[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 7670-7675]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE WAR IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. McInnis) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I listened to the previous speaker, and I 
am curious if the gentleman's preference is tear gas or bullets. I 
think it is a fair request that it be disclosed, what kind of gas or 
what kind of chemical might be used, but I think it is somewhat of an 
exaggeration to say the United States is going to use chemicals like 
those which Iraq possesses, and those are chemicals like nerve gas, 
ricin, and anthrax. I can assure the gentleman that the United States 
has no intention of using ricin, nerve gas, anthrax or those types of 
weapons.
  I think it is entirely appropriate, if we enter into urban combat, 
which we have to expect is going to happen, if we have an opportunity, 
primarily because the civilian population is in a particular facility, 
if we can use tear gas instead of putting a mortar into the building, 
maybe we ought to use tear gas.
  But for people from foreign countries to stand up and say the United 
States is using gas, they will be disappointed to find out the type of 
gas, and I do not know whether it would be used or not, but I think it 
would make sense to use tear gas if we can disarm and minimize our 
casualties towards civilians. Keep in mind the United States has done 
an incredible job on minimizing casualties on civilians.
  It is interesting to note that the Iraqis care less about their 
people because they are willing to use their people as human shields 
than we care about their people. The United States cares enough about 
their people that on many occasions we will not return fire because of 
the Iraqi citizen that is being used as a human shield, but not on all 
occasions. They should not depend on that working every time. They 
think less of their citizens because they will use them as a shield. We 
think more of their citizens because we do not want citizen casualties.
  I listened today to some comments from some of my colleagues, and 
there are two things that I want to correct. One, this is the United 
States against Iraq; and two, Europe is opposed to this.
  In fact, if we look at Europe, Members will find that Jacques Chirac 
likes to pronounce that France is Europe. France is not Europe. France 
is a part of Europe. It is not Europe.
  Jacques Chirac likes to play like he is the king of the kingdom of 
Europe. Europe has many different countries, and most of those 
countries in Europe support the United States of America. The United 
States of America is not acting alone in this action. The United States 
of America, in fact, has more allies in this action than we had during 
the entire first Persian Gulf War, not less, more. And on the European 
continent, look at the countries that are supporting the United States.
  First, perhaps it is more appropriate to look at the countries that 
are opposing the United States. There are six, three of them being in 
Europe: France, Germany, and Belgium.
  Now look at the countries that are supporting the United States. The 
British, the strongest ally we have had in a long time, the Italians, 
the Spanish, the Polish, the Hungarians, the Dutch. I can give Members 
generally the countries, Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Colombia, the 
Czech Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Iceland, 
Japan, South Korea, Lithuania, Macedonia, Nicaragua, the Philippines, 
Romania. It is not just the United States. It is the United States and 
the British who are leading the cause, but they have lots of support 
throughout

[[Page 7671]]

