[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 13 (Thursday, January 22, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H478-H483]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SUNSET MEMORIAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I know that another legislative 
day has come to an end and that sunset approaches fast in Washington, 
DC. So tonight, I want to stand before this House with what I call a 
Sunset Memorial.
  You see, it is January 22, 2009, in the land of the free and the home 
of the brave. And before this sunset today in America, almost 4,000 
more defenseless unborn children were killed by abortion on demand. 
That is just today, Mr. Speaker. That is just today, 36 years to the 
day from Roe versus Wade. That is more than the number of innocent 
lives lost on September 11th in this country, but it happens every day.
  It has now been exactly 36 years to the day since the tragedy called 
Roe versus Wade was first handed down. Since then, the very foundation 
of this Nation has been stained by the blood of almost 50 million of 
its own unborn children. Some of them, Mr. Speaker, cried and screamed 
as they died. But because it was amniotic fluid going over the vocal 
cords instead of air, we couldn't hear them.
  All of them had at least four things in common, Mr. Speaker. First, 
they were just little babies who had done nothing wrong to anyone. And 
each one of them died a nameless and lonely death. And each one of 
their mothers, whether she realizes it or not, will never be quite the 
same. And all the gifts that these children might have brought to 
humanity are now lost forever, Mr. Speaker.
  Yet, even in the glare of such tragedy, this generation still clings 
to a blind invincible ignorance while history repeats itself over and 
over again and our own silent genocide mercilessly annihilates the most 
helpless of all victims, those yet unborn.
  Mr. Speaker, perhaps it is time for those of us in this chamber to 
remind ourselves of why we are really all here. Thomas Jefferson said, 
``The care of human life and its happiness, and not its destruction, is 
the chief and only object of good government.'' The phrase in the 14th 
Amendment capsulizes our entire Constitution. It says, ``No state shall 
deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of 
law.''
  Mr. Speaker, protecting the lives of our citizens and their 
Constitutional rights is why we are all here. The bedrock foundation of 
this republic is that clarion declaration of the self-evident truth 
that all human beings are created equal and endowed by their creator 
with unalienable rights, the rights of life and liberty and the pursuit 
of happiness.
  Every conflict and battle our Nation has ever faced can be traced to 
our commitment to this core self-evident truth. It has made us the 
beacon of hope for the entire world, Mr. Speaker. It is who we are. And 
yet today, another day has passed, and we in this body have failed 
again to honor that foundational commitment. We have failed our sworn 
oath and our God given responsibility as we broke faith with nearly 
4,000 more innocent American babies who died today without the 
protection we should have given them.
  So, Mr. Speaker, let me conclude this part of my remarks, this sunset 
memorial, in the hopes that perhaps someone new who heard it tonight 
will finally embrace the truth that abortion really does kill little 
babies; that it hurts mothers in ways that we can never express; and 
that it is time we stood up together again and looked to the 
Declaration of Independence; and, that we remember that we are the same 
America that rejected human slavery, and marched into Europe to arrest 
the Nazi Holocaust; and, we are still the courageous and compassionate 
Nation that can find a better way for mothers and their unborn babies 
than abortion on demand.
  And, Mr. Speaker, it is such an appropriate time to discuss these 
things. Only a few hours ago, probably no more than 200 yards from this 
well, President-Elect Barack Obama put his hand down on the same Bible 
that Abraham Lincoln was sworn in and took his oath to the Presidency, 
and he took an oath that made him President Obama. And I just would 
remind the country somehow that we need to ask ourselves

[[Page H479]]

again, why do we respect Abraham Lincoln the way we do? Why have we 
made a monument to him down at the Potomac River? Because, you see, 
generations from now they will still be talking about Barack Obama 
putting his hand on the Lincoln Bible.

