mr. Speaker, I was disappointed that more Members on both 
sides of the aisle didn't rise and denounce this scurrilous attack on 
the integrity of one of our great public servants.
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from 
Mississippi before I yield to my colleagues, the gentleman from 
Minnesota and also the gentleman from Tennessee. But I thank the 
gentleman firstly from Mississippi for bringing that New York Times ad 
so that our colleagues on the floor can see just how despicable this 
is. Now, at the bottom, you can't see the fine print, but moveon.org 
disavows itself from any political affiliation.
  Mr. Speaker, we are going to give the Members of this body an 
opportunity to repudiate that ad. I have introduced a resolution. I 
understand our leadership on the Republican side will have a resolution 
to just say to the Members, please, in a bipartisan way, this cannot 
stand, and we cannot tolerate this. I think we will get an overwhelming 
show of support for that resolution.
  I yield to the gentleman from Minnesota.
  Mr. KLINE of Minnesota. I thank the gentleman. I have a remark I 
would like to make in a few minutes. I know our friend and colleague, 
the gentleman from Tennessee, has some comments he would like to make. 
But I was struck, in view of the discussion we are having right here, 
that today in that hearing that the gentleman was just talking about, 
the Joint House Armed Services Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee 
hearing, that General Petraeus was forced, I believe is the right word, 
to do something that I find absolutely extraordinary.

                              {time}  1945

  I have got his report right here to Congress on the situation in 
Iraq.
  In the second paragraph, after he thanks the chairmen and ranking 
members, he says, ``At the outset, I would like to note that this is my 
testimony. Although I have briefed my assessment and recommendations to 
my chain of command, I wrote this testimony myself. It has not been 
cleared by nor shared with anyone in the Pentagon, the White House or 
Congress.''
  To think, one of the finest officers in the American Armed Forces 
felt it necessary to put this in the opening two sentences of his 
testimony, I find shocking and distressing. I am sure we will have more 
to say about that later.
  But it is not only in response to this scurrilous ad, unforgivable ad 
that moveon.org has written, but, frankly, as my colleagues here know, 
there have been comments made by some of our colleagues directly 
challenging and questioning the integrity of General Petraeus. And when 
I saw this today, I was just appalled that we have reached that point.
  Mr. GINGREY. The gentleman is so, so right. Here we are talking about 
a four-star general, West Point graduate, 35 years of military service, 
third rotation in Iraq, to have to put up with that kind of despicable 
attack. And, like I say, we are going to give our colleagues on both 
sides of the aisle an opportunity to repudiate that, which I am sure 
they will.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to my good friend, the gentleman from Tennessee, 
Mr. Wamp.
  Mr. WAMP. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his continued 
leadership.
  It is not just General Petraeus that moveon.org attacks. One of the 
distinguished, I think very reasonable members of the Democratic Caucus 
here in the house, Brian Baird of Washington State, also has been 
protested by moveon.org in his office since he returned from Iraq in 
August and basically told what he saw. He came back and just said, this 
is what I saw: There is progress, and we shouldn't leave precipitously 
because there will be major consequences.
  He told the truth. He is an honorable guy. He serves here in the 
House. I respect him. He is a Democrat, and moveon sends hundreds of 
people to protest at his office. It is a political agenda, and it is 
unfortunate.
  I grew up a Democrat. The first half of my life I was a Democrat; the 
second half I was a Republican. I don't think either party has an 
exclusive on integrity or ideas, but I think this is so far over the 
top.
  There used to be things that we did in this country as Americans, not 
as Democrats and Republicans. This should not be about winning the next 
election or the last election. Wars should not divide us along Democrat 
and Republican lines, and everything should not be seen through that 
prism, and moveon.org is shameless to do this. It is shameless, this 
advertisement in The New York Times, and, as the gentleman from Georgia 
said, everyone in this body should condemn

[[Page H10350]]