this world. And when Jacques Chirac speaks about Europe, he ought to be 
more careful.
  It is such a sad case in our history that a long-time alliance and 
friendship with our old friends in France and Germany has been so 
denigrated by political leaders in Germany and France who are seizing 
upon popular opinion to use the United States as a vehicle to bash to 
continue to increase their ratings in the popularity policy. This 
alliance and this relationship we have had over there has gone way too 
many years for it to be trashed by Chancellor Schmidt in Germany and 
Chirac over in France, but they have done a pretty successful job of 
doing it.
  I can tell Members in my opinion we would not be engaged in military 
combat today had the French and the Germans, or had the French and the 
Germans initially in 1992, in 1993, in 1994, in 1995, in 1996, in fact, 
after the Iraqis gassed 60,000 of their own people, and not with the 
type of gas like the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) was 
talking about, tear gas and so on, gassed them with ricin. They killed 
60,000. But what did the French and the Germans do? Negotiate, 
negotiate, negotiate. Let us have meeting, after meeting, after 
meeting; resolution, after resolution, after resolution. Had the French 
and the Germans and the country of Belgium, had they decided to get 
tough back in 1992 or any of those other years, we would not be where 
we are today.
  I note that my colleague says the United States started this war. 
This war was started back in 1991 when Iraq continually defied the 
world's demand that he disarm those weapons of mass destruction.
  There is not a country in the world, including the French, by the 
way, including Germany, there is not a nation in the world that denies 
that Saddam Hussein has these weapons or denies that he is a wicked 
guy. But there are a lot of them that want to do everything they can to 
get rid of Saddam Hussein except fight him. That is where the French 
fall in place.
  I think it is important for our population to understand, I think it 
is very important that there are lots of other reasons that Jacques 
Chirac and Chancellor Schmidt over in Germany are taking on this anti-
U.S. attitude and feeding the frenzy to hate America.
  Once this gets resolved, take a look at how many contracts the French 
have with the Iraqis, business contracts. Mr. Speaker, do you know who 
approved the building of a nuclear plant in Iraq years ago, and the 
building of a nuclear plant that was justified because they needed it 
for energy in the country that has the second largest oil reserves in 
the world? Jacques Chirac approved it when he was prime minister.
  Take a look at the history that we have connected with this, and we 
will find out how inherent these conflicts are. How interesting that 
Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Schmidt are now saying we ought to be the 
ones that let our contractors go in and rebuild Iraq after this 
conflict is over. Their decision has a lot less to do with true 
disagreements of substance with the United States and a whole lot more 
to do with business agreements and business contracts and oil.
  Let me say something about the oil situation. Many people talk about 
this is all about oil. It is about oil, but it is not about oil for the 
United States of America. If it was about oil for the United States or 
the British, the easiest thing for us to do, and we could do it in 24 
hours, is to lift the sanctions, take off the economic sanctions.
  I will tell what oil it is about. It is about oil for the French. The 
French have below-market, large contracts for oil resources from Iraq. 
That is what it is. If we want to talk about oil, we had better look at 
the French.
  I happen to think that once we are successful in taking out this 
regime and we are rebuilding Iraq, and the oil that is for the people 
of Iraq and owned by the people of Iraq, I think the first thing we 
ought to do is make sure that oil is being sold at the market price, 
and I think we ought to call up Jacques Chirac and say you have been 
getting a sweetheart deal for a long time. Guess what? You care about 
