[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 7135-7136]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ARE WE SAFER NOW?

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, we are here in this House; and it is our 
duty, it is our obligation to debate the important questions of the 
day, and that is one of the unfailing obligations of this House.
  One of the questions I hear asked, particularly from the other side, 
but sometimes from my side of the aisle,

[[Page 7136]]

are we safer now than we were a year ago? Are we safer now than at the 
time we went into the country of Iraq? I just think back to a year ago 
and what was going on in my congressional office here in Washington. 
And I look out over the floor of the House, and I see a gas mask under 
every seat. Truly in March 2003, we were concerned about the 
possibility of a poison gas attack within our country. And, of course, 
one of the reasons for that was because there was country that was very 
much opposed to us who had a history of using that type of weapon in an 
offensive pattern different from any other world leader. So as we 
debate these points now, are we safer now than a year ago, we would be 
wise to remember what was going on in this body a scant 12 or 13 months 
ago.
  As preparations were made for what eventually became Operation Iraqi 
Freedom, I was not in this body when the vote was taken. I am a 
newcomer to Congress, but certainly I recall during the fall of 2002 
and during the early months of my first term when we could not get the 
time of day out of Saddam Hussein unless there was a gun held to his 
head.
  As a consequence, the President of our country, who is now being 
called to task by the 9/11 Commission for not being aggressive enough, 
not having enough of a criminal mind ahead of time to envision the type 
of attacks brought against this country on September 11, 2001, our 
President is being criticized for not having the ability to foretell 
that kind of unthinkable act against our country. But at the same time, 
as the run-up to Operation Iraqi Freedom was going on, Iraq was 
perceived as a gathering threat. We knew in the past they had held 
weapons of mass destruction. No one in this House or on the other side 
of the Capitol seriously questioned that. The previous administration 
did not seriously question that, nor did the United Nations seriously 
question that.

                              {time}  1330

  But at the same time, in order to get just the ability to get the 
inspectors who had been kicked out in 1998, just the ability to get 
them back in the country, we had to put 150,000 troops on the border. 
When we do that, the clock starts ticking because in that part of the 
world, in order to have a military exercise, we are just not going to 
be as successful if we put off doing that until the summer months.
  And I remember very well the talking heads and the pundits, before I 
came to Congress and after, talking about if Bush is going to do 
something, he needs to do it soon. We cannot let the clock fritter away 
while the weather gets warmer over there and it makes it even harder on 
our troops who may have to don protective gear to protect them from 
chemical attacks.
  Again, the 9/11 Commission currently is criticizing the current 
administration and the previous administration, but the real loser in 
that criticism is the Bush administration because the Clinton 
administration is not running for reelection. But the 9/11 Commission 
is criticizing the President for not having a creative enough criminal 
mind to anticipate the types of attack that came to our country.
  I have been to Iraq twice myself during this past year, and I know 
many other Members of this body have been there as well. I wanted to 
share with the House of Representatives this afternoon a picture from 
the air base just north of Kirkuk in Iraq. This is a picture that I did 
not take. It was taken by a man named Doug Cox, a man down in my 
district who is actually a member of the Corps of Engineers, and he was 
one of the first groups in there with Operation Restore Iraqi Oil, or 
Operation RIO, and he took this picture off the wall of the air base in 
Kirkuk, and this was a picture used presumably for training or for 
whatever purpose by the Republican Guard generals who were in charge of 
the air base there in Kirkuk before we took it over. And it shows an 
Iraqi gentleman standing, looking off across the countryside, and we 
see a depiction of the map of the United States of America. We see a 
man standing there with either a cowboy or a pilgrim hat on, and in his 
heart is the cross hairs of this man's intellect, and pointed against 
the United States of America we see an Iraqi tank, we see an Iraqi jet, 
and we see Iraqi missiles.
  There was no question in their mind what their intent was when they 
made this picture, when they used this picture to educate or 
indoctrinate their troops of the Republican Guard that were stationed 
at the Kirkuk airfield, and I simply want to remind my colleagues in 
this body it is our responsibility to question. It is our 
responsibility to have oversight. But we do need to be careful when we 
cross that line and provide aid and comfort to the enemy and give them 
additional embellishments to take on the kind of terror that they have 
done in the country of Iraq this past month.

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