what they are doing to try to win elections over our men and women in 
uniform in Iraq.
  My nephew is serving there in Iraq right now. I hate it that he would 
turn around and see this in a full page ad in a major newspaper against 
the most equipped leader to lead our forces in Iraq that our country 
has to offer, period, is who this is.
  For them to slander him in this way for political gain is un-
American. What they have done is un-American. They have the right under 
the Constitution to say it, and we have the right as Americans to 
reject it, and everybody in this House should do that.
  Three main things, while I have an opportunity to speak tonight.
  The mission is just. We lose sight of that sometimes, that our men 
and women in uniform are doing and carrying out what is right for our 
country at this very volatile time in world history.
  It is also easy to forget that over half the Democrats in the United 
States Senate and almost half the Democrats in the U.S. House of 
Representatives voted to remove Saddam Hussein by force. And others 
will come and say, oh, George Bush sold us a bunch of bad information.
  Listen, if there was any bad information, everyone had the same 
information, and many of us voted, from both sides of the aisle, to 
remove Saddam Hussein by force. It is just very convenient now to say, 
oh, that was them and not me.
  It is hard to take responsibility for your actions. It is hard to 
stand before the American people and say we need to work through this 
together. We need to stand behind our troops until they prevail, until 
we have victory and not retreat in Iraq, instead of saying this is all 
about them. It used to be in this country about us. We did things like 
this together, and we didn't retreat so the world would see us walk 
away from our commitments. This mission is just, number one.
  Number two, the military has been extraordinary. They have been 
great. You heard General Petraeus say that today. What the Marines have 
done in Anbar, the progress that has been made there, it wasn't even 
hardly covered by the GAO report. They didn't even talk about the 
extraordinary success, civilian casualties way down, 80 percent success 
in the Anbar Province.
  The moderates are even siding up with us and saying ``We don't like 
al Qaeda. They are cutting off our people's fingers. They are killing 
our children. We want to fight with the Americans against these 
insurgents.''
  That is not the way it was before we strengthened our forces and had 
this success in Anbar. The military is performing in an extraordinary 
way and the tribal governments are now siding with us. That is progress 
by any definition.
  The military is succeeding in Iraq. You may not want to hear it, 
because, as one of your distinguished leaders said, you are in trouble 
politically if we succeed as a Nation in Iraq. That is what he said. I 
hated that he said it. That is terrible. That is an indictment on 
politics in America. We all win if we beat these terrorists in Iraq. 
Everyone in this country wins. The military is succeeding.
  Number three, the political progress in Iraq is not happening. That 
is true. We need to be honest about it. I wish personally we could get 
rid of the Maliki government because I think it is deplorable. But we 
promoted free elections and that is what we got, and we can't very well 
turn around now and say, oh, we didn't like who you elected. Get rid of 
him. They have got to do that. That is the tough work of freedom. They 
have got to do that. I hope they do. But that is up to them. 
Politically, we are not succeeding the way we need to succeed in Iraq, 
and all of us in this House have an obligation to come together and see 
that through to completion.
  Let me just close with this: I have worked for 13 years in a 
bipartisan way. I have scars on my back to prove it. I have made people 
on my side of the aisle livid with some of the positions that I have 
taken working with the other side. But I will not----
  Mr. WICKER. Amen.
  Mr. WAMP. You didn't have to say ``amen.''
  But I will not cooperate with anyone for our soldiers, sailors, 
airmen and marines to walk away in defeat or to leave prematurely 
before we can hold our head up and say ``America has succeeded with 
this just mission in Iraq.''
  I don't want to stay for 5 years or 10 years. I think it is a matter 
of months before we can see real, live redeployments. But the military 
leaders need to do that. It doesn't need to happen on the floor of the 
U.S. House of Representatives. We can't micromanage this war, and we 
sure as heck shouldn't be sending signals that we are going to pull 
them out, because that is the worst thing we can do for the long-term 
interests of our country.
  The Middle East is in chaos. The Wall Street Journal said it well 
last week. The worst religious and political pathology in the history 
of the world is in the Middle East, and now you add to that nuclear 
weapons, terrorism, IEDs and control of the world's oil supplies, there 
is a lot at stake.
  This is not Vietnam. Nothing like it. Nothing like it. It is a whole 
lot worse, the stakes of losing in Iraq. I believe that deep in my 
soul, and I am going to continue to say that on the floor of this 
House. We need to stand together as a Nation and stand together behind 
our men and women in uniform until we can leave in victory and drive 
back this terrorist threat at this point we are fighting in Iraq.