                              {time}  1445

  And I think that the significance of it and the symbolism is powerful 
beyond words. But many voices will also ask, did he hold in his heart 
those same truths that Abraham Lincoln held in his heart when he put 
his hand on the Bible? And when he found the courage as President of 
the United States in the days of slavery and the humanity within 
himself to reach out to slaves that the Supreme Court said were not 
human and that the tide of public opinion didn't recognize as 
protectable under the law, I can say to you, Mr. Speaker, this is one 
Republican that somehow hopes that history will find that Barack Obama 
found an epiphany in his own heart and soul and recognize that these 
little unborn children look to him now for help. And I hope that 
somehow he can recognize that just as Abraham Lincoln was a good 
steward of the deliverance and the hope that was so necessary to 
protect innocent life in the days of slavery, that somehow Barack Obama 
will understand that it is now in his place to have the hope and 
deliverance in his own heart for these little unborn babies.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope if nothing else that at least the President now 
can remember that the Bible in which he laid his hand, the pages 
beneath his hand, had the words written in red, inasmuch as you have 
done unto the least of these My brethren, you have done it unto Me.
  It is still not too late for us to make a better world and for 
America to be the one that leads the rest of the planet, just as we did 
in the days of slavery, from this tragic genocide of murdering 4,000 of 
our own children every day.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, as we consider the plight of the unborn on this 
36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, maybe we can each remind ourselves 
that our own days in this sunshine of life are all numbered and that 
all too soon each one of us will also walk from these Chambers for the 
very last time. And if it should be that this Congress is allowed to 
convene on yet another day, may that day be the day when we will 
finally hear the cries of innocent unborn children. May that be the day 
when we find the humanity, the courage and the will to embrace together 
our human and our constitutional duty to protect these, the least of 
our tiny little American brothers and sisters, from this murderous 
scourge upon our Nation called ``abortion on demand.'' It is January 
22, 2009, 36 years to the day since Roe v. Wade first stained the 
foundation of this Nation with the blood of its own children. This, in 
the land of the free and the home of the brave.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, since it is January 22, and since we have made a 
great transition in this country, I feel as if it is also appropriate 
for me tonight to say some words in tribute to one George Walker Bush 
who had the courage, the commitment and the compassion in his soul to 
stand up for these little babies who couldn't stand up for themselves. 
A few days ago, George Bush made his last Presidential speech. When he 
had finished, he graciously wished the Nation and the next President 
success. He said good night. And then he asked for God to bless America 
and all Americans. And he walked down the steps from the podium in the 
hall in the White House as President of the United States of America 
for the very last time.
  And President Bush may be gone from us now, but there will always be 
so many of us who deeply honor him, as I try to here this moment, for 
the man he is and the President he has been to America.
  As with many great Presidents, it will take a broader and more 
developed perspective of history for most to truly comprehend the 
purpose and impact of the Bush administration. Mr. Speaker, I believe 
history, if it's unbiased, will be very kind to George Bush, not only 
because of his achievements, but because of the obstacles that he 
overcame.
  In his Presidency, George Bush faced the catastrophic disaster of 
September 11, the deadliest terrorist attack or any other enemy attack 
against America in her entire history. He faced the calamity of 
Hurricane Katrina, one of the five deadliest storms to ever strike 
American soil. And then President Bush faced a worldwide financial 
crisis demonstrated by the largest 1-day drop in the Dow Jones in the 
history of the Nation.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, any sane mind knows President Bush did not cause 
any of those disasters to happen. And any honest mind knows that his 
response to those disasters was due to trying to do what he truly 
thought was the right thing for the country instead of what was right 
for him politically.
  There are, indeed, so many tangible threads to the noble legacy of 
President George W. Bush. President Bush, first of all, gave gallant 
and unwavering leadership to America, to our military forces and 
freedoms's march in the world. The men and women in our Armed Forces 
were honored to call President Bush their Commander in Chief. He 
implemented the largest reorganization of our national security 
apparatus in the history of our country. And for 7 years, the deadly 9/
11-scale terrorist attacks against our country that all the experts 
said would follow September 11 were prevented.
  The American people may never fully know the number of attacks on 
America that were thwarted because of the intelligence gleaned under 
the leadership of President George W. Bush. We may never know how many 
lives have been spared because, in those uncertain and fearful days 
following 9/11, President George W. Bush had the courage to defend us 
all from the virus of jihadist terrorism, whose proponents believe it 
is the will of God for America to be wiped from the face of the Earth.
  Mr. Bush proactively protected America by taking the fight to the 
terrorists. He dismantled their networks and toppled two dangerous 
regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. Their collective population of 50 
million now live in a freedom that they have never known before. How 
can any of us forget the blue-tipped fingers on the hands held high in 
celebration by millions of Iraqis who had voted for the very first time 
in their lives in a nation that has not known freedom since before it 
was called Babylon, Mr. Speaker? I truly believe one of the great 
legacies of President Bush will be the kindled light of liberty in the 
eyes of those who once recognized that their future could only be an 
ever darkening, hopeless oppression. And now they are free.
  Throughout his war on terrorism, and our war on terrorism, President 
Bush often had to walk like a knowing lion, like a knowing lion, Mr. 
Speaker, through the chattering of hyenas and endure the incessant 
insults and thoughtless criticisms of those whose vision only reached 
to the selfish partisan advance of the moment. But if those critics do 
not devour themselves in the meantime, Mr. Speaker, some day they may 
face the bared teeth of an enemy that will make us all wish the lion 
still walked among us.
  But because President Bush did not capitulate to the voices of 
surrender and appeasement to terrorists, some of which came from this 
very Chamber, Mr. Speaker, today victory in Iraq has come, and a 
beachhead of freedom in the Middle East has been gained. And if that 
beachhead is maintained and protected in the days ahead, it may serve 
to inspire liberty in other nations in the Middle East and turn the 
whole of human history in freedom's direction, that because George Bush 
was once President of the United States of America.
  President Bush was willing to fight, not because he hated what was in 
front of him, but because he loved what was behind him. He loved 
America. He loved freedom. And he loved the innocent.