the Iraqi people, we care about the Iraqi people, no more sweetheart 
deals. The French are going to pay the true value for their oil so we 
are assured that the people of Iraq get the true value for their oil, 
and it is given to the people of Iraq. That is how we ought to approach 
this.
  The same thing with Germany, by the way.
  Mr. NORWOOD. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. McINNIS. I yield to the gentleman from Georgia.


               Recognition of the 173rd Airborne Brigade

  Mr. NORWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I would like to associate myself with the 
remarks of the gentleman from Colorado.
  Mr. Speaker, yesterday over the northern Iraq city of Bashur, in the 
deepest, darkest time of the night, the unmistakable and ominous 
rumblings of C-17 transport planes could be heard overhead. They came 
in low, delivering roughly 1,000 paratroopers from the U.S. Army's 
173rd Airborne Brigade, known affectionately as Sky Soldiers.

                              {time}  1445

  They were there to support the U.S.-led coalition of nations to 
liberate the Iraqi people and end Saddam Hussein's reign of terror.
  Their immediate mission was to secure a snow-covered airfield near 
Bashur that could be used to bring in additional support and supplies. 
Within hours of their successful landing in the still of the night, by 
the way, one of the largest of its kind since World War II, the 173rd 
Airborne Brigade, the Sky Soldiers, under the command of Colonel 
William Mayfield, had accomplished their mission.
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud of all of our men and women fighting for 
freedom around the clock today in Iraq, but there is no question I do 
feel a special kinship and bond with the Sky Soldiers and a keen sense 
of pride in their contributions during this ongoing military campaign. 
I feel this way, Mr. Speaker, because I too served with the 173rd 
Brigade during the Vietnam War.
  Since it was originally constituted in 1917 as an infantry brigade 
and an element of the 87th Division, the 173rd Airborne Brigade has 
compiled a proud history of wartime accomplishment and distinction. 
During World War II, the Headquarters Company of the 173rd Infantry 
Brigade fought in three European campaigns as the 87th Reconnaissance 
Troop. The troop reverted to Reserve status after war, but in 1963 it 
was allotted to the Army and activated on Okinawa as the 173rd Airborne 
Brigade under the command of Brigadier General Ellis Williamson. While 
training extensively to make mass parachute jumps, the brigade earned 
the nickname of Sky Soldiers. The brigade was deployed to Vietnam in 
1965 and became the first major ground combat unit of the U.S. Army to 
serve there. At its height in Vietnam, the 173rd had roughly 3,000 
soldiers assigned.
  Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, the 173rd has a proud and distinguished 
wartime record. During its more than 6 years of continuous combat in 
Vietnam, the brigade earned 14 campaign streamers and four unit 
citations. At the same time, individual Sky Soldiers received 13 Medals 
of Honor, 32 Distinguished Service Crosses, 1,736 Silver Stars and over 
6,000 Purple Hearts. Here in Washington on the Vietnam Memorial Wall, 
there are over 1,790 Sky Soldier names listed, a lasting reminder of 
the contribution made to our Nation by the 173rd during the Vietnam 
War. Today, the 173rd Airborne Brigade is based in Italy where it 
serves as the European Command's only conventional airborne strategic 
response force for the European theater.
  Mr. Speaker, the 173rd was heard from last night and, make no mistake 
about it, they will be heard from again. With the U.S. Army's Sky 
Soldiers on the ground and on the job in northern Iraq, our military 
campaign to end Saddam Hussein's torturous regime is one step closer to 
victory. Finally, Mr. Speaker, until that victory is securely in hand 
and this campaign has ended, let us keep the Sky Soldiers and all of 
our brave military men and women defending freedom in our thoughts and 
prayers. All the way to the Herd and God bless.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding.