  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for the time.
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Tennessee, 
because he knows of what he speaks and he speaks it well.
  You know, this situation with the ad that the gentleman from 
Mississippi so kindly brought to the floor so all of our colleagues who 
may not have seen it in the newspaper this morning would have an 
opportunity to know exactly of what we are speaking about tonight, the 
gentleman from Tennessee suggested that sometimes people want somebody 
else to do their dirty work.
  Mr. Speaker, look at this first slide to my left. Here is the quote: 
``No one wants to call Petraeus a liar on national TV, noted one 
Democratic Senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The 
expectation is that the outside groups will do this for us.''
  This was last week, an anonymous Democratic Senator being interviewed 
by Politico.com.
  Well, lo and behold, it looks like one these outside groups indeed 
are doing the dirty work of calling General Petraeus ``General Betray 
Us.'' How despicable.
  As I said just a few minutes earlier, Mr. Speaker, we are talking 
about a gentleman, a patriot, a great leader who has served this 
country honorably and selflessly for over 35 years. He has risked his 
life in combat. He accepted lengthy deployments away from his family to 
defend our Nation and its citizens from its enemies.
  For this, Mr. Speaker, he deserves the respect, the admiration and 
gratitude of every single American, and not disgraceful slander from 
despicable groups like moveon.org. Is that Phil Gingrey coming up with 
an original statement? No. I am quoting Senator Joe Lieberman. God 
bless Senator Lieberman.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to our distinguished colleague, the gentlewoman 
from North Carolina, Virginia Foxx.
  Ms. FOXX. Thank you, Mr. Gingrey. I appreciate your allowing me to 
join you and these other very articulate people who are here tonight 
speaking on this issue.
  I was not here as a Member of Congress on 9/11/2001, but I am very 
pleased to be here tonight. As we were outside singing The Star 
Spangled Banner and our colleagues in the majority were talking about 
our being united, I was thinking about the fourth verse of The Star 
Spangled Banner, which very seldom gets sung, but I think is something 
that is so appropriate for the time that we are in right now.
  This is the way it goes. I know it by heart, but I didn't want to 
take a chance tonight, so I am going to look at my notes just in case. 
It is really my favorite verse.

     ``O, thus be it ever when free-men shall stand,
     Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
     Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
     Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us as a nation.

     Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

[[Page H10351]]

     And this be our motto: ``In God is our trust.''
     And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
     O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.''

  When Francis Scott Key wrote those words in 1814, they meant a lot. 
They mean just as much or more now, and I am, like my colleagues, 
absolutely appalled at the approach that has been taken to the 
situation that we are in now by many on the Democratic side.
  It is appalling that they would question the integrity of the very 
men and women who are giving them the chance to stand up and lambaste 
them and slander them the way they are. They completely have forgotten 
what happened on 9/11. Many American people have forgotten. They don't 
understand the threat that this country is under and what we are doing 
to preserve our freedom.
  There is such irony in the fact that these people would get up and 
say this again against the people who are risking their lives so they 
can stand up in the safety of this country and speak freely. It just 
absolutely blows my mind that they are able to do that. They are being 
given the ability to speak freely by people risking their lives and 
people losing their lives every day.
  There is an arrogance of this Congress too, I think, the arrogance 
that demanded this report, the arrogance that says we are failing, 
when, in the face of all of the statistics, things are going so much 
better. There is an arrogance that says that if there is no strong 
national government, then things aren't going right.
  You know, people have forgotten that this country was founded to have 
a strong local and State governmental structure, and the local and 
state governmental structures in Iraq are working well. No, it is not 
going as well as the national level, but compare what we have done with 
what they have done. We have accomplished very little under the 
leadership of this Democratic house in the last 8 months; very, very 
little. You compare that to what they have been able to achieve and 
think about us.
  I spoke to a class today, three classes, actually, in my district, 
and I said to those students, the American people really don't realize 
in many ways the radical idea that this country was when we were 
formed. When people came to the United States, before it was the United 
States, they came here for freedom. They came seeking freedom. All they 
had ever known was freedom.

