[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 23714-23717]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. President, I speak today as a former mayor. I have 
been listening to the debate about the President's request for $87 
billion supplemental appropriations to support what our troops need in 
Iraq. Yet there are some, who want to divide that, who say: Yes, we 
will provide somehow $67 billion; that is what the troops need on the 
military side, and to do that gives them moral clarity, while 
supporting an additional $20 billion for infrastructure and other 
essential services is labeled as squandering American resources that 
could be better used at home.
  Let me offer some insight on what it takes to build a city, what it 
requires to assure that those who live in a city feel ownership in 
their future, feel confident in their role in that city, and have the 
necessary confidence to move that city forward.
  First, to rebuild a city requires patience. A broken and decayed city 
did not happen over night, and it will not be fixed overnight. What 
happened in Iraq did not happen overnight. From 1970 onward, Saddam 
Hussein never had a budget; he did not invest in infrastructure. In 
fact, he pillaged and raped that infrastructure for his own needs, for 
his palaces, and to cover his friends.
  So what you have are patterns of neglect that have set in and cities 
have become stale and moribund. Their infrastructure starts to 
collapse. That is what we have seen in Iraq. The water systems fail, 
the sewer systems fail, and the power grids blow out after years of no 
maintenance. The roads and sidewalks crack and shift and become 
dangerous to use. So you have the state of decay.
  Second, to restore confidence and hope in a city requires commitment 
and investment. Safe streets do not just happen overnight. You have to 
train a police force. You have to recognize that the best partners in 
fighting crime are not the guns in their holsters but the people who 
live in the neighborhoods who will support the law enforcement efforts.
  Moms and dads living in a city need to have confidence in knowing the 
police are there to protect and serve them, not to conduct covert 
activities on behalf of the Government to deprive them of their 
freedom, their liberty, and their lives. That has been the pattern in 
Iraq for many years.
  Third, to assure growth in a city, there must be a sense that there 
is a future in the city. This requires business believing there is room 
to grow. You have to grow jobs. You have to get paychecks to people who 
then invest in homes and libraries and streets and sidewalks.
  Rebuilding a city is a tough job. Now, increase that on a grand scale 
of rebuilding a nation, and I hope my point is becoming more evident.
  The fact is, rebuilding Iraq--all of Iraq--is as important to the 
protection of our soldiers as the equipment we give them to protect and 
defend themselves. We have to win the peace. We have to win the peace 
and not just the war.
  Rebuild a neighborhood and you keep parents from becoming bitter that 
they do not have clean water or a functioning sewer. Make the 
investment in a library and you give the children a tool out of their 
despair and bring the light of learning and opportunity into their 
lives.
  If you remove people's hopes, you remove their incentive to be 
participants in the community. And if you choose not to invest in their 
lives, their homes, their communities, and their businesses, they will 
turn away from the light and seek the darkness.
  The threat our troops face in the months ahead in Iraq is not just 
from the Baath loyalists or foreign terrorists who are simply trying to 
live another day so they can kill another American soldier. The threat 
our troops face is that moms and dads in Iraq will lose confidence in 
the promise America made to them not only to liberate them from the 
brutality of Saddam Hussein but from the chains of despair.
  We have seen it in our own cities. When we take away hope and 
confidence in people, they strike out. Ask any cop in any American city 
what he fears most: a gang member packing a Glock or a neighborhood 
where people don't care what goes on outside their locked doors and 
windows. You can always find a way to arrest the gangster, but it is 
nearly impossible to get people who have lost hope to open the doors to 
their lives once they have been closed. And once hope is lost, the land 
becomes a swamp of discontent, a breeding ground for terrorists, 
unchecked by the populace.
  That is what we cannot allow to happen in Iraq. If we try to parse 
the investment we make in Iraq, we parse the commitment to American 
troops. This is not rhetoric. This is not drama. This is reality.
  We need to invest in training Iraqis to become policemen now and 
ensure that more American troops can come home sooner.

