[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19227-19228]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   AMERICA HAS A STRONG ALLY IN IRAQ

  Mr. TALENT. Mr. President, I thank my friend for his comments. I want 
to talk about several issues, but let me say with regard to the whole 
question of illegal status of the freedom we are winning, along with 
the Iraqi people, in Iraq, there are many people in the international 
community for whom the definition of ``international legality'' is 
quite flexible, depending upon what it is they happen to want at any 
particular moment.
  I was serving in the Congress, albeit on the other side of the 
Capitol, in the 1990s and remember when, at the urgent request of the 
Europeans, particularly the western Europeans, the United States 
assembled a coalition and used its military power to prevent genocide 
in southeastern Europe, to protect the Kosovars from genocide that was 
being conducted by Milosevic and the Serbs at the time.
  The nations that wanted to do that asked the Security Council for a 
resolution of support and were denied it because, if you will recall, 
Mr. President, the Russians threatened to veto it, just as the French 
indicated 2 years ago they would veto any resolution of support for our 
action in Iraq.
  Now you would think that to be consistent with the position they are 
now taking, some of the Western European countries, in particular the 
French and Germans, would have said at the time, If you can't get a 
Security Council resolution, then we don't want to intervene in Kosovo 
and prevent genocide there. But that was not the position they took at 
all. They insisted, they urgently pleaded with the United States to 
lead a coalition of nations to intervene for humanitarian reasons at 
that point, notwithstanding the fact they could not get a Security 
Council resolution because they recognized then what we have been 
consistent in recognizing all along: That we always seek the support of 
international alliances, and we have support of an international 
coalition in Iraq. We always seek to operate within international 
bodies and get the support of the U.N. when possible, but we protect 
our freedom with or without the support of that body in any given 
circumstance.
  That is what we did in Kosovo when we prevented genocide, and that is 
what we are now doing in Iraq.
  I want to add a few more words along those lines and then talk some 
about health care. Let me say how moved I was by the eloquence of Prime 
Minister Allawi and the way in which he represented the aspirations of 
freedom and free people everywhere.
  I think of two statements in particular, one in which he quoted Prime 
Minister Blair in saying that whenever people are given a choice, they 
choose freedom over tyranny, democracy over dictatorship, and the rule 
of law over

[[Page 19228]]

the rule of the secret police. It does not matter whether the people 
who are being asked to choose are of the Islamic faith or the Christian 
faith or the Jewish faith or any other faith; it does not matter where 
they live or the circumstances under which they are raised; there is a 
universal desire placed in the human heart by our Creator for freedom. 
We are seeing that desire in Iraq, and we saw it with Prime Minister 
Allawi today.
  I was tremendously impressed by his courage. He probably has the 
biggest target on his back of anybody in the free world, and yet he 
stood there and said not only do the Iraqi people want freedom--and I 
made a note of this comment--as you have stood with us, we will stand 
with you in the ongoing battle against terrorism.
  I think this is a vindication of the underlying strategy that the 
United States is following with its allies and the coalition in freeing 
Iraq.
  There were two strategic goals in going into Iraq. One of them was to 
remove a regime and a person who even if there had never been a 9/11 
was on his own a serious organic threat to the security of the region 
and the freedom of the United States.
  We saw this and lived it in the 1990s. We saw him attack his 
neighbors twice. We saw him plow missiles into his neighbors. He 
developed weapons of mass destruction. He had stockpiles of sarin gas 
and other chemical and biological weapons. He showed he was willing to 
use them on his own people and on his neighbors.
  We had tens of thousands of American personnel, American airplanes 
and warplanes in the region specifically designed to contain him year 
after year. I could see the Clinton administration building up toward a 
policy that would end this threat to American interests and American 
freedom and the stability of the region, and it was necessary to remove 
him. That was part one.
  Part two, necessitated by 9/11, was to replace Saddam Hussein, in 
corroboration with the Iraqi people, with a democracy that respected 
human dignity, stood for human rights, would fight for human rights and 
be an ally with us in the war against terrorism. We heard from Prime 
Minister Allawi today the determination of the Iraqi people to do that 
and to be an ally.
  I was greatly encouraged that this man, who represents a nation that 
is in some turmoil, that is coming out of decades of totalitarian rule 
and terror and is in a weakened condition, stood defiantly against the 
terrorists with courage. Many others, who are in stable countries and 
have much more power, are trying to appease them. The Iraqis know the 
danger of tyranny and terrorism. They have lived it, and they are going 
to stand with us in fighting it in the future.
  The existence of this new democracy in Iraq will be a standing rebuke 
to the vision of the terrorists of a Pan-Islamic world dominated by 
terrorism, totalitarianism, and twisted religious extremism. Prime 
Minister Allawi made that point clearly and made it without apology to 
anybody, and he made it again and again. And have we not seen several 
of those from the dais on the other side of the Capitol in this 
Congress? I thought it was an inspiring and brilliant speech. We owe it 
to ourselves, to our own freedom, to our allies and our own courageous 
people to see this through and to win this in Iraq.
  I was also tremendously encouraged by his statement that we are 
succeeding there. Anybody who looks at the facts in an unbiased way can 
see that. Most of the country is stable. We are constantly seeking new 
ways to stabilize the rest of it, in part through the application of 
military power on our own or with our allies, in part through 
negotiations with people who are not yet committed completely to the 
terrorists on the other side. He made that very clear. They are using a 
combination of political and military tools to stabilize the country in 
anticipation of the elections in January. Hearing him, I have full 
confidence those elections will go forward.
  I am proud of what we have done there and proud of the resolution of 
the American people. I want my constituents in Missouri and 
constituents around the country to take satisfaction in what we have 
done through their resolution and through the sacrifice of the men and 
women in the American military.

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