  Mr. Speaker, he was indeed a man of deep, abiding conviction and 
compassion. He launched the PEPFAR initiative, the President's 
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and treating malaria victims which has 
brought lifesaving treatment and care to more than 10 million people 
worldwide, mostly mothers and their babies, who would otherwise never 
have had it. Mr. Speaker, I personally saw his tears when he looked at 
the pictures of children born in Third World countries with their faces 
severely deformed. I saw his tears again when he stood in the White 
House and watched John

[[Page H480]]

Roberts be sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court 
because he knew, Mr. Speaker, that the Constitution and its protections 
of the basic human rights of life, liberty and property for all of 
God's children would be safe in the hands of Chief Justice John 
Roberts.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe the noble and faithful legacy of George Bush 
will be borne for generations to come by the judicial fidelity of John 
Roberts and Sam Alito to the plain and timeless meaning of the United 
States Constitution. Posterity will never be able to thank him enough.
  President Bush also advocated fearlessly for human rights and for 
religious freedom for the literally one-third of the world's population 
that lives under oppression and human rights abuses. He doubled funding 
for veterans and worked to protect free trade and enacted the largest 
tax relief in an entire generation. He supported numerous successful 
democratic revolutions in countries such as Lebanon, Ukraine and 
Georgia, all in the belief that the surest hope for peace and the 
protection of human dignity is still through liberty inherent to every 
person.
  And Mr. Speaker, even though, as we talked about earlier, unborn 
children could never vote for George Bush, he stood unequivocally for 
their right to be born and to one day walk in the warm sunlight of 
freedom in America like the rest of us.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, there are many reasons I will remember President 
George W. Bush. I will remember him for his courage. I will remember 
him for his patriotism, for his love of freedom, for his thankful heart 
and his commitment to human dignity and protecting, once again, those 
innocents that could not protect themselves. I will remember him 
because he vowed to keep us safe, and he did. I will remember him 
because he saw the greatness in America. And the greatness of America 
always lived in his own heart. I will remember him because he 
recognized that indeed there is a good and evil in this world. I will 
remember him because he rejected the liberal intelligentsia's posture 
that there was moral equivalence between murdering innocents to advance 
an ideology and liberating the innocent to advance freedom. I will 
remember him because he had both courage and conscience. And moreover, 
he had the courage to follow his conscious. I will remember him because 
he brought honor and dignity to the White House. I will remember him as 
a man who loved and honored his Savior, his wife Laura, his daughters 
Jenna and Barbara, his mother and father and brothers, his entire 
family. He loved his family with all of his heart, Mr. Speaker. And I 
will remember him for loving and holding the entire human family as his 
very own.
  But the most touching thing I will forever remember him for, Mr. 
Speaker, was his tender and compassionate heart toward those whose only 
plea was mercy. It is something that God remembers about him, too, Mr. 
Speaker.
  Like George Bush, Winston Churchill was used of God to protect the 
world from falling under the sway of a hateful ideology for what might 
have been generations. In the election that followed, the voters turned 
Churchill out of office. And when the press asked him, now what do you 
think, Mr. Churchill? He spoke words that I hope can speak to the heart 
of President Bush.
  Mr. Churchill said, the only guide to a man in this life is his 
conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and 
sincerity of his own actions. And it is very imprudent to walk through 
this life without that shield, because we are all so often mocked by 
the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but 
with this shield, no matter how the fates may play, we march always in 
the ranks of honor.
  And Mr. Speaker, like Winston Churchill, in the hearts of so many of 
