[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11228]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        WE HAVE PROGRESS IN IRAQ

  (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, amidst the violence and struggle that always 
attends the transition between tyranny and liberty, we have progress in 
Iraq.
  Yesterday, a Shiite Muslim, part of a population that suffered for 30 
years under the iron fist of Saddam Hussein, a Shiite Muslim, Iyad 
Allawi, was named prime minister along with Ghazi al Yawar, a Sunni 
Muslim, and those two men will lead a free and democratic Iraq.
  Mr. Allawi said memorably, in this country that was torn by tyranny 
for three decades, that he was pledged to establishing a democratic and 
federal system under which people enjoy free citizenship in a state of 
laws and freedom. A quagmire, hardly. Difficult, yes. But an ethnically 
diverse country coming together under the rule of law and democracy is 
genuine progress in Iraq and worthy of celebrating in this Congress.

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