                              {time}  2000

  When Britain tried to clamp down on us, people said we are not going 
to put up with that. All the people in this country have ever known is 
freedom. All the people of Iraq have ever known is repression. We have 
asked them to do in a couple of years what took many years to develop 
in this country; and, again, it was a totally radical idea never 
perpetuated anywhere before. And yet they are doing very well at the 
local and provincial level, just like we did.
  And now this Congress comes in and says if you don't have a strong 
national government, you have nothing. You are a failure. That is just 
not true. And I am simply appalled, too, at the people who want us to 
lose. How can they not understand the impact of our losing the war 
against the radical Islamic jihadists? This is not a war in Iraq; this 
is a worldwide war. One piece is in Iraq, and in many ways we are 
blessed that we have a concentration there where we can deal with it, 
because we are stopping them all over. They have not attacked us again. 
We have successfully defended ourselves from another attack, but they 
simply do not want to acknowledge it. All they see are the negatives, 
nothing positive.
  And I, again, am appalled at the attitude of the people who want the 
United States of America to fail. My attitude to them is if you can 
find a better place to live, go live there. If you can't, then stay 
here, help us defend this country. Help us support our troops willingly 
to fight for our freedom. Help us to bring liberty to other places in 
the world. Then we will see a safe world. If not, go someplace else and 
live.
  Mr. GINGREY. I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina with such 
prescient words she brings to us.
  I want to bring my colleagues' attention to the next poster I have 
got. I am going to give two quotes, one from General Petraeus from the 
hearing today and the other from Ambassador Crocker.
  First from General Petraeus: ``To summarize, the security situation 
in Iraq is improving, and Iraqi elements are slowly taking on more of 
the responsibility for protecting their citizens. Innumerable 
challenges lie ahead. However, coalition and Iraqi security forces have 
made progress towards achieving sustainable security. As a result, the 
United States will be in a position to reduce its forces in Iraq in the 
months ahead.'' That was from the testimony of General David Petraeus. 
Later in the hour we will talk a little more about specific 
recommendations for troop withdrawal that General Petraeus made.
  I will read that quote from Ambassador Crocker in just a minute, but 
at this point I see my friend from Mississippi is still with us, and I 
would like to yield to him, the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. 
Wicker).
  Mr. WICKER. I appreciate my friend yielding, and I have also been in 
need of a poster before and not been able to find it. If the gentleman 
would put that quote from General Petraeus back up, I will refer to it 
while he looks for the other quote from the ambassador.
  To emphasize this point again, coalition and Iraqi security forces 
have made progress toward achieving sustainable security. Now, that is 
the testimony of this well-respected general that we have entrusted 
with this very important mission.
  And it disturbs me, Mr. Speaker, that often the message of the 
accomplishments doesn't get through to the American people. We hear 
only about benchmarks not quite being met or expectations not quite 
being realized. For example, people point to the fact that an oil law 
has not yet been enacted by the leadership in Iraq and submitted to the 
Iraqi Parliament.
  As a matter of fact, as the testimony indicated today, oil revenues 
in Iraq are up and the revenues are in fact being distributed out to 
the local governments and the provinces. Now, this is in the absence of 
a final piece of legislation enacted by the parliament. But the fact 
remains that under this interim procedure that they have now, the oil 
revenues are there. Iraq is exporting oil for the first time in quite 
some time, and the oil revenues are being distributed out where they 
can benefit the people. That may not be a benchmark of legislation, but 
it is a real accomplishment; and it is the sort of thing that General 
Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker were talking about.
  Also, there has been much made of the fact that there has been no 
reconciliation statute enacted into law over there. But as was pointed 
out today in the testimony, former members of the Iraqi Army, former 
Baathists, if you please, are now being accepted into the government 
and being given pensions from the government and many of them are being 
accepted back into the security forces there in Iraq.
  Now, a law hasn't been passed, but in my opinion that is de facto 
reconciliation and de facto amnesty for these people who were formerly 
in Saddam's Iraqi Army. By the thousands, these people are being 
integrated back into the mainstream of Iraqi security forces.
  Also in the Anbar province, it is well known at least in this capital 
city that the sectarian leaders all across that province have turned on 
al Qaeda. They were in league with them a year ago. They have now 
turned on them, and they are helping the United States and coalition 
forces because they realize that their future does not lie with this 
destructive, violent al Qaeda force, but with the forces that would 
bring freedom and liberty and self-determination to more Iraqis.
  Sectarian violence is down, as Senator Lieberman and Senator McCain 
pointed out in their op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today, and I 
would commend that to our colleagues. There is an excellent bipartisan 
piece about that. Sectarian violence is down all over the country, down 
70 percent in Baghdad alone. So there are real accomplishments there.
  Certainly, as the general said, innumerable challenges lie ahead. The 
assessment is optimistic, but it is sober

[[Page H10352]]

and this is no rosy scenario; but there is much reason to be 
optimistic.
  Let me just say this about the feeling of the American people: I know 
that they are frustrated about this. This war has gone on longer than 
expected, and they have been conflicted about it. But I believe after 
being home for much of August and talking to my constituents, I think 
the American people do want us to succeed in Iraq. They realize that 
failure there, that withdrawal there, that leaving too early would 
leave a huge void that probably al Qaeda would fill and probably our 
detractors in Iran would fill, and they know that would be a disaster. 
They want success, and I think these two gentlemen who testified before 
us give us a good opportunity for success.
  A few moments ago we gathered on the east steps of the House of 
Representatives, and we commemorated the sixth anniversary of the 
terrorist attacks on 9/11. Two other speakers on the floor today were 
not Members of the House of Representatives at that time. I was, and I 
shall never forget the resolve and the determination of the Congress, 
both ends of this building, both sides of the aisle, on that day to 
defeat these terrorists.
  The al Qaeda terrorist network that we are fighting in Iraq today is 
the very same network that brought down those two buildings in New 
York. They are the very same network that sent a plane crashing into 
the Pentagon. And they are the very same al Qaeda that had a plane 
headed toward Washington, DC, which undoubtedly was headed towards the 
Capitol Building.