us, George Bush will always march in the ranks of honor.
  Now there are so many things I wish I could say directly to this 
President as he honorably steps away from public life and embraces the 
next great task God has for him on this Earth. Mr. Speaker, if I could 
just talk to him face to face, I think I would just say something like 
this, I would say, Mr. President, I encourage you to remember that 
popularity has been and will always be history's pocket change. It is 
courage, it is courage and love for humanity that are history's true 
currency, and these will always be the transcending hallmarks of your 
Presidency.
  Mr. Speaker, I would say, thank you, Mr. President, for protecting 
the citizens of the United States from the dangers of jihadist 
terrorism. I would say, thank you, Mr. President, for protecting my two 
little babies, Joshi and Gracie. Thank you that they will live in a 
brighter, more hopeful future because you were once President of the 
United States. And then, Mr. Speaker, I would simply say to him, Mr. 
President, don't worry too much about America. You left us strong in so 
many ways, in the ways that really count. And I hope you will remember 
the words quoted by one of the wisest and most loving and noble 
Presidents as he spoke of America in the last line of his own inaugural 
address. He said, an angel still rides in a whirlwind and directs this 
storm.
  God keep you forever, sir.
  That is what I would say to him, Mr. Speaker.
  And with that, Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield to Congressman Mike 
Pence for such time as he may consume.
  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, it is very humbling to follow words of such eloquence 
and passion. But I will do my best in a few minutes. The old book says 
if you owe debts, pay debts; if honor, then honor; if respect, then 
respect.
  And when I heard that the gentleman from Arizona had organized a 
modest tribute to the 43rd President of the United States today on the 
House floor, I felt this was such a moment to pay a debt of honor and 
gratitude to a man with whom I did not always agree and as I sometimes 
would joke at home, he almost always noticed.

                              {time}  1500

  The time as a freshman I opposed the President's signature 
legislation, No Child Left Behind, the time I and other Republicans 
opposed other signature bills like the Medicare prescription drug 
entitlement, this was a President who would let you know when he had a 
difference of opinion, but always respectfully and never spitefully.
  So I stand here today not as a vacuous apologist for George W. Bush. 
I have occasionally been referred to as a thorn in the flesh to the 
Bush administration, being a cheerful conservative on Capitol Hill who 
was fighting against big government spending during the Bush years, but 
I come here today, among other cherished colleagues, like the gentleman 
from Iowa, simply to say I truly believe that this Nation owes a debt 
of gratitude to George W. Bush.
  I am struck, and I expect I will quote with attribution the gentleman 
from Arizona's missive about popularity being the pocket change of 
history. It is a wonderful line because it is my judgment, as Mr. 
Franks just suggested, that when the fullness of time arrives and the 
American people are able to see the contribution of this good and 
decent man in the context of history, they will know that George W. 
Bush served this Nation with integrity and with courage and was in 
effect the kind of President that America needed during such a time as 
this.
  And I say that, and I told the President not long ago that it was one 
of the greatest privileges of my life that the first 8 years of my 
career in public service would coincide with his 8 years in the White 
House. I sensed a little emotion in his eyes when I said that, and the 
bear hug that followed gave evidence of it. But again, it was not 
because I always agreed with this President. It was because I saw when 
it mattered most, George W. Bush did what he thought was right, 
regardless of what the polls said, regardless of what may have been in 
his personal interest.
  I want to cite two specific examples and then close with a word about 
the fundamental character of the Presidency and what character means to 
the office.
  The two occasions that will always be burned into my mind because I 
lived

