[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 18717-18718]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, yesterday Senator John Kerry told the 
American people the truth about Iraq, the truth about the past, the 
truth about the present, and the truth about the future. President 
Bush, Vice President Cheney, and other administration apologists 
complain he did not show enough optimism. Senator Kerry decided that 
honesty was more important than false optimism.
  President Bush and Vice President Cheney have not been honest about 
Iraq from the beginning. They have not been honest about Iraq with this 
Senate, not with the House, nor with the American people. John Kerry 
gave us yesterday what we need: honesty about Iraq.
  He was not alone in the last few days. I salute my Republican 
colleagues--five of them--for their honesty about the situation in 
Iraq. It cannot be easy to tell the American people the truth and to 
stand up to an administration of their own party which is not telling 
the truth. They are remarkable American patriots who recognize, as 
Senator Robert C. Byrd, the great senior Senator from West Virginia, 
has reminded us, that we serve with Presidents of the United States, 
not under them.
  We are elected separately to serve independently and to exercise our 
own best judgments about what is best for our respective States and for 
our United States.
  Listen to what five of our Republican Senators have said recently. 
One said that President Bush's rosy pronouncements about the situation 
in Iraq ``are not as straight as we would want them to be.''
  Another stated:

       A crisp, sharp analysis of our policies is required.

  A third, upon noting that of the $18.5 billion Congress appropriated 
for Iraq's reconstruction a year ago, only $1 billion has been 
expended, called this ``the incompetence in the administration.''
  A fourth Republican Senator stated the other day that he may not vote 
for President Bush in November, to which another Republican Senator 
replied:

       What I like about him is that he can be a Republican 
     Senator and, at the same time, he is unsure about our 
     Republican President. He is a breath of fresh air in 
     politics.

  As he is. And we need also a breath of fresh air in the White House, 
along with fresh words of truth which we received yesterday from 
Senator Kerry.
  The response of the Bush White House to these honest assessments by 
Senator Kerry and by our Republican Senate colleagues has been to 
attack them and blame everyone else. President Truman said when he was 
President, ``The buck stops here.'' With this President, it is ``the 
blame starts here''--blame those who opposed this war from the 
beginning, as I did; blame those who question his bungling of the 
running of Iraq after our courageous Armed Forces won the country in 3 
weeks and still die daily because Iraqis will not take responsibility 
for their own country. And now he blames his political opponent for 
telling the American people the truth about Iraq, the truth that he has 
consistently withheld.
  I am not clear exactly about what we are supposed to be optimistic. 
Certainly not the report of the President's own National Intelligence 
Council which, according to an Associated Press story last week, 
``presented President Bush this summer with three pessimistic scenarios 
regarding the security situation in Iraq, including the possibility of 
a civil war there before the end of 2005.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this article be printed 
in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  (See exhibit 1.)
  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, how are we to view the continuing violence 
in Iraq, the murders of American soldiers as they stand guard in a 
country that its own citizens are unwilling or unable

[[Page 18718]]

to guard for themselves, or the American citizens hired to work there 
who are being kidnapped and beheaded? Tell the 138,000 American 
soldiers who are courageously serving their country, risking and some 
losing their lives, and wondering when are they coming home. I say to 
those who tell patriotic dissenters that they are not supporting our 
troops--the printable part is, if you want to support our troops, bring 
them home alive soon, not in 10 or 20 years, as Senator McCain has 
recently predicted.
  Make Iraqis protect and defend their own country. That is what people 
do in a democracy. That is what people do in any form of stable 
national government: They impose law and order in their own cities. 
They provide public safety on their own highways. They defend their own 
national borders.
  Over a year ago, in August of 2003, the Bush administration claimed 
that 95 percent of Iraq was peacefully occupied and operating normally. 
Now we see daily reports that violence is spreading and becoming more 
murderous. The Iraqi Prime Minister claims that ``foreign terrorists 
are still pouring in,'' a common cry to rally Americans behind the 
fallacy that their sons and daughters must die in Najev and Baghdad so 
we will not die in New York and Boston. He says more troops are needed 
to win. Following the party line, he says: We need more participation 
from other countries.
  We needed more participation from other countries 2 years ago when 
Congress was stampeded as part of the 2002 midterm election strategy to 
vote a blank check for warmaking based on completely false information 
from the Bush administration, including the President and the Vice 
President themselves.
  We needed more participation from other countries when the United 
States and Great Britain bilaterally invaded Iraq in 2003. Or when the 
operation of that country failed to begin 3 weeks later. We need it 
now. Now that President Bush has made a mess of the situation in Iraq, 
are there any international volunteers?
  How about participation from the people of Iraq against the 
supposedly ``5,000 to 10,000'' insurgents, 95 percent of whom we are 
told are Iraqis who do not like the presence of the United States 
there. On paper, we were told over almost a year ago by the Secretary 
of Defense that there were 206,000 Iraqi militia and army military 
personnel who were being trained or had been trained--206,000 we were 
told. Last week, the Secretary of Defense admits that only half of that 
number have actually been trained.
  We are told that less than $1 billion of the $5 billion that Congress 
appropriated 1 year ago for security training has been expended. And 
that is why the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee said over the weekend that this is the incompetence of this 
administration. The buck stops there.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may have 2 minutes to 
complete my remarks.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Democratic time remains--3 minutes 
43 seconds.
  Mr. DAYTON. I ask that I may have 2 minutes of that time to complete 
my remarks.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, the buck stops in the White House. The 
blame starts there and it ends there. Senator John Kerry is not 
responsible for this war. Congress is culpable to some extent, but is 
not responsible for it. President Bush is responsible. Now that things 
are going badly and getting worse--and I say that not because it is 
pessimism, I say that because it is the truth. John Kerry told the 
American people the truth. President Bush should start doing the same.
  I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.

                               Exhibit 1

                            [From AOL News]

             Intelligence Report Offered Bleak View of Iraq

                     (By Katherine Pfleger Shrader)

       Washington (Sept. 16).--The National Intelligence Council 
     presented President Bush this summer with three pessimistic 
     scenarios regarding the security situation in Iraq, including 
     the possibility of a civil war there before the end of 2005.
       In a highly classified National Intelligence Estimate, the 
     council looked at the political, economic and security 
     situation in the wartorn country and determined that--at 
     best--a tenuous stability was possible, a U.S. official said 
     late Wednesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The 
     document lays out a second scenario in which increased 
     extremism and fragmentation in Iraqi society impede efforts 
     to build a central government and adversely affect efforts to 
     democratize the country.
       In a third, worst-case scenario, the intelligence council 
     contemplated ``trend lines that would point to a civil war,'' 
     the official said. The potential conflict could be among the 
     country's three main populations--the Sunnis, Shiites and 
     Kurds.
       It ``would be fair'' to call the document ``pessimistic,'' 
     the official added. But ``the contents shouldn't come as a 
     particular surprise to anyone who is following developments 
     in Iraq. It encapsulates trends that are clearly apparent.''

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. There is 2\1/2\ minutes still under 
the control of the Democrats.
  Mr. DAYTON. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. DAYTON. I yield back the remainder of our time.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The Senator from Pennsylvania.

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