  We are still fighting al Qaeda, and I appreciate people like 
Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus who are fighting that war as 
capably as they know how. Al Qaeda must be defeated, Mr. Speaker. And 
our best opportunity, our greatest chance to defeat al Qaeda today is 
to be successful in Iraq. That's what I would urge my colleagues to 
support, and I believe that is what the American people want us to do. 
I thank my friend for calling this Special Order.
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Mississippi. The 
gentleman is right, I was having a little trouble finding that poster 
because I don't have that poster; but I do have a smaller copy of it. I 
guess you would call this a slide, Mr. Speaker.
  But I did want to read this quote from the testimony of Ambassador 
Crocker before I call on my colleague, Colonel John Kline. Here is what 
Ambassador Crocker said: ``A secure, stable democratic Iraq at peace 
with its neighbors is attainable. In my judgment, the cumulative 
trajectory of political, economic and diplomatic developments in Iraq 
is upwards, although the slope of that line is not steep. The process 
will not be quick. It will be uneven, punctuated by setbacks as well as 
achievements, and it will require substantial United States resolve and 
commitment.''
  I think the ambassador and General Petraeus served this country 
extremely well today in their testimony, and their facts were accurate.
  Mr. Speaker, with that I want to yield to my colleague on the House 
Armed Services Committee, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Kline).
  Mr. KLINE of Minnesota. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to pick up on some of 
the comments that our friend and colleague, the gentleman from 
Mississippi, was addressing when he was talking about some of the 
information in the testimony that we heard today from both General 
Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker.
  I have the testimony from General Petraeus here in my hand. Mr. 
Speaker, I thought I would touch on a couple of the points that he 
made. He says that the progress our forces have achieved with the Iraqi 
counterparts has been substantial. He says, I see improvements in the 
security environment. The level of security incidents has decreased 
significantly since the start of the surge of offensive operations in 
mid-June. Civilian deaths have declined considerably. He says locals 
have increasingly supported our efforts. While he says al Qaeda 
certainly is not defeated, it is off balance and we are pursuing its 
leaders and operators aggressively.
  This report is not all rosy. General Petraeus made the point several 
times during the over 6 hours of testimony that we had today that he 
doesn't want to look at this from a rosy standpoint or a pessimistic 
standpoint or an optimistic standpoint, but from a realistic 
standpoint; and I believe that this great leader, this great general, 
this man of great integrity and competence and capability did just that 
for us today.
  One of the things that came up repeatedly during the hearing today 
was a reference to another report and another hearing that we on the 
Armed Services Committee heard about last week. General James Jones, a 
former commandant of the Marine Corps, the former Supreme Allied 
Commander Europe, was the head of a commission, a very distinguished 
commission, I might add, one of the most experienced I have ever seen, 
that had military officers and senior noncommissioned officers and 
experienced law enforcement personnel go over to Iraq with the charge 
to evaluate the Iraqi security forces.

