[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 22887-22888]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        URGING HELP FOR PAKISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, the nation of Pakistan is 
experiencing the greatest natural disaster of all time. There is no 
recorded disaster with the dimensions that the earthquake in Pakistan 
has produced. Forty thousand at least are already dead. Forty thousand 
at least are dead already, and with the freezing weather coming and the 
inaccessibility of the people in the mountains, another 40,000 could 
easily die, being frozen to death or starved because they cannot be 
reached. Millions are homeless.
  Now is the time for America to come to the aid of this nation in 
great distress. These are people, first of all; and for humanitarian 
reasons, we certainly should come to their aid. They are also citizens 
of Pakistan, a major ally of the United States, a major ally which has 
done a great deal in the fight against terrorism.
  I know disaster fatigue has set in with a lot of Americans and 
certainly our media. We had the tsunami, an overwhelming disaster. We 
had Katrina, Rita. In Central America they had Hurricane Stan.
  Unfortunately, the media has reached the point of exhaustion too 
early. Not enough is being said about the great tragedy in Pakistan 
because I think they just do not want to deal with another great 
disaster with the kind of coverage it needs. It does not have it.
  When we add up all these disasters, the tsunami, Katrina, Rita, and 
Pakistan, the tragic numbers should not overwhelm us. We should not 
throw up our hands and say it is just too much, we cannot deal with it. 
It is the most massive disaster in history, the Pakistani earthquake; 
but yet 40,000, though it may seem like a lot, and in the case of 
Katrina we do not know whether it is going to be 10,000 or not, and in 
the case of the tsunami, if we add them all up, still relative to the 
population of the world, it is a very small number of people.
  We have almost 6 billion people in the world. Surely 6 billion people 
in the world and almost 200 nations in the world can come to the aid of 
people who have experienced these disasters this year, can come to the 
aid of those in Katrina, those in the tsunami, and those in Pakistan. 
Surely we should not get weary of being weary of disasters so early. We 
must go to the aid of Pakistan and not write it off because we have had 
enough disasters. We need more attention paid to this.
  When we look at numbers, we lost 600,000 people in the Civil War in 
America. 600,000. We lost 400,000 or 500,000 in World War II. The 
Russians lost 18 million people in World War II. Those are numbers 
which can really overwhelm us. Surely we have dealt with problems on 
that scale. In World War II we mobilized, and in terms of men and 
materiel and the effort to win World War II, it was overwhelming.
  But it would not take even one-tenth of that effort to go to the aid 
of Pakistan at this point and deal with getting the practical things 
that they need. They need helicopters because those mountains cannot be 
reached any other way. They have got to have helicopters to transport 
whatever they are going to transport. They need it, and they need it 
right away. The people are freezing in the mountains. They need food. 
The U.S. must lead the way.
  I do not want to get into any discussion of competition, what nation 
is doing what and are we doing less than any other nations. I do not 
think that is the kind of discussion we ought to

[[Page 22888]]

have. We ought to just understand we should come to the aid of Pakistan 
to the extent that we can. We are the greatest. We are the most 
resourceful. We are the richest Nation that ever existed on the face of 
the Earth. We should not hesitate to lead on this matter. We should 
step out there and not yield leadership and wait for someone else.
  We have made past mistakes with Pakistan. Pakistan was our ally 
during the Cold War, and yet we treated them very poorly, and we did 
not take care of the needs of Pakistan once the war in Afghanistan was 
over and they had helped us to win the war against the Russians in 
Afghanistan originally. Now Pakistan has come to our aid in the war 
against terrorism. The Government of Pakistan teeters on the brink of 
rebellion because of the fact that large numbers of the Muslim 
population do not approve of the close friendship of Pakistan with the 
United States, the alliance with the United States against terrorism.
  Let us come to the aid of our friends and make up for past errors. 
And here is a time when they have this great calamity that we can act 
and wipe out any harsh feelings about the past. Now is the time to act. 
For the future, as long as we can see it, I assure the Members that the 
Pakistani people will be grateful for what we have done. We ought to 
seal the alliance and make certain that they understand that we are 
their friends in every way possible. We do not want to just use them to 
fight the war on terrorism. We do not want to just use them to hunt for 
Osama bin Laden. We do not want to just use them in a critical time 
when we are threatened by terrorism. We care about them; and when they 
need help, we will be there.
  Practical help is needed right now. We need cargo planes. At Kennedy 
Airport they have cargo-loads of material to go to Pakistan. They have 
no planes to send them there. They need the practical help. We need 
helicopters in Pakistan right now. Across the border in Afghanistan, we 
have hundreds of helicopters. We should give up the hunt for Osama bin 
Laden for a little while if necessary, and those helicopters should go 
to Pakistan. They need food. They need tents. They need attention from 
the whole world.
  We need our caucus here, Members of Congress. We have a Pakistan 
Caucus. The Pakistan Caucus needs to meet as soon as possible. I call 
on the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) and the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee), who are co-chairs, to call to meet as soon as 
possible. And let us, as Members of Congress, see what we can do to 
come to the aid of our friends, to come to the aid of millions of 
people who are in great distress and they look to the United States for 
leadership. We should follow that leadership. God expects us to provide 
leadership to help the people of Pakistan.

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