[[Page H481]]

them, I was here that day and in those days, were in effect a day in 
September 2001 and another day in the latter days of 2006 and early 
2007.
  In September 2001, I scarcely need to say to you, Mr. Speaker, or 
anyone looking in about the service this President rendered to America. 
In what at least matched her darkest hour, as the buildings fell, as 
the smoke was still rising from the Pentagon, as I had made my way home 
to hug my small children at our residence in Arlington, Virginia, and 
had worked my way back into this closed city for official meetings, as 
I crossed the 14th Street bridge, the two Marine One helicopters blew 
past me maybe 50 feet off the deck, and our President went back to the 
White House that day. Shoulders back, he stood tall. A few days later 
he would literally stand amidst the rubble of September 11 at Ground 
Zero and drape his arm over a firefighter and speak into a bullhorn 
words that would echo American resilience around the world, and the 
Nation was no longer afraid.
  I won't add any more to that because it seems to me in that moment 
when my great grandchildren look back at these times, more than any 
other aspect of George W. Bush's career, he will be judged in that 
moment and he will not be found wanting.
  You talk about approval ratings, I think it was following that moment 
that a man who left office as one of the least popular Presidents in 
our history was for a time the most popular President in American 
history. But I can assure you, having spoken to him about it privately, 
none of that mattered to him. It didn't matter to him that he was 
unpopular. He did what he thought was right for the American people, 
and he did it with courage.
  The second instance, and then I will close. I was called over to the 
White House, I believe it was in early 2007. His party has just 
experienced devastating losses in the midterm elections. A few of us 
who survived were invited over to the White House for a meeting with 
the President. Everyone who was anyone in the punditocracy of this town 
thought that the President would announce a retreat from Iraq.
  The President called myself and about 15 other Members into the 
Cabinet Room, members of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Armed 
Services. He looked at us across the table and said I have counseled 
with this general I am going to put in charge. His name is Petraeus. He 
says he has a new idea about how we can put things back together in 
Iraq. And he said I am going to give him what he is asking for, and I 
am going to put him in charge because, and he said words I will never 
forget, ``I've decided not to lose.''
  As I told the President personally a year later, I believe in the 
fullness of time when the history of this time is written, that will go 
down as one of the most courageous decisions by an American President 
in a time of war. All public opinion suggested, all of the polling, 
rather, that was out, suggested a majority of Americans were ready to 
get out, regardless of the cost. Let it go to seed, forget about the 
sacrifices that have been made, but this President decided not to lose. 
And he looked for a way to make it work and he went to the American 
people. And as is undeniable today, the surge worked.
  I believe the gentleman from Iowa recently mentioned that more people 
have died in accidents in Iraq since last summer than have died in 
combat-related violence. Is it still a dangerous place; certainly. Are 
there challenging days ahead; of course. Is there lethal enemy there 
and in the region; yes. But it is not the way it was in 2006, and that 
is because of the character and resilience of this man.
  So on those two occasions we saw character. I believe, even though I 
disagreed with the President on the bailout last fall and again today 
on the floor, I disagreed with the spending record, in those moments, 
the character that shown through was a service to the Nation, and my 
family was safer as a result.
  Last thought. It has been a long time since the 1990s and people 
forget how embarrassed the American people were by what happened in the 
Oval Office by the predecessor of this President. And I have no desire 
to revisit the sordid and lurid tales that were displayed before our 
children during the last administration. But to me, the essence of the 
Presidency is character, and George W. Bush showed the courage of his 
convictions in defending this country and he also showed through his 
fealty to his wife, through his integrity in office, the administration 
of what it is to provide good and decent government and to be an 
example to the American people and to our families and our children. 
For that we owe him a debt, and I am pleased to rise today to pay some 
small amount toward that.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. I thank the gentleman from Indiana.
  I yield to the gentleman from Iowa.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. I thank the gentleman from Arizona. It is an honor 
to stand here. And I reflect upon the time that Bob Hope and Sammy 
Davis, Jr., and others were on Johnny Carson's program. George Gobel 
was sitting there, and he looked around at the famous folks that were 
on either side of him, and he had this look of discomfort on his face. 
And finally he uttered: Did you ever think that the whole world was a 
tuxedo and you were a pair of brown shoes?