                              {time}  2015

  Repeatedly today, and sometimes last week, we heard our colleagues 
saying, well, General Jones came with a very pessimistic report, and he 
had great concerns that things aren't going well. And one of our 
colleagues actually asked the question, General Petraeus, how do you 
square, how do you reconcile, if you will, these differences in 
reports.
  And I remember thinking, Mr. Speaker, when I was in that Armed 
Services Committee hearing and listening to General Jones and his 
exceptionally well-qualified colleagues, that the hearing that we were 
experiencing was not at all like the news reports, perhaps like the ads 
we saw earlier today, but was not at all like the news reports we had 
seen before the testimony in the Armed Services Committee.
  And just as an example, Mr. Speaker, I wanted to quote just a few 
things that General Jones and some of his colleagues said during that 
hearing.
  He said, our first conclusion is that the Iraqi security forces as a 
whole cannot yet defend the territorial integrity of Iraq. This is not 
necessarily an alarming conclusion, he said. They're able to do more in 
terms of combating the internal security threats to Iraq, and that's 
positive. He said, we've noted improvement in the internal security 
missions such as denying the safe haven to terrorists, and this 
progress is likely to continue in the months ahead. He says, the Iraqi 
security forces can bring greater security to the provinces in the next 
12 to 18 months, assuming a continuing rate of progress. He said, the 
impact of the surge has had a tactical success for both Iraqi and 
coalition forces in the Baghdad region.
  That doesn't sound like a pessimistic report or out of step with what 
General Petraeus said today. It's what we have known for some time, and 
I'm sure that my colleagues on their trips to Iraq have had the same 
experiences and reports that I have, and that is, that the Iraqi Army 
has been making steady progress but the police forces are in some 
disarray and need of major improvements.
  In fact, General Jones and his commission recommended that the 
national police force, a relatively small group of 25,000, be disbanded 
and distributed to other forces and that the much larger Iraqi security 
police be strengthened. Again, not at all out of sync with what we 
heard today.
  And in fact, because I had heard in previous trips to Iraq that the 
Iraqi Army was doing well and the Iraqi police was not doing well, I 
said to General Jones, well, this seems very consistent with the 
message that we have heard for some time. So I'm not surprised to hear 
you say that, and you probably weren't surprised to find that yourself.
  And I thought this was amazing. He said, and I will check my notes 
here to make sure that I've got this right, he says, I was pleasantly 
surprised. I'd been going to Iraq off and on since 2003 in my NATO hat, 
and again, he was the commander of NATO, but I think I did not expect 
to see the will that I saw in the Iraqi Armed Forces to take the fight 
to the enemy. I did not expect to see the length and breadth of the 
institutions that are functioning that you need to support an emerging 
army, the training bases, the recruiting, the recruit training, NCO 
schools, counterintelligence schools, training corpsmen. All of those 
things exist. We know that because we saw them.

[[Page H10353]]

  This was a very highly experienced group of four-star and three-star 
generals, sergeants major, police chiefs that went, and this was their 
assessment when they came back. And again, this seems to me very 
consistent with General Petraeus' report today that said, well, things 
are still tough over there, but the surge is working and we're making 
progress. I know my colleague wants to talk about some of those 
recommendations in a bit, but I just want to go to one more.
  Mr. GINGREY. The point you made, of course, about the Iraqi national 
police, General Jones, you're right. I was in that same hearing with 
Representative Kline last week, Mr. Speaker, and General Jones did talk 
about this Iraqi national police force of about 25,000 that in the past 
was rife with corruption, and of course, a lot of changes in the 
leadership, as General Petraeus pointed out today, that has occurred.
  But I think it's important, and I think Mr. Kline would agree with 
me, for our colleagues to understand that the press in the last week, 
talking about the Jones report, suggested that the entire Iraqi 
security force was incompetent and corrupt when, indeed, 49,000 is only 
about 10 percent of the 550,000 Iraqi national army and combined police 
force. So many of them are doing a good job, as you pointed out in the 
hearing today.
  Mr. WICKER. If the gentleman will just yield on that, I'm glad that 
both of my colleagues have pointed this out, Mr. Speaker.
  In just the short time that we've been hearing quotes from this Jones 
report, which I very much appreciated, I don't know how many times the 
gentleman from Minnesota read the word ``progress,'' progress in this 
respect, progress in other respects, challenges of course, but 
progress, progress, progress, the word ``success,'' the words 
``pleasantly surprised.''
  So it would certainly be inaccurate to say that the Jones report was 
totally negative and that the Petraeus report was somehow far 
different. So I very much appreciate the gentleman pointing that out, 
and I simply wanted to underscore the very optimistic words that the 
general had in his testimony.
  Mr. KLINE of Minnesota. I thank the gentleman for that. Reclaiming my 
time, if it's mine to reclaim, I'm not sure sometimes in these Special 
Orders whose time it is. I think it's the gentleman from Georgia's, but 
I don't want to have my colleagues or Americans believe that General 
Jones or General Petraeus came with nothing but good news. That's not 
the case.
  As we discussed earlier, the Jones commission recommended some major 
changes in how the police is trained and equipped and how it functions 
and how it's organized, that they were highly critical of the Ministry 
of the Interior and how they're functioning and, in many cases, failing 
to function. So there are clearly problems, but the Jones report, the 
Jones commission did not come back and say that all is lost and Iraqi 
security forces are all failing.
  In fact, that paragraph that I read quoting General Jones talking 
about how he was pleasantly surprised about the terrific progress of 
the Iraqi Army underscores that some good things are happening.
  I thought it was interesting in that hearing, as my colleague from 
Georgia no doubt remembers, during the question-and-answer period, the 
former Deputy Secretary John Hamre, former Deputy Secretary of Defense, 
was asked some questions about what we should do in Iraq, should we 
leave or should we leave quickly or were things too bad. And he said in 
part, and again I'm quoting, but we have strategic interests that are 
larger than just Iraq. I mean our continued influence and presence in 
the region, the ability to get continued access to energy resources, 
providing a counterweight to Iran. We have large strategic interests. 
Every one of those interests would be seriously diminished if we had to 
crawl out of Iraq or run out of Iraq.
  I think that is significant, Mr. Speaker. He made the point that when 
we leave Iraq, we walk out of Iraq on our terms, having defeated in 
large measure al Qaeda and left an Iraq with a promising future with 
the violence under control and political progress being made.