[[Page 7672]]


  Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's comments.
  I had said in my earlier comments that preceded those comments about 
the French and the Germans, I wanted to move from that and talk a 
little about some of the people out of Hollywood, for example, some of 
the protesters who in my opinion are spending more time supporting 
Saddam Hussein than they are the President of our own country. I want 
to talk about casualties, and I want to just read some letters that I 
have gotten in the last few days from parents of some of our brave men 
and women that are over there.
  Keep in mind that when we talk about the military forces, we should 
remember that the military forces that are making this happen, that are 
protecting this country, that are providing the United States of 
America with the security and frankly with our liberty and as the 
former Senator Thompson said today, it is the brave soldier who has 
allowed us, it is the brave who have allowed us to be a country of the 
free. What I want to point out is throughout this country, today, in 
the United States there are lots of military people involved in 
planning, lots of people involved in logistics. In fact, last night 
just visiting with one of my colleagues, I said, look, somewhere out 
there in the logistical divisions of our armed services, somebody has 
got to figure out how to transport 350,000 tubes of toothpaste every 2 
weeks, acquire them, package them, ship them and distribute them so all 
of our service people have toothpaste to use when they want to brush 
their teeth. There is lots that has to go into the supply line.
  That leads me into my next comment. Remember, we have only been 
engaged in this conflict for 7 days. One week. I know there were some 
people that thought that Iraq was just going to willy-nilly lay down 
and that Saddam Hussein was going to walk off the scene and that our 
tanks were going to drive in as fast as they could to the city hall in 
downtown Baghdad and have coffee. Those people were so optimistic they 
were unrealistic. We are 7 days into this now, and all of a sudden I 
note that some of the national media is looking at the most wild, 
optimistic reports and since obviously we are not driving into downtown 
Baghdad to the city hall down there, they are saying, what is happening 
to the United States? Are we faltering? Is the war plan not working?
  You talk about a misconception. You talk about a diversion to what is 
really occurring over there. The other thing that we have got to be 
very careful about are the casualties. Good God, we all know how 
horrible a casualty is; and we have a lot of people, primarily young 
men and women serving for our country, and they are on the front line 
and they are engaged in combat. This war and every war is nasty. As 
Tony Blair said this morning in his press conference, it is a nasty and 
bloody business. And that is exactly what it is.
  But we have become conditioned almost in our society that we can 
engage in a conflict with minimal or zero casualties. I believe in 
Kosovo, it was all taken from the air at many, many tens of thousands 
of feet; and I think the only casualties we had were accidents. Somehow 
some parts of the American population are believing that you can engage 
like this, for the right reasons, by the way, but engage in something 
like this without casualties. I pulled this article out of The New York 
Times Today by Todd Purdum. Todd put out some of the statistics. He 
talks about the calculus of casualties. The Battle of the Bulge in 
World War II, 19,000 Americans, 19,000 casualties in the Battle of the 
Bulge. On one single day, September 17, 1862, at least 3,650 
Confederate and Union soldiers died on the field. 3,650 in one day. At 
the height of the Vietnam War, roughly 200 Americans a week were 
killed.
  He says:
  ``Modest as the latest losses are by historical standards of 
combat,'' speaking of the first Persian Gulf war, the battle with 
Kosovo and where we are engaged right now, ``modest as the latest 
losses are by historical standards of combat, they have already 
prompted sharp shifts in public perceptions about how well the campaign 
against Saddam Hussein is going, though they have not, according to 
polls so far, reduced overall support for the war.
  ``But as coalition forces face unexpected complexities on their march 
to Baghdad, the administration faces the political challenge of 
preparing a public lulled by the relatively low losses in Afghanistan 
and the first Persian Gulf war for a conflict that could be costlier 
than some optimists predicted.''
  That is the point. We cannot assume a self-defeatist attitude because 
we take some casualties. Imagine if we did not take those casualties 
today, what kind of casualties we would be passing on to the next 
generation, because this generation shirked its responsibility, walked 
away from its responsibility and did not stand up with our allies, 
which as I mentioned earlier are larger in number than the allies we 
had in the first Persian Gulf war.
  Imagine what the casualties would be 10 years from now if we just 
pass this problem on to the next generation. Iraq would have been, and 
we are not going to let it happen obviously, but it would have been if 
we had not taken this action, in 3 years, in my opinion, and I know 
quite a bit on both countries, in 3 years in my opinion, Iraq would 
have been another North Korea. How are you going to deal with North 
Korea? If you think we have a problem dealing with one North Korea, you 
ought to try dealing with two North Koreas. Thank goodness we have got 
the gumption, thank goodness we have the persistence, thank goodness we 
have the resources and the military might and, frankly, the moral 
belief that this is just and we know it is just, thank goodness we have 
the ability to go in there and do this and stop this evil thing.
  It truly is a difference between good and evil. Some people say, you 
sound like you are preaching from a pulpit. If they knew me very well, 
they know they would never let me on the pulpit. But first of all let 
me say to you that it is truly evil we are trying to overcome and there 
will be casualties. I do not speak lightly of these casualties. I just 
read about a family whose daughter is missing. She was ambushed. She 
was a cook, a clerical, the convoy took the wrong turn and drove right 
into enemy hands. She is missing and that family is going through hell. 
Every family that suffers a casualty until they find out, one, that 
their son or daughter is going to make it; or, two, the death of a 
child, the horror of being in your house and looking out your picture 
window and seeing a military officer with a chaplain standing there 
waiting for you to answer your door. This is heavy, heavy stuff. Our 
President knows it is heavy stuff. The administration knows it.
  Look at what we have got. We have got Colin Powell. He has been on 
that battlefield. He knows what we are talking about when we talk about 
heavy weight and casualties. Dick Cheney, a former Secretary of Defense 
during the first Persian Gulf war. Condoleezza Rice. Take a look at 
these people. We know the heavy weight, but we must be prepared as a 
Nation not to let ourselves when we have 27 casualties, we may have 27 
or 29 casualties to this point, that all of a sudden we say, My gosh, 
things aren't going well. We are not going to be able to accomplish 
this without casualties. But I can tell you the casualties we take as a 
result of getting rid of this regime will be a fraction of the 
casualties we as a Nation, we as the United States and our allies would 
take if we allowed Saddam Hussein down the route he was traveling for 
the development of his weapons of mass destruction and his propensity 
to pass those weapons on to terrorists and so on.
  I want to just take a couple of moments and read some letters. First 
I want to read one of my favorite letters. I have noted that many of 
our international experts whose primary way of making a living are 
Hollywood actors have all of a sudden rediscovered their expertise in 
foreign affairs. It is very interesting to put a comparison. For 
example, Martin Sheen, whom I think got out of high school, to the best 
of my knowledge has never taken 1 hour of credit in foreign affairs, to 
the best of my knowledge outside of a good

