[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6723-6724]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS IN IRAQ

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, this Friday, April 9, will mark the 1-
year anniversary of the liberation of Iraq from the dictator Saddam 
Hussein and his corrupt regime. It was April 9, 2003, that Iraqis 
cheered when Saddam Hussein's statue fell in Baghdad.
  When we began Operation Iraqi Freedom and as our troops were marching 
on Baghdad, we started the Senate every single day for at least 30 
minutes talking about our troops, what they were doing, the successes 
they had, and the heartrending problems they faced. We let them know 
that not 1 day, not 1 hour, not 1 minute passed that we were not 
thinking of what they were doing for our country.
  It is still the case today. Although Saddam Hussein's regime fell 1 
year ago today, we are still fighting with the spirit and the heart 
that is personified by our troops on the ground in Iraq today.
  At that time, we all talked about--and it was written in the 
newspapers and talked about on television--that it did not seem like 
that infamous Republican Guard had been there. We did not meet them on 
the way to Baghdad. We did not meet them in Baghdad, at least it did 
not seem like it. It seemed almost too easy.
  This is one person's opinion, but this person believes that when 
history is written about this war, it will say that we are meeting the 
Republican Guard right now, that they faded into the woodwork and they 
strengthened their numbers and they are coming back. They have decided 
to make their last stand because we have a deadline of June 30 when we 
want the Iraqi people to take control of their governance, and we want 
the people to have a say. We set that deadline.
  All of those who do not want freedom and democracy in Iraq, whether 
they be people who want control inside Iraq or whether they are people 
from outside Iraq who want to control the Middle East and make sure 
there is not a working democracy, all of those forces are now coming 
together against our coalition forces.
  This is a very important time in our war on terrorism, and our hearts 
are with our troops on the ground. Our hearts are with their families 
right now.
  Our hearts are with those brave civilians who have volunteered to go 
in to help stabilize the country of Iraq and to get an economy going 
there. We know they paid the price from the horrendous pictures we saw 
last week. Those volunteers who were trying to serve were not only 
murdered in cold blood, but their bodies were defiled. We

[[Page 6724]]

will never forget those pictures, and we will never forget the pictures 
we have been seeing day after day out of Iraq.
  We are here today to say how much we appreciate what they are doing. 
We are also here to say that every one of those who have died, they 
have not died in vain because we are not going to walk away from this 
battle. America will not cut and run and render those great losses 
meaningless. We will not do it because we have a President who is 
willing to stand firm in the face of adversity. Our President is 
supported by troops who are every bit as committed and dedicated as he 
is to the cause.
  This is a very important time. I think it is so important that we 
should look at what is happening and make sure we are not doing 
anything which would hurt our cause while our troops are in harm's way.
  I have to say I am troubled when I hear leaders say this is another 
Vietnam. We have troops on the ground in harm's way. Is it really 
productive for us to be labeling Iraq after 1 year as another Vietnam? 
Is it helpful to heap criticism on our President? Is it even helpful to 
be dissecting what happened in the run-up on the war on terrorism that 
began on September 11, 2001? Is it helpful to be saying who is at fault 
for bad information? Was it the Clinton administration or the Bush 
administration? Or was it before that? Is that what we ought to be 
talking about right now? I don't think so.
  I think what we ought to be talking about right now is how we can 
come together as a country and make sure everyone in America 
understands the importance of this cause; that we support our Commander 
in Chief, and that we support our troops on the ground.
  I have been to Iraq. Mr. President, you have been to Iraq. Our 
Commander in Chief has been to Iraq. We know a little bit about what it 
is like. We don't know everything because we are not there when the 
bombs go off. We are not there when the missiles are launched. But we 
have been there, and we know our troops are the best. They are 
committed. They are doing exactly what needs to be done to stabilize 
this country.
  It is not going to be easy. But the one thing we must all do is be 
committed to the proposition we can't fail, and dividing our country in 
half over who was responsible for faulty intelligence is one way we 
could fail.
  What we need to be doing is uniting our country. This is America's 
challenge. This is our coalition's challenge, that we will stay the 
course. We will make sure a constitution is in place in Iraq so the 
people who have been oppressed for so many years, so the girls in 
Afghanistan who have been abused and uneducated will have the chance 
for lives all of us dream for our children to have, so the people in 
Iraq who were raped, tortured, and mutilated by Saddam Hussein and his 
regime will no longer have to fear that kind of treatment because they 
will be in control of their own destiny. We will be there with the 
security to help them see this through.
  What we need right now is a united country, not a country sniping at 
our President, whether it is on the Senate floor or out in the field.
  My time is up. But I think it is not productive for us to be divisive 
at this point. We need to be united in support of our Commander in 
Chief and our troops on the ground.
  Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.

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