  And so I just think that we have seen some unfortunate, really 
strident partisan statements made in the last week or so, and I guess 
it's unavoidable that people tend to go to sources that match their 
perspective. But I thought that the constant referring to the Jones 
Commission's report as somehow undermining what General Petraeus was 
saying or not consistent with it or indicating that all was lost in 
Iraq was simply not correct. And these quotes were part of many in what 
I thought was a very thorough, complete testimony and thorough hearing 
when we had the members of that commission in before the Armed Services 
Committee.
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would have time to stay, I 
would be glad to yield back to him as we go forward, but absolutely 
this Jones report last week, I couldn't believe what I was reading the 
next day after hearing the report and hearing General Jones, retired 
Four-Star General Jones, Marine, former Marine commandant, and Colonel 
Kline, a Marine, knows him well. He was one of 20 members of that 
commission.
  Again, this commission was created by the Congress, by the new 
majority, as we passed that emergency supplemental spending bill back 
in February or March, 6 or 8 months ago, to tell us, you know, what's 
the situation with the Iraqi security force, both army and the police, 
and not just, as we pointed out earlier, the national police.
  And almost to a person, the members of that panel who spoke, not all 
20 did, but they gave encouraging news. They pointed out the 
shortcomings, of course, of the national police and the Iraqi police 
force that was not perfect. They didn't give us some Pollyanna, 
glossed-over, varnished report. They told the truth. But as Colonel 
Kline points out, I thought it was an encouraging report. Of course, 
you would never have known it, Mr. Speaker, by the headlines the next 
day. So the gentleman may want to comment on that.
  Mr. KLINE of Minnesota. If the gentleman would yield for just a 
minute, that's what struck me is that, very much like General Petraeus' 
testimony today, the media discussion and the political discussion and 
the partisan discussion that led up to the testimony simply didn't 
match the testimony that we heard in either of these hearings.
  For example, I'm sure that many of our colleagues were surprised, and 
frankly I was, to hear General Petraeus say that it's tough but we're 
making progress, and we're making progress to the point where I'm going 
to recommend that we draw down our forces to the presurge level of 
brigade combat teams and we do it by next July. I was surprised that he 
put that date in there and that certainty in there when he made that 
statement.
  He said we're going to start drawing down this year, brigade combat 
team is going to come back, Marine expeditionary unit is going to come 
back, and we're going to continue to draw down through the spring and 
into the summer. And that is consistent with the original intent of the 
surge. It was temporary with what the Iraq Study Group said about a 
temporary surge, and in fact, I think it's very consistent with what 
the Jones commission said as well.
  Mr. GINGREY. In fact, I think General Petraeus said that that Marine 
expeditionary unit will be brought home next month.
  Mr. KLINE of Minnesota. I believe that's right.
  Mr. GINGREY. I thank the gentleman again.
  Mr. Speaker, at this time, I would like to yield to one of my 
colleagues, another of my colleagues I should say, on the House Armed 
Services Committee, the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Oversight 
Investigation, a new subcommittee, a good subcommittee chaired by my 
good friend, majority member Dr. Vic Snyder, and I'm speaking of the 
gentleman from Missouri, Representative Todd Akin, and at this time I'd 
yield to the gentleman from Missouri.
  Mr. AKIN. Thank you very much, and thank you for taking some time to 
run through a series of events that actually in the last couple of days 
seem a little puzzling to me, I might have to say.
  My recollection is is that General David Petraeus, his credentials 
were reviewed over in the other body, and they took a vote as to 
whether or not he was the guy that we're going to put front and center 
to be in charge of the

[[Page H10354]]

entire campaign in Iraq, and he got a unanimous vote in the other 
legislative body. That says an awful lot of people had to vote for him 
to get a unanimous vote over there.
  Also, as I recall, it was just not so long ago that the Democrat 
party, who's in charge of both the House and the Senate, made the 
request that in September General Petraeus would come before the 
legislature and would make a report as to what the findings were, would 
let us know how things were going. Many people were very skeptical 
about the reorganization, the restructuring of our war in Iraq, around 
the idea of the surge, but people trusted General David Petraeus. They 
trusted him because he has an excellent reputation and record as a 
soldier, but he also is a straight shooter. He doesn't sugarcoat 
things. He explains it the way it is.
  And so it was with some sense of alarm and a little bit, I have to 
say, with a sense of frustration that we saw in the New York Times this 
calling General Petraeus where they say ``General Betray Us.''
  What we're doing is taking somebody that before we thought they had 
good credibility, we're going to guess what they may say to us, we 
think we may not like what he has to say, so now we're going to try to 
destroy his reputation. I think that's a shame.
  My son has served over in Fallujah. As you have mentioned, I also am 
on the Oversight Committee.