[[Page 23715]]

  We need to invest in Iraqi infrastructure now and ensure that its 
economy begins to recover. And more Iraqis will go back to work. And 
the greater the hope grows, less anger will be directed toward American 
troops.
  We need to invest in Iraqi schools and libraries and hospitals, and 
conditions that lead to despair and striking out against American 
soldiers diminish, and the breeding ground that terrorists prey on 
becomes smaller and smaller, until they disappear completely.
  The best way to take the gun or bomb out of the hand of a potential 
terrorist is to make sure they have food to eat, schools to attend, 
libraries with books, hospitals with medicine, and communities that are 
safe.
  The best way to make a difference between an Iraqi citizen who works 
with American soldiers instead of trying to kill them is to make sure 
they have access to city services and the very real opportunity for a 
job.
  There is this idea, I am afraid, that the rebuilding of Iraq is 
taking too long and costing too much. There is a sense of panic that 
has seemed to set in. There are those who roam the halls of Washington 
saying: I told you so.
  Throughout the political rhetoric that takes hold on both sides of 
the aisle is a sort of posturing and positioning for who is more 
supportive of American troops than the other. All the while, young men 
and women are laying down their lives to deliver on the commitment that 
their leaders of this country made to the people of Iraq.
  It is time it ends. I am not the most senior guy here, nor am I the 
smartest. I am not the most articulate, nor am I the most decorated. I 
did not come to the Senate to prove on any given day or issue I am 
right. I came to the Senate on any given day or issue to simply do 
right. Today, I urge my colleagues again to turn this issue into 
something that does more to give honor to our democratic traditions, 
and to our American soldiers, than partisan speeches about who is to 
blame for this and who is to blame for that.
  Everyone knows the pricetag is large. Everyone knows there are 
programs in the United States that need support, too. I understand that 
as a former urban mayor. Let us not lose our sense of perspective. The 
task before us in Iraq may be gargantuan in its cost, but the cost of 
failure is unacceptably high.
  Mr. President, I see my colleague from Texas is motioning for the 
floor. I yield for her.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, what is the time?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Twenty minutes.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Has the Senator from Minnesota finished? Because I 
need to allocate 10 minutes.
  Mr. COLEMAN. I will finish in 90 seconds.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Thank you, Mr. President. Let me ask for 1 additional 
minute for the Senator from Minnesota.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Mr. COLEMAN. Thank you.
  Mr. President, I do not need to remind my colleagues how much money 
disappeared from the American and world economy on September 11. 
Success will build world confidence and investment far beyond this 
investment in Iraq. Failure would cost us far more.
  We can, and will, argue over the nature of this commitment. Should it 
be a grant or loan? We know we cannot let a single American dollar go 
to paying off the debt Iraqis owe to the French or Germans who propped 
up Saddam Hussein. We know we cannot load Iraq with debt it cannot 
repay while urging other nations to forgo their debt.
  This body will vigorously debate this issue, as it should, but let us 
not pit the needs of home against the safety of our troops in Iraq. I 
say this without hesitation: We put our troops in Iraq at grave risk if 
we do not win the peace. I urge my colleagues not to let political 
showmanship put American lives at risk.
  The mayor in me says it is time to get back to work in this body and 
support those efforts that will get Iraq and its people back to work.
  Restoring hope and confidence will, in turn, create new investment 
that will save American lives and ensure that Iraq and its people have 
a brighter hope for a better tomorrow.
  With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Minnesota for 
those profound remarks and appreciate his weighing in on this issue.
  Mr. President, we now have 20 minutes left; is that correct?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Eighteen minutes 15 seconds.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I yield up to 9 minutes to the Senator 
from North Carolina; following that, up to 9 minutes to the Senator 
from Tennessee; and then I ask unanimous consent to use 3 minutes of 
leader time, which has been cleared by Senator Frist.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from North Carolina.
  Mrs. DOLE. Mr. President, thousands of young men and women from bases 
in my home State of North Carolina are currently fighting the war on 
terror in Iraq. We are forging a process of peace; and in doing so, we 
are moving toward turning control of the government and society back to 
the Iraqi people.
  With the major battles over in Iraq, our Nation is helping to rebuild 
schools and hospitals, water supply systems and roadways. Part of the 
President's supplemental request is being designated for the 
continuation of these efforts. The stabilization of Iraq depends on 
providing the Iraqi people basic services as well as humanitarian 
relief. And the safety of our men and women in uniform depends on the 
stabilization of Iraq.
  Our forces are on the offensive, and continue to capture key figures 
in Saddam Hussein's evil regime, so that they may be brought to 
justice. The vast majority of the President's request will go directly 
to American troops, giving them the pay, the equipment, and other 
resources necessary to fight the war on terror. We must ensure that 
these funds are available to allow them to complete their mission and 
return home safely.
  Recently a proud grandmother met with my 102-year-old mother in 
Salisbury, North Carolina. This grandmother forwarded me a letter from 
her grandson, Christopher Shawn Jensen, who is currently stationed in 
Baghdad. I would like to read to you what a soldier on the front lines 
has to say. I will read just a portion:

       I was invited to meet with a local Iraqi who works the 
     engineering for our building's electricity . . . He graduated 
     from the Baghdad University in engineering and showed me his 
     class picture (from 1979). We talked about what it was like 
     then, and the difference now. You could see the suffering in 
     his eyes as he talked about the years of terror, the people 
     lived with while Saddam was in power. I felt the same 
     emotions of sadness for these people when I first rolled up 
     here from Kuwait, to see their cheering faces of relief . . . 
     many a soldier's eyes were filled with tears that day . . . I 
     pray that we finish the job we started.

  At the end of the letter to his grandmother, Shawn made a request to 
his friends and family. ``I have started the ball rolling for several 
ideas, he writes, to help in the effort to free Iraqis and also to help 
to make this a safer place for liberty and freedom. I know many of you 
have big hearts and want to help, you just don't know how. Here are 
some things you can help with. I have written to the Editor of the 
Wilmington Star newspaper. The children in Iraq learn on the dirty 
floors in their schools. They need approximately 200,000 desks for 
their schools. I am trying to build support for a program where the 
American citizen can buy support for the Iraqi children.'' And let me 
add, my husband, Bob Dole, has already committed to Shawn's effort.
  Shawn's letter continues, ``We are also collecting money from the 
soldiers here and we are going to buy back weapons from the populace of 
Iraq. We are using the little money we earn in a combat zone to start 
this program. The regular citizens have all kinds of weapons like 
grenades, bombs, and rockets . . . things regular citizens don't need. 
We are asking American citizens to

[[Page 23716]]

