[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5521-5522]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       FREEING IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN IMPORTANT IN WAR ON TERRORISM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs.

[[Page 5522]]

Blackburn) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, late last October I traveled to Iraq 
with several other Members of Congress, and what I saw was a country in 
tatters, a country that had experienced little or no infrastructure 
investment in decades.
  But I also saw a people who, despite torture, government-sponsored 
slaughter and oppression on the scale of Lenin, a people who, despite 
all this, retained a glimmer of hope. And I thought, is it not amazing? 
Thirty years of torture, and Saddam and his henchmen could not break 
the spirit of the Iraqi people. They still had that thirst for freedom 
and that thirst for opportunity.
  Today, watch the news that comes from Iraq. Occasionally look past 
the newscaster, actually take a look at the hustle and bustle behind 
the newscaster. You will see marketplaces, traffic jams, people on 
their way to and from work. That is the free market at work.
  President Bush is the focus of an enormous amount of partisan 
political criticism. There are those, mostly on the other side of the 
aisle, who believe that simply getting bin Laden would end terrorism. 
They think we were wrong to go to Iraq, that Saddam could be contained. 
In short, those opposed to our work in Iraq believe Saddam's regime had 
no role in terrorism and that our effort will not bear any positive 
results for America and the world.
  What a shortsighted, small view of the world and a basic 
misunderstanding of terrorism. Terrorism will not be stopped by 
removing a leader or a command structure. Terrorism is not going to be 
that easy to tackle.
  What is going to make a difference could be this: Iraq has an interim 
Constitution on schedule and they are moving toward freedom. Iraq's 
electricity levels are exceeding pre-war capacity. They passed that 
benchmark last fall. The international community has pledged $32 
billion to improve schools, health care, roads, water and sanitation. 
The nation now has a stable currency. A free press is growing. Iraqis 
have access to more diverse, independent sources of news. Hundreds of 
democratic meetings are taking place all across Iraq. America has 
captured 45 of the 55 most-wanted members of Hussein's regime. There 
are 900,000 telephone subscribers and 225,000 wireless subscribers. All 
of Iraq's 22 universities and 43 technical institutions and colleges 
are open. And, this may not sound important, but its value is 
immeasurable, the Iraqi children no longer have to recite ``long live 
leader Saddam Hussein'' each morning.
  Some still believe all of this is irrelevant to the war on terrorism. 
Do you think terrorists are worried about what we are doing in Iraq and 
Afghanistan? Absolutely. Do you think terrorists fear this President? 
Do they fear America? You bet they do. The terrorists fear America. I 
do not mean that figuratively. Those who would destroy America, they 
literally fear this President and the resolve of the American people 
and our military, because we have not been afraid to take swift, 
decisive action.
  President Bush said America would not tolerate al Qaeda, that we 
would not tolerate a Middle East that pumped out hatred and vitriol. 
Our engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq speak volumes to the terror 
network.
  Does our work in Iraq make hostile nations think twice about 
supporting terrorism? Yes, indeed, it does. Will our effort to bring 
the Iraqi people into the modern world, into the free marketplace, the 
community of free nations, make a difference in the long struggle to 
destroy what breeds terrorism? Absolutely it will.

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