[[Page 7673]]

place to make a film has no knowledge of international politics or 
geopolitical politics is making all the comments that he is commenting. 
Take his resume and compare it next to Colin Powell. Tell me who knows 
more about foreign affairs. Yet Martin Sheen and some of his cohorts 
out there in Hollywood, in Tinseltown out there, are making these 
opinions. I saw a letter, very interesting, from Charlie Daniels. I 
thought I would read the letter. It is serious. It is an open letter to 
the Hollywood bunch. I am quoting Charlie Daniels:
  ``Okay, let's say just for a moment you bunch of pampered, overpaid, 
unrealistic children had your way and the USA did not go into Iraq.
  ``Let's say that you really get your way and we destroy all of our 
nuclear weapons, stick daisies in our gun barrels and sit around with 
some white wine and cheese and pat ourselves on the back, so proud of 
what we have done for world peace.
  ``Let's say that we cut the military budget to just enough to keep 
the National Guard on hand to help out with floods and fires.
  ``Let's say that we close down our military bases all over the world 
and bring our troops home, increase foreign aid, and drop all trade 
sanctions against everybody.
  ``I suppose that in your fantasy world, this would create a utopian 
world where everybody would live in peace. After all, the great 
monster, the United States of America, the cause of all of the world's 
trouble, would have disbanded its horrible military and certainly all 
of the other countries of the world would follow suit.
  ``After all, they only arm themselves to defend their country from 
the mean USA.
  ``Why, you bunch of pitiful, hypocritical, idiotic spoiled mugwumps. 
Get your head out of the sand and smell the Trade Towers burning.
  ``Do you think that a trip to Iraq by Sean Penn did anything but 
encourage a wanton murderer to think that the people of the USA didn't 
have the nerve or guts to fight him?
  ``Barbara Streisand's fanatical and hateful rantings about George 
Bush makes about as much sense as Michael Jackson hanging a baby over a 
railing.
  ``You people need to get out of Hollywood once in a while and get 
into the real world. You'd be surprised at the hostility you would find 
out here.
  ``Stop in at a truck stop and tell an overworked long-distance 
trucker that you don't think Saddam Hussein is doing anything wrong.
  ``Tell a farmer with a couple of sons in the United States military 
that you think the United States has no right to defend itself.
  ``Go down to Baxley, Georgia, and hold an antiwar rally and see what 
the folks down there think about you.
  ``You people are some of the most disgusting examples of a waste of 
protoplasm I've ever had the displeasure to hear about.
  ``Sean Penn, you are a traitor to the United States of America. You 
gave aid and comfort to the enemy. How many American lives will your 
little fact-finding trip to Iraq cost? You encourage Saddam Hussein to 
think that we didn't have the stomach for war.