  Well, I am the brown shoes here on this floor today. As I listened to 
Mr. Franks and Mr. Pence, Mike Pence who inspired me through the lens 
of the C-SPAN camera well before I came to this Congress, and Trent 
Franks who has continued to inspire me on a daily basis since I did 
arrive in this Congress with him in January of 2003.
  We are here today, and it is a great privilege, Mr. Speaker, to 
address you and continue with the subject, and that is, let me say, the 
capping of some of the contemporary dialogue on the history of the 
Presidency of George W. Bush and the things that he has done and 
contributed.
  Now some have said and called for a long period of honeymoon in this 
new administration because that's what we do in a free country. Well, 
it is what we should do in a free country, respect for the office, 
reverence, the sense of a new beginning. However, that is not something 
that George W. Bush ever experienced, was not one minute of a 
honeymoon.
  From the moment that the polls closed on election night, the churning 
began. And in the morning it carried on for 37 days while we sorted 
out, through a recount process and a Supreme Court, both the Florida 
Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court came forth with 
rulings from all of those days that unfolded, 37 days, President Bush 
has been under attack from the left, that developed a visceral hatred 
for him that I could never connect with any rational thought process. I 
just couldn't track the logic. So that has been an anchor that he has 
had to drag and deal with. That was, I think, the hyenas that were 
referenced by Mr. Franks, how this lion walked among them.
  I am here to say thank you to President Bush for the things that he 
has done when he has had his steady hand on the till of leadership, and 
especially with our national defense.
  I wasn't here in this town on September 11, 2001. I came the next 
Congress, not that one. I was here for the beginnings of the 
liberations of Iraq. I was here for more completion of the buildup in 
Afghanistan. I have made six trips to Iraq and two to Afghanistan. I 
have engaged myself in our foreign policy as much as I can possibly do 
so. I have looked at the 50 million people between Iraq and Afghanistan 
that breathe free today that had not breathed free before and would 
unlikely have ever breathed free if it had not been for the solid, 
bold, courageous leadership on the part of President Bush, our 
Commander in Chief, who said our enemies will hear from us soon, and 
they did.
  I know there were Iowa guard troops on the ground in Afghanistan, as 
well as many others, who guarded the polling places and guarded the 
pathways to the polling places in a land on real estate that had never 
seen an election before. Today, they have a government that is elected 
of, by, and for the people, controlled by the people. It is a long 
pathway to see Afghanistan where we would like to see it. But, Mr. 
Speaker, it is positioned today in such a fashion that we can see some 
light at the end of that tunnel and we can define the people in 
Afghanistan as free and in control of their own destiny, however 
precarious it might be with the enemies from without who are 
infiltrating within.

[[Page H482]]

  We need to continue to face those enemies with the vigor and the 
courage and the patriotism and the nobility that our military from 
Commander in Chief on down have done so each and every day since the 
beginning of the operations in Afghanistan.
  In Iraq, Mr. Speaker, I'm going to make this statement. This 
statement is a general thank you to our Commander in Chief who issued 
the order to liberate Iraq and sent troops in March 19, 2003, and that 
is, Mr. President, I have looked at the metrics in Iraq and I have 
examined the statistics that come from there.