                              {time}  2030

  One of the things that has been consistent with every witness, week 
after week over a period of months, every witness we could scrounge up, 
conservative, Republican, liberal, Democrat, you name it, the one thing 
those witnesses said was, first of all, they said if we pull out of 
Iraq rapidly, there is going to be a huge bloodbath there.
  The second thing is that the whole region will be destabilized. 
Everybody agreed to that. Now, some people said, well, there is nothing 
we can do about it, so we ought to pull out now and cut our losses. 
Other ones said, no, there are some things we could do about it. But 
everybody agreed that a rapid drawdown of troops is not what we should 
be doing in America.
  After listening hour after hour to all these experts, I came to the 
conclusion of this simple fact, and that is, it is the least-cost, most 
logical best alternative for us to just go ahead and win the war in 
Iraq.
  We are more than halfway, and trying to turn around and back out, 
make excuses and try to lose is just going to be much more costly than 
moving forward and doing a good job.
  That's what the general has outlined today in very credible 
testimony. I was very thankful that he is here. I am thankful that you 
took the time to help us to be able to talk about this very important 
subject about how we proceed and the sense of good news. There is a 
little light at the end of the tunnel is what it seems like to me.
  Mr. GINGREY. Light at the end of the tunnel, indeed. The gentleman is 
right on target.
  As we conclude this Special Order hour, I want my colleagues to take 
a good look at this ad that ran today in the New York Times.
  I know it's hard for the Members to actually see the text, or you can 
see the picture; but, basically, what it says, the caption is: 
``General Petraeus or General Betray Us?'' With a big question mark. 
Then under that: ``Cooking the books for the White House.''
  The first and last paragraph, I will quote, let me read this to you, 
this is what MoveOn.org, a political action committee says.
  Mr. AKIN. Isn't MoveOn.org generally associated with the Democrat 
Party?
  Mr. GINGREY. I hope not, I say to the gentleman from Missouri. I 
think if you look at their funding trail though you would find that 
they haven't contributed probably too much support in any way, shape, 
or form to Republican Members.
  But hears what they say about General Petraeus: ``General Petraeus is 
a military man constantly at war with the facts. In 2004, just before 
the election, he said there was 'tangible progress' in Iraq and that 
`Iraqi leaders are stepping forward.'
  ``And last week Petraeus, the architect of the escalation of troops 
in Iraq, said `We say we have achieved progress, and we are obviously 
going to do everything we can to build on that progress.' ''
  Then their final paragraph, I skipped the middle one, they say: 
``Most importantly, General Petraeus will not admit what everyone 
knows: Iraq is mired in an unwinnable religious civil war. We may hear 
of a plan to withdraw a few thousand American troops.
  ``But we won't hear what Americans are desperate to hear: a timetable 
for withdrawing all our troops, General Petraeus has actually said, 
will need to stay in Iraq for as long as 10 years.''
  Finally, they say, MoveOn.org, today, before Congress and before the 
American people, General Petraeus is likely to become General Betray 
Us.
  In conclusion, as the majority leader said a few minutes ago, before 
we walked out on the steps, to commemorate and honor the American 
people on the sixth anniversary of that tragedy of 9/11, we did that in 
a bipartisan way. This is not a political argument that we bring to the 
floor tonight, and this business, if we are winning in Iraq, the 
Democrats lose. If we are losing in Iraq, the Democrats win. If we are 
winning in Iraq, the Republicans win. This is not about who wins 
politically. This is for the American people.
  We are going to win. We are going to let victory have a chance. We 
are not just simply blindly staying the course.
  In regard to this surge, this is exactly what the Iraq Study Group, 
Lee Hamilton and former Secretary James Baker, recommended to the 
Congress; and this is what the President has done.
  I commend him for it. I think we are making progress; but there is, 
indeed, as the gentleman from Missouri said, light at the end of the 
tunnel, a bright light. We need to give victory a chance.

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