                              {time}  1500

  ``You people protect one of the most evil men on the face of this 
Earth, and won't lift a finger to save the life of an unborn baby. 
Freedom of choice, you say?
  ``Well, I'm going to exercise some freedom of choice of my own. If I 
see any of your names on a marquee, I'm going to boycott the movie. I 
will completely stop going to the movies if I have to. In most cases it 
certainly wouldn't be much of a loss.
  ``You scoff at our military whose boots you're not even worthy to 
shine. They go to battle and risk their lives so ingrates like you can 
live in luxury. The day of reckoning is coming when you will be faced 
with the undeniable truth,'' the undeniable truth, ``that the war 
against Saddam Hussein is the war on terrorism.
  ``America is in imminent danger. You're either for her or against 
her. There is no middle ground. I think we all know where you stand. 
What do you think? God bless America, Charlie Daniels.''
  I know that is a strongly-worded letter, but there are a lot of 
people in America who believe in the price that Americans generation 
after generation have paid so that many of our friends throughout the 
world can exercise freedom and can enjoy security away from the type of 
people like Adolph Hitler who were, by the way, as a result of the last 
century where our Nation went on to European soils, at least twice on 
to European soils and have thousands and thousands of American men, 
primarily men by then, although we may have had some women in the nurse 
corps, but today it would be thousands and thousands of young men and 
women.
  Thousands of men back there in that time period, their bodies are 
buried on European soils, not because United States had a dog in the 
fight, but because the United States had a friend in the fight. The 
United States had a principle in the fight. The United States believes 
that countries have a right, have a right, to be liberated with 
freedom, have a right for liberty, have a right to justice. It is the 
United States of America that has led this world, generation after 
generation after generation, in striving for equal rights, for rights 
of people, for the common person, for the American dream, for the 
ability to travel as we wish, for the ability to go to schools as we 
wish. It is the United States of America which exports the largest 
product, the most desired product in the world; and it is the United 
States of America which is the leading exporter of that product. And 
what is that product? That product is freedom. It is freedom. And that 
is what this country is about.
  The force we have today, we are not in a draft. Some young man asked 
me the other day in the office, he said, Sir, are we going to get a 
draft? I said, A draft would be a huge mistake for this country. The 
reason why we have a force where everybody in our military now is there 
because they wanted to be there. Our morale is sky high in the 
military. It does not help to hear Sean Penn or Martin Sheen out there 
yapping away. It does not help to see the banner in San Francisco that 
I saw on TV, the banner in San Francisco last week that said ``Be loyal 
to our troops, have them shoot their officers.'' That does not help the 
morale of our forces, but fortunately our young men and women who are 
amazingly mature at their age see beyond that. They want to be there. 
They want to fight for this country.
  In that light I just want to read a couple of letters. I am going to 
read them verbatim. I usually do not like to read, but I do not have 
this letter in memory. But listen to it: ``Dear Mom, it's really your 
decision to march if you want to or not. You are the one who has to 
decide if what we are doing here is right or not. My opinion is not 
yours.
  ``I do, however, have things I would like for you and Grandma and 
everybody else at home to know. I am a United States soldier. I was 
sworn to defend my country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. 
People may not agree with the things we are ordered to do. I would like 
to address those people by telling them that terrorism is not only a 
threat to us as Americans but to many other innocent people in the 
world.
  ``What type of country would we be if we didn't defend the rights and 
the freedoms of others, not because they're Americans but how about 
just because they're human?
  ``We live in a country where people feel secure with their daily 
lives. They do business like usual and don't worry about the thought of 
terrorism actually happening to them. The people of 9-11 thought the 
same thing. We now know that it can happen to anyone at any time. Yet 
as Americans we're afraid of losing our soldiers to defend our 
security. I can only speak for myself when I say that my life is an 
easy expense to ensure that my family and friends can live in peace.
  ``I strongly believe in what we are doing and wish you were here to 
see for yourselves the honor and privilege that American soldiers 
aboard this ship are