                              {time}  1515

  I have evaluated the benchmarks that were imposed upon the President, 
Mr. Speaker--and with regard to the President, whom I hope catches this 
message--that the 18 benchmarks that were imposed upon the President--
and he had to essentially sign the bill in order to maintain the 
funding to continue the operations--those 18 benchmarks, Mr. Speaker, 
16 of them are all completely or substantially achieved.
  The 17th benchmark is provincial elections, which are scheduled for--
and we have no reason to believe they won't come off like the two 
previous elections in Iraq and the ratification of the constitution in 
Iraq--that date is January 31, just a few days from now. When that date 
is achieved, we will be able to say, analytically and objectively, 17 
of the 18 benchmarks set by this Congress have been all completely or 
substantially achieved. The remaining benchmark is one that couldn't be 
possibly achieved in the time frame that we have had, and that is the 
one that sets up the Iraqi Security Forces to be completely independent 
from U.S. coalition support. That means no communications, no intel, no 
logistics, and no munition support coming from the United States other 
than that that they would write a check for and buy from us on the 
marketplace or the world. That's not something that you can do in a day 
or week or month or a year, Mr. Speaker; it's something that takes 
years to stand up a military that has that capability.
  There are 609,000 Iraqis today in uniform stood up defending the 
security in that country, and they've done so in such a fashion that 
sectarian deaths in Iraq that were so serious that they numbered on a 
monthly basis more than 2,000 in a single month--and I take you back to 
about December of 2006, I believe that number was about 2,300 sectarian 
deaths--and as the surge began and unfolded, those sectarian deaths 
wound down to the point where there was a point last May where they 
actually were so low that they were statistically insignificant. Today, 
the sectarian deaths have been reduced by at least 90 percent.
  Mr. Speaker, American deaths in Iraq. If you have a son or a daughter 
that is serving in Iraq today or are concerned about their safety--and 
this gives no solace to the people who have lost family members there, 
that solace we offer to them in our prayers--but statistically, as we 
have troops that are deployed to Iraq, they have been, since the first 
day of July of last year, at greater danger of being killed in an 
accident than by the enemy. That has held up from the first day of July 
on, it stands today, and I pray it will stand for a long time. And I 
would like to see those numbers of course get to zero. But whenever you 
have men and women and machines moving, there are accidents. We lose an 
average of 510 Americans a year on-duty deaths, 510. That's in greater 
numbers now than the incidents of death in Iraq due to the enemy.
  So we have made a lot of progress in the country. The Iraqis are 
governing much of their own country. The provinces that they have taken 
over the security have been significant. And additionally, we have 
handed over the security of the Green Zone to the Iraqis on the first 
day of January, and it hardly made the news.
  Mr. Speaker, we have won the war in Iraq. George Bush's courage did 
that, the decision he made did that. When he got advice from his Joint 
Chiefs of Staff, the advice, which was, ``we can achieve this victory, 
Mr. President; the advice that we have is let's redeploy from there.'' 
And the political advice was, ``declare victory and retreat from 
Iraq.'' That was the echo of the incessant advice that came from the 
political advisors. And the military advisors didn't say ``declare 
victory,'' they just simply said, ``let's deploy out of there, we can't 
win this war.''
  President Bush looked for a way. And I sat in the Oval Office when he 
pointed at the picture of Abraham Lincoln and he said, Abraham Lincoln 
went through seven generals before he found his general. I've not been 
there yet, I think I've found my general, General Petraeus. The 
leadership that it took to have the courage to declare for victory in 
the face of all the advice for defeat echoes in me on this day with the 
leadership that it took for Abraham Lincoln, when every member of his 
cabinet, when called together to ask for their advice on whether to 
sign the Emancipation Proclamation, every member of the Cabinet said, 
Mr. President, no. Don't sign it because you don't rule over the 
slaves. You can't free the slaves because we don't occupy the south. 
They do. They will decide whether or not the slaves are free and 
they're not going to be released.
  Mr. President, the next Cabinet member said, we have people fighting 
for the Union that don't care about slavery. You're sending a message 
that they won't like. So don't sign the Emancipation Proclamation. I 
could go on with a series of reasons or excuses, but in the end, after 
every Cabinet member said to Abraham Lincoln, don't sign the 
Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln said, ``Well, gentlemen, 
the I has it,'' and he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. And today, 
we give great honor to the liberation of the people who were created in 
God's image, all of them, those born and those not yet born, because 
Abraham Lincoln understood the sanctity of human life.
  President Bush made a similar decision when he said we are going to 
declare for victory in Iraq and we are going to go forth with a surge. 
It took that same kind of courage in the face of advice to the 
contrary, and today we see Iraqis milling the streets in relative 
freedom, building their country together. And it is a country that I 
couldn't even go to a place like Ramadi or Fallujah a year and a half 
ago because it was too dangerous, even with security. But I've been 
back to those places and walked the streets of each of those towns and 
heard the Mayor of Fallujah declare, ``We are a city of peace.''
  There is a victory achieved in Iraq, and it's a victory that George 
W. Bush deserves credit for. And this is also a man with a profound 
moral understanding of when his life began, at the instant of 
conception. And he has faced this issue with a number of big decisions 
in the Oval Office, decisions that had to do with the executive order 
that supports the Mexico City policy that forbids U.S. taxpayer dollars 
from being extorted from our pro-life citizens--of which I am one--to 
fund abortion services in foreign countries. That's an executive order 
that's balanced precariously perhaps on the desk of President Obama 
today. This man who called out for unity may not be doing so if he 
signs that executive order.
  President Bush supports the Mexico City policy. It has protected 
millions of lives around the world and has protected the conscience of 
American taxpayers. President Bush burned many hours examining the 
embryonic stem cell research and finally decided the existing lines 
would be allowed to be utilized, but there would be no new lines that 
would interrupt innocent human lives with U.S. taxpayer dollars. It was 
a difficult and careful decision that he made. It has protected the 
lives of many little embryos. And I have held some of those snowflake 
babies in my arms--yes, they are people, they're warm, they're bubbly, 
they giggle, they laugh, they love just like the rest of us, having 
been frozen for 9 years as an embryo. President Bush understood that. 
There is a real humanity in this man. This is a pro-life President.
  And right now, I can tell you that he's our last pro-life President 
so far, the most recent pro-life President. This is the man who 
appointed Justices Roberts and Alito, which resulted in justices that 
understand the text and the original understanding of the Constitution, 
who ruled to uphold the ban on partial birth abortion which has saved 
lives in America, and it is one legislative victory that we have here.

