[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23808]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 CELEBRATING FREEDOM FOR IRAQI CHILDREN

  (Mrs. MILLER of Michigan asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, today marks another watershed 
moment in the liberation of the Iraqi people. Today, the children of 
Iraq return to school. Only this year, things will be much different. 
When they enter their schoolroom, for the first time in their lives, 
they will not have their oppressor staring at them from a picture on 
the wall. Nor will they be subject to torture and prison for not 
swearing allegiance to that oppressor. For the first time they will be 
free to learn. They will be focused on reading, writing and arithmetic, 
not on hate, incitement, and brutality forced on them by the former 
dictator.
  Operation Iraqi Freedom has brought freedom to the children of Iraq. 
They will now be free to learn, free to achieve, and free to help build 
a new society based on freedom, which is now a reality.
  For all of those who question whether we have been successful in 
Iraq, I ask that they look at the faces of the Iraqi children who will 
be tasting freedom for the first time in their young lives and ask if 
they would be better off with Saddam staring at them from a wall.
  Today is a day to celebrate the freedom of Iraqi children and the 
hope for a new generation.

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