[[Page 7674]]

feeling, knowing that we are going to be a part of something so strong 
and so meaningful to the safety of our loved ones. Then you would know 
what this potential war is about.
  ``We will stand tall in front of terrorism and we will defeat it. We 
as soldiers are not afraid of what may happen. We are only afraid of 
Americans not being able to understand why we are here.'' And let me 
repeat that. This is from a soldier, and, by the way, this soldier, I 
would guess, is somewhere between 18 and 22 years old. Let me repeat 
this: ``We are only afraid of Americans not being able to understand 
why we are here. I ask for your courage as Americans to be strong for 
us.'' This is a message from the battlefield coming back to us. ``I ask 
for your courage as Americans to be strong for us. I ask for your 
understanding in what we believe is right. I ask for your support in 
all that we are sworn to do: defend our country and the life of all.''
  ``We will succeed in our task and will end the threat of terrorism in 
our backyard. We will also end the threat of terrorism in our 
neighbor's backyard. We have to remind ourselves of what this country 
stands for: life, liberty, and justice for all. In order to maintain 
those rights, we have to stop the threat of terrorism.''
  ``I am proud to be here. I will be coming home but not until I know 
that it's going to be safe for all Americans and for everyone I love. 
My family is first. My country is where they live. I will defend it.'' 
Signed by a soldier, 18 to 22. And, by the way, when he says 
``potential war,'' he is now engaged in combat on the front line in 
Iraq.
  I want to read another letter. Some people would say this is a war 
against the Muslims or the religion of Islam, this is a war against the 
Arabs. Keep in mind that there are several Arab countries who hate 
Saddam Hussein. There are several Arab countries who are assisting our 
efforts. Take a look at Saudi Arabia. Take a look at Turkey. Turkey, by 
the way, the only democracy. They are not giving us the help we had 
hoped, but the fact is they are still in there helping us. It is the 
only democracy in the Arab world. This is not a conflict about 
religion. This is not a conflict about America's like or dislike or 
approval or disapproval of Islam, not at all.
  And I want to read a letter from some American Muslims: ``Dear Scott, 
Malik and I want you to know we support the President in our war on 
Iraq. As American Muslims, we feel strongly that we cannot allow 
dictators around the world to risk our freedom. If there is anything we 
can do, please let us know. We hope and pray for the safety and return 
home of all our soldiers. May they all return home soon. Sincerely, 
Simi.''
  I have another letter, and I do not want to bog us down with these 
letters, but the message I am trying to relay here is the United States 
of America is on a mission which is just. The United States of America 
is on a mission that is not going to be finished in 2 or 3 days. It is 
not going to be finished in day 7. We are 1 week into this. This is 
going to be a tough battle. Saddam Hussein has got people in his 
regime. We did not say we are going to come in and take territory and 
let his regime continue to rule that country. We have said to that 
regime, We will replace you. You are out of town. You are out of Dodge. 
You are done. No more of your regime. They have got nothing to lose but 
to fight for all the corruption, all the weapons that they have, to 
fight to the very last person that receives the fruits of that regime.
  But the people receiving the fruits of that regime are small when we 
compare it to the people of Iraq that have received the wrath of that 
regime. The women that have been raped at such young ages, the 
starvation, the lack of health care, the gassing of their own citizens. 
Keep in mind years ago in the United States of America at Kent State 
University, remember that, the protest of the Vietnam War, our National 
Guard shot four American citizens. I think we killed four American 
citizens in a riot. This country went crazy, and I will bet if we look 
back at Martin Sheen, who was probably a little younger there, but I 
will bet Martin Sheen was leading the protest. How could a country kill 
its own citizens? How could this possibly happen? And yet today many of 
these very people, Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, those kinds of people, turn 
a blind eye towards Saddam Hussein, who in one incident alone gassed 
60,000 people; and if any of the Members want to question that, I would 
be happy to supply them with the picture of the mother and the daughter 
and I want them to take a look at their faces. They are not the face of 
a deceased person. They are the face of a person that died a horrible 
death, and this man is responsible for it. This man has killed more 
Muslims than any other man in the history of the world.
  And we have our friends, the French and the Germans, who continually 
through denial after denial after denial through resolution after 
resolution after resolution just turn a blind eye. It is like ignoring 
cancer. If I ignore it long enough, it will go away. It will not get 
worse. I want to pretend it is not there. I do not want to hear the 
news they have to tell me. I do not want to go through what it is going 
to take to fight it. I just want it to go away. Cancer is not going to 
let us; neither will Saddam Hussein.
  Thank goodness there are people like the United States and the United 
Kingdom and the Spanish and the Italians and the Polish and the 
Hungarians and the Netherlands and the Australians and the Turks and 
that list goes on to about 45. Thank goodness there are 45 nations in 
this country willing to stand up to tyranny. Thank goodness those young 
soldiers right now being shot at, right now while we are talking, right 
now worrying about whether or not they will be alive in 5 minutes, 
thank goodness they have the confidence to know that this 
administration and the majority of the people in this country, 75 
percent of the people in this country, are saying to those brave young 
men and women we are doing what is just, keep up the good fight, we are 
praying for them and we want them to come home as soon as they can come 
home and as soon as that mission is completed.
  And I will tell the Members something. Our resilience will be tested 
every day of this war. There is a reason that the Arab television 
network broadcast those American and yesterday those two British 
soldiers, their dead bodies. There is a reason they broadcast that, 
because they think they can psych out the American population and the 
British population by showing a few body bags. They think they can 
weaken our stomach, and I will say nobody can look at those pictures 
without a weakening of the stomach. It does weaken our stomach. It is 
horrifying. But if they think for one moment that that is going to 
weaken our resolve, do not let it happen. In fact, I can tell the 
Members for the young military men and women over there, it did not 
weaken their resolve, it strengthened their resolve. It has 
strengthened that resolve, and that is why having a volunteer force, by 
the way, I mean those people want to be there, and watch what happens 
when these people come home. They are not going to be ashamed of the 
United States of America and the country that they have fought for and 
been wounded for and the families who lose their loved ones over there. 
They are not going to be ashamed of this country. They are going to be 
proud, and they are going to be proud of our President.
  Think of the pressure that this President is under. What other 
President in recent history has gone through what this President has: 
9-11, the war on Afghanistan. On some Saturday morning when he is 
getting up like the rest of us, they call him on the phone and say 
guess what, the shuttle is missing. We do not know where the shuttle 
is. They lose the shuttle. Or by the way, Mr. President, we had better 
take a look at what is happening in Jerusalem. We just had another 
suicide bomber. By the way, Mr. President, take a look at the economy. 
For two quarters before you took office, this thing was going bad. It 
is really in tough shape right now.