[[Page H483]]

  And this is the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. It is a profound 
time. So I want to say, in conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I want the message 
to be echoed to President Bush, thank you for the people in Iraq and 
Afghanistan, that they can go to the polls and vote and breathe free 
air and direct their national destiny and become our allies in this 
quest for freedom, the right of every man and every woman and every 
person to be free, the right to life that every man and every person 
has. And I ask, Mr. Speaker, that the President also be thanked for his 
stance for life and freedom.
  I yield back to the gentleman from Arizona and thank him for his 
indulgence.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. I thank the gentleman from Iowa.

  Mr. Speaker, it has been an absolute honor to serve with Steve King 
in this body. He and I came in as freshmen a little over 6 years ago. 
And time has a way of getting away from all of us, but I just want him 
to understand what a hero I think he is.
  Today has been sort of a remembrance of heroes. We've talked a lot 
about George Bush, we've talked a lot about Abraham Lincoln. In a 
sense, it is so appropriate to do that on January 22, isn't it? Because 
we are reminded that, just as America was used after 6,000 years of 
rampant slavery in the world, we were the ones that had a moral 
conflict with it. And yes, we had a little disagreement called the 
Civil War over it, but we were used of God to change this tragedy of 
slavery, and now it is at least discredited all over the planet. And I 
believe that this country will be the country that will lead the world 
to discredit this tragic practice of killing our children before 
they're born.
  And so, Mr. Speaker, I would just suggest, on this January 22, 2009, 
that all Americans remember what makes us special. And what makes us 
special is because we once held these truths to be self-evident: That 
all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with 
certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness. And that to secure these rights, governments are 
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of 
the governed. That's what made us special once. And if we look back to 
those great foundational truths that made us the greatest Nation in the 
world, our best days are still to come.
  God bless George Bush. God bless Abraham Lincoln. God bless every 
little unborn child trying to come to this country and to walk in the 
freedom of American liberty. And God bless America.

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