match funds that we are collecting for this cause. My father can be 
contacted for this via phone or a web-site that has been started.''
  Shawn Jensen understands what freedom means to the people of Iraq--
indeed he is seeing it first hand. He is so committed to making Iraq a 
safe place for his fellow soldiers to complete their mission, and for 
the Iraqi people to live in a free and orderly society, that he and his 
fellow soldiers are making these tremendous sacrifices.
  My friend, Secretary of State Colin Powell, described last week his 
visit to Iraq in the most poignant terms, He said, ``anyone who doubts 
the wisdom of President Bush's course in Iraq should stand, as I did, 
by the side of the mass grave in Iraq's north. That terrible site holds 
the remains of 5,000 innocent men, women and children who were gassed 
to death by Saddam Hussein's criminal regime.''
  Recently, in testimony before the Armed Services Committee, on which 
I serve, Ambassador Paul Bremer outlined a clear and well-defined 
course of action in Iraq. As he noted, there will be bumps along the 
way, but it is critical for us to stay the course. As he has said so 
poignantly, ``Gone are Saddam Hussein's torture chambers,'' he wrote. 
``Gone are his mass killings and rape rooms. And gone is his threat to 
America and the international community.'' As we go forward, it is this 
that we should keep in mind.
  Today in Iraq, streets are lined with shops selling newspapers and 
books representing varied opinions. Already, 160 newspapers have sprung 
up in Iraq. Schools and universities are open; parents are forming 
PTA's; 95 percent of health clinics are open, and Iraq is on the way to 
a democratic government. Eighty-five percent of towns now have city 
councils. And a Constitution will soon be written, followed next year 
by elections which will provide legitimacy and credibility to the 
government. And millions of dollars of humanitarian aid are going to 
the Iraqi people to make sure they have food, water and shelter.
  Iraqis are also being trained to maintain peace and order in their 
own country. Thousands of members of the Iraqi police force will be 
trained over the next several months in Eastern Europe. And the area 
around Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, one of the most dangerous sections 
in Iraq, is currently being patrolled by the Iraqi army. These measures 
are part of the larger goal of turning over the security of Iraq to the 
Iraqis.
  Certainly, the operation there is proving to be a dangerous and more 
grinding conflict than some expected. The President addressed this fact 
candidly and resolutely in his recent address to the Nation. While 
Saddam Hussein was building palaces, the infrastructure was 
deteriorating terribly, more than we realized. Adequate resources for 
the proper reconstruction are essential to providing security and 
allowing our troops to leave as soon as possible.
  Eliminating terror is more than removing the leaders of an evil 
regime from power. Terrorism must be torn out by its roots, ensuring 
that there is no toehold for its sponsors to reestablish their violent 
ways. The bottom line; we can fight them there, or we can fight them 
here.
  The President's call for a supplemental spending bill for operations 
in Iraq has spawned the most recent round of debate over the war on 
terror. For those who have criticized the cost of the war, understand 
that inaction would be much more devastating. Just look at the 
September 11 attacks. One study has pegged the cost to the economy at 
well over $2 trillion. And a Brookings Institution study estimates that 
a biological terrorist attack against a major U.S. city would cost our 
economy $750 billion.
  There are other critics who have accused the military of being slow 
in their progress. But consider these numbers I heard recently from 
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. It took 3 years after World War II 
to establish an independent central bank in Germany; it was established 
in Iraq in 2 months. Police in Germany were establish after 14 months; 
in Iraq, 2 months. A new currency in Germany took 3 years; it took 2\1/
2\ months in Iraq. The cabinet in Germany was created after 14 months. 
Iraq has a cabinet today--after just 4 months!
  We cannot afford not to do what is necessary to win the war against 
terror and secure our homeland. The funding for the war is necessary 
and significant, but it is temporary. The cost of fighting this war is 
well below the cost of previous conflicts.
  And more than words . . . more than negotiations . . . the 
President's significant spending request sends an unmistakable signal 
to the sponsors of terror, to the liberated Iraqi citizens, and to the 
world--that the United States of America is staying the course. Attacks 
on U.S. troops and other targets in Iraq are aimed at undermining 
freedom and democracy--but these attacks will not cause us to shy away 
from our commitment. Failure to follow through in our mission would 
leave a lethal void--a void that would rapidly be filled by terror and 
its supporters. President Bush has said, ``Liberty is not America's 
gift to the world, it is God's gift to Mankind.''
  I believe that God's gift to all of his children is liberty--and also 
justice and equality, tolerance and opportunity. These belong to all 
people--no matter where they live. Let us remember the steadfast 
resolve of Shawn Jensen in that letter to his grandmother. He is a 
witness to a country being transformed from a reign of terror to a 
beacon of hope. Let us, like him, commit to the stabilization of Iraq 
diminishing the threat to our troops and ensuring greater stability and 
peace in the Middle East.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, the challenge described by the Senator 
from North Carolina is immense: Restructuring the economy and 
government of a country that has borne decades of neglect by a 
tyrannical regime. If we fail, the consequences could be a disaster. A 
fractured, failed Iraq could become a safe haven for terrorists, a 
caldron for fomenting extremism, and a destabilizing force to its 
neighbors, throwing the entire Middle East into chaos. If we succeed, 
the results could be extraordinary. A democratic and economically 
vibrant Iraq would be a shining example to her neighbors that Islam and 
democracy can coexist. More important, such an Iraq would be a friend 
to the United States.
  I have often come to this floor to talk about the importance of 
teaching our children American history and civics so they grow up 
learning what it means to be an American.
  Former President Harry Truman put it this way. He said:

       The only thing new is the history you've forgotten.

  Let me look at history. I am reminded most about the choices we made 
when dealing with postwar Germany, after World War I and World War II. 
At the end of World War I, we made a grave mistake. We punished Germany 
for its actions. The Treaty of Versailles, which formally declared the 
end of the war, ordered Germany to repay its debt to other European 
countries and denied any aid for reconstructing war-torn Germany. Even 
though a new democratic government sprang up in Germany at that time, 
the Weimar Republic, we chose not to provide help but to tell the 
Germans to ``pay up.'' In other words, we defeated them, left them in 
ruins, sent them a bill, and went home.
  Sometimes we forget that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic 
Germany. What was the result? As early as 1922, a young Hitler was 
already railing against the Treaty of Versailles and the payments 
Germany was forced to make. Eleven years later, in 1933, Hitler became 
the Chancellor of Germany--elected. Again, he blamed the Treaty of 
Versailles for Germany's woes. He said:

       We want to liberate Germany from the fetters of an 
     impossible parliamentary democracy.

  Under such a heavy burden of debt, with a failed reconstruction 
policy, Hitler convinced the German people that democracy was too much 
of a burden. We all know what happened next--another world war that was 
more devastating than the first.