                              {time}  1515

  Oh, by the way, Mr. President, our good friends, the French, of whom 
we

[[Page 7675]]

have time after time after time gone to their assistance, you know, the 
French have a way of starting a fight and then they back out of it and 
we are the ones that have to go in there.
  And the Germans, Mr. President, they not only are not going to help 
us, they actively hired lobbyists. They hired lobbyists and got the 
equivalent of our State Department to travel around the world to lobby 
other countries to oppose the United States of America.
  I will tell you, this President has stood up well. He is a strong 
leader, and he has got the confidence of the United States Congress, he 
has the competence of the American people, and he will succeed in his 
leadership of this mission.
  I want to read another letter. This is from parents. They sent it 
out. They write: ``Please feel free to read this.'' This is a Mr. and 
Mrs. Corey.

       Land of the free because of the brave. Land of the free, 
     because of the brave. Please support our troops.
       We are the proud parents of two United States Marines. We 
     will not bother discussing our political views, one party 
     versus another. What we will say is that we do not want our 
     sons nor any of our sons and daughters and husbands and wives 
     or grandchildren in our extended military family to die in 
     vain.
       Like most, we pray for peace, but we are sick, literally 
     sick. Why? Because we lived through the Vietnam era and we 
     saw firsthand how our veterans were treated. We are so afraid 
     that it is beginning to happen again. We are not alone. Nor 
     are we the only ones who believe with all of our heart that 
     the key to winning any war on terrorism will depend on how we 
     are here at home and how emotionally we support our troops, 
     regardless of our politics.
       Vietnam proved how we defeated ourselves by the way we 
     divided our own Nation and treated our troops. We never lost 
     a battle in Vietnam; we lost the battle on the political 
     front. We are beginning to lose again, and the bullets have 
     yet to fly.
       Our sons did not choose to become a United States Marine to 
     kill people. They had dreams of a career, of travel and of 
     protecting us from the terror of 9/11 from happening again. 
     Both sons are the best sons a parent could ever hope for. The 
     thought of someone throwing animal feces at our military when 
     they finally return home, hearing nothing but negative media 
     about how Americans hate them and the war, the thought of 
     what it would do to our servicemen and women's spirit, scare 
     the military families to the point of sleepless nights.
       The media, stronger than the White House itself, can change 
     that fear, help keep it from being a reality. Everyone is 
     quick to show the war protestors out marching. What has been 
     done to show those who support our forces? We are not 
     marching on the streets, we are not chanting and screaming 
     clever chants. We are not holding up signs. We are not 
     throwing blame or calling names.
       No, we are at home, boxing care packages to our service 
     people. We put yellow ribbons on our doors, trees, car 
     antennas, blue star flags on our windows. We pray 100 times a 
     day, and we light a candle every day. We are sending birthday 
     cards, thank you letters, notes of cheer, to the members in 
     the service whom we have never met, nor may ever, because 
     they are our extended family in the service. They need to 
     know, amidst all the bad publicity, there are those of us who 
     are grateful for their choice and sacrifice for us to live in 
     the land of the free, because of the brave.
       You have never read about us in the headlines. So what can 
     be done? What can a community do? The answer is simple. Our 
     community, including our schools, could begin by starting 
     patriotic projects such as write a letter, send a card of 
     encouragement, a mere thank you. In our son's shop alone 
     there are five lonely marines who have no family back home to 
     encourage and send support.
       Regardless of how one feels politically, our service people 
     need our support emotionally; not ticker tape parades, but 
     support for the job they do.

  A San Diego columnist quoted a marine as saying, ``comes with a job 
description of taking a bullet for a mere $14,000 a year.''

       Our service people do not make the policy, they follow 
     orders. They chose to join for their own reasons. They all 
     share one common belief, and I want to repeat this, they all 
     share one common belief, and that is that you and I are worth 
     dying for.

  Think of that. ``They all share one common belief, and that is that 
you and I are worth dying for.''

       The American people need to be reminded of that. It is not 
     a matter of free speech or our President or who is right or 
     who is wrong. It is a matter of starting a better pattern for 
     the future return of our loved ones when they come home, 
     throwing flower petals versus stones, of saying ``thank you'' 
     instead of ``go to hell.''
       We hope we can count on you to take up the cause. If you 
     would like to show your support to our troops by sending 
     letters, cards and care packages, it would be most 
     appreciated. May you know you have no need to worry, for our 
     service members have your back covered. Sleep well.

  I want to repeat that. ``May you know,'' may you know, ``that you,'' 
you, ``have no need to worry, because our service members,'' our men in 
the military forces, ``have your back covered.''
  These are the kind of letters that, in my opinion, express what is 
so, so fundamentally important about this country. This Nation truly is 
the lead country in the world, closely followed by many of our allies 
like the British, as a country that believes in freedom but understands 
that freedom requires sacrifice, freedom requires a price.
  Look at what that says for a Nation like ours, when we have young 
people, voluntarily, voluntarily join our armed forces to make sure 
that the people that are not on the front line but that are home will 
get to enjoy security, liberty, justice for all, freedom.
  Think about it. It is so important that the time has come for people 
to put down their signs of protest and raise their signs with simply 
two words: ``Thank you.'' Thank you. It would not be too much to ask of 
Martin Sheen to take the tape off his mouth that he had on there 
yesterday. It wouldn't take too much to ask those people in San 
Francisco carrying a big banner that says ``support our troops, shoot 
their officers,'' it would not be asking too much of those people to 
put down their sign and replace it with a sign that simply says ``thank 
you.'' It would go a long, long ways.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that all of you, all of you, say a prayer to 
whatever supreme being you believe in, say a prayer for these men and 
women that are standing on the front line so the rest of us can be back 
here and feel secure. They are there for the right reason. They are 
there on a mission. They will accomplish their mission. It is not going 
to be done in 7 days. There will be casualties. In war, you have good 
days and you have bad days. You have good days and you have bad days.
  A weakening of our resilience, a weakening of our resilience, those 
of us not on the front line, those of us back in this country, that 
weakening will be sensed by these people. We cannot allow our resolve 
to weaken. We must stay strong, as we have, and we must send our 
prayers and our hopes to these young men and women over on that front 
line.
  So, Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, once again, I would be awful proud of 
Martin Sheen and Sean Penn and many of those other people, Julia 
Roberts, the Dixie Chicks, people like that, I would be awfully proud 
of them if, just for a change, they would carry that sign that said 
``thank you.''

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