[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7031]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   A MESSAGE OF GRATITUDE FROM IRAQIS

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, it is said that a picture is worth a thousand 
words. And yesterday this photograph was taken by a UPI photographer, 
remarkably, on the streets of Fallujah in Iraq. It depicts the 
gratitude of an ordinary Iraqi to a United States Marine who, along 
with many Marines and constituents of mine from Indiana, are patrolling 
the streets of that war-torn city at this very hour.
  I bring this photograph because in the midst of the heartbreak of the 
loss of American soldiers over the past several weeks, some say this 
means that the Iraqi people do not want us there, that they fail to 
appreciate the sacrifices that we have made in the blood of our 
countrymen.
  But, Mr. Speaker, that is not what I saw when I was in Iraq a month 
ago, in Basra and in Baghdad. The Iraqis with whom I met spoke with 
passion and emotion the same message depicted in this picture: a 
message of gratitude to the American soldier, gratitude to the American 
people, not only for ending the reign of Saddam Hussein but for staying 
the course and seeing them through to freedom. And as the President 
said, in the interest of these good people, these soldiers and this 
country will not waver.

                          ____________________