[[Page 23717]]

  Our post-World War I policy with Germany was a complete failure.
  One can imagine a similar scenario playing out in Iraq today if we 
make the wrong choice. Let's say the United States, after getting a new 
Iraqi government in place, decides to go home and orders Iraq to pay 
its bills, as some on the other side of the aisle would have us do. It 
is not hard to imagine a new Iraqi leader emerging who blames Iraq's 
economic woes on the United States, who decries the debt we are making 
Iraq repay, who says we only waged the war in order to encumber its 
oil; a new leader coming to power on the wave of anti-American 
sentiment who proceeds to destroy the fledgling democratic system the 
United States helped to establish in Iraq; and suddenly, a few years 
down the road, we have a new evil tyrant running Iraq, who is a clear 
enemy of the United States and could start pursuing policies similar to 
those of Saddam Hussein, or even worse.
  Fortunately, there is another choice. After World War II, we took a 
very different approach to postwar Germany. In 1948, after a failed 
policy of loaning money to war-torn countries in Europe, the United 
States adopted the Marshall plan, named for Secretary of State George 
C. Marshall. The Marshall plan was a 4-year initiative to rebuild the 
economies of 16 countries in Europe, including Germany. The Marshall 
plan cost $13.3 billion and a lot of effort. Ninety percent of the 
money spent on the Marshall plan--nearly $12 billion--was grant money, 
not loan money.
  What was the result? At first, the results were uncertain. Germany's 
economy looked shaky. But over time, our continued investment paid 
dividends. A continent that had been fighting for a thousand years 
became a democracy and became our ally.
  In Japan--in another part of the world--our help took a country that 
had invaded us and made it an ally. The results could not have been 
better after World War II. Our policy was a complete success.
  That is why I believe we need a Marshall plan for Iraq. We need a 4- 
or 5-year plan for reconstructing Iraq, and we need to face up to the 
cost of the plan. We need to understand it is more for us, the United 
States, than it is for them. President Bush has laid out the first 
stages of such a plan.
  The Marshall plan was used for a variety of purposes to reconstruct 
war-torn Europe, including Germany. It paid for the building of 
railroads and water systems, for needed medicines, modernizing 
factories, for restoring ports to allow foreign trade, and much more. 
President Bush's request for funding will pay for many of the same 
things: restoring Iraq's ports on the Persian Gulf, building roads, 
restoring power and water systems, needed medicines, reopening schools, 
and much more.
  Some say funding Iraq's reconstruction would be too costly. But the 
cost of the President's request for rebuilding Iraq--$20.3 billion--is 
actually far less than what we spent on the Marshall plan. That was $13 
billion then, between 1948 and 1952, and that would be at least $102 
billion in today's dollars.
  Another way to compare the cost is percentage of gross domestic 
product. The Marshall plan cost 1.1 percent of our GDP during the 4 
years it was in place. President Bush's proposal would be only one-
fifth of 1 percent. Again, the Marshall plan was five times the cost of 
President Bush's Iraq plan.
  Or we can compare the cost as a percentage of the Federal budget. The 
Marshall plan cost 7 percent of the Federal budget during the years it 
was enacted. The President's requested funds, when added to those 
already spent on reconstruction, were only 1 percent of the Federal 
budget.
  So this idea that we are spending more on Iraq than we did after 
World War II is totally false.
  We can learn a valuable lesson from history. After World War I, we 
made Germany pay its debts. We left them in ruin. We went home. As a 
result, we got Adolf Hitler. After World War II, we pursued the 
Marshall plan, and it did cost some money. But as a result, we won 
democratic allies in more parts of the world.
  President Kennedy said it best in his 1961 inaugural address. This is 
what he said:

       We will pay any price, bear any burden . . . to assure the 
     survival and success of liberty.

  The people of Iraq, like the people of Germany 60 years ago, lived 
under an evil tyrant who wreaked havoc on his neighbors and his own 
people. In both cases, the evil tyrant was overthrown by the United 
States and its allies. America and its allies temporarily took over the 
administration of Germany and Iraq. We paid for the German 
reconstruction under the Marshall plan. We should do the same in Iraq 
and support the President's request. We cannot afford, in our own 
interests, to do anything less.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas is recognized.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, is there any time left on our side in 
morning business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There are 3 and a half minutes, including the 
leader time.

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