[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 22989]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            IRAQI ELECTIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, this year in January, I had the honor to go to 
Iraq for their first elections in history for a democracy. Iraq is 
where the world began, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Myself 
and Congressman Chris Shays of Connecticut were the two Members of 
Congress that were in Iraq on election day.
  You remember, Mr. Speaker, those were the times when the skeptics and 
the terrorists said, Oh, there won't be an election. The Iraqis won't 
do it. They won't go and vote. Yet they did. Sixty-one percent of those 
people went and voted.
  While there, I learned a lot from the Iraqis. I learned, first of 
all, they are a very proud people, that they are somewhat 
underestimated about their ability to have and believe in a democracy. 
I also learned that those people are just like us and all people in the 
world, because, Mr. Speaker, down in our soul, where we are made, every 
person has the yearning to be free. The Iraqis are no different than 
Americans or other peoples in the world.
  I also learned, Mr. Speaker, that they will not be intimidated by the 
terrorists. The terrorists in January told the Iraqis that if they go 
and vote, they will be killed. They were told that if they were seen 
with that purple finger, they would be killed. Yet the Iraqis voted. 
They willingly stuck their finger in that inkwell and stained their 
finger for several days. I remember here on the House floor where many 
of us stood when the President of the United States in his State of the 
Union message talked about those Iraqi people and how we stood defiant 
as well as those people with our finger in the air, showing that 
freedom will prevail and rule the day.
  Mr. Speaker, this has been an interesting year for the Iraqi people. 
They started a country in January with their Parliament. They then 
elected a Prime Minister, a President. They wrote a constitution, they 
voted on it, and they have all done it in less than 10 months. 
Remarkable. We sometimes forget history. We forget our own history that 
it took us 13 years after 1776 to get our Constitution. In fact, only 
nine States ratified it at first, and the two big ones, New York and 
Virginia, were late comers to the table. In fact, North Carolina did 
not ratify it until the next year and Rhode Island took 2 more years to 
ratify the U.S. Constitution. Not all Americans supported the 
Constitution. One of my favorite Revolutionary War people, Patrick 
Henry, did not believe that the new Constitution should be ratified. He 
believed in a stronger State instead of a Federal Government.
  We sometimes forget our own history and we sometimes sell the Iraqi 
people short as many people have done this year. Those people, the 
Northeast elites and the west coast Hollywood leftists, said it would 
not happen, that the Iraqis would not have a government this year. But 
they did. Maybe those folks seem to be somewhat disappointed that the 
Sunnis, the Kurds and the Shiites all came to the table and voted for 
this Constitution. Those Northeast elites and those west coast 
Hollywood leftists were the same ones who said that we couldn't help 
Germany and Japan in World War II. We fought those two countries, those 
two regimes of totalitarian states, but the United States went in and 
set up democracies in both of those countries. Now those countries are 
not only free but they are world powers and they are our allies.
  And what if it happens? What if Iraq and Afghanistan do the same 
thing that Germany and Japan did, become world powers, become 
democracies and, more importantly, become free and our allies?
  Mr. Speaker, democracy is the enemy of terrorism and freedom is the 
enemy of anarchy, and the people are the enemy of dictators. The United 
States in its history has gone to war numerous times, but we go to war 
not to conquer but to liberate. We go to war not to enslave but to set 
free. And so our troops that I met with in January and the troops that 
are serving there today are serving a purpose in Iraq. I have talked to 
them and they are proud that they are able to represent the United 
States and fight the war on terror. But they are also proud of the fact 
that they are setting up a democracy in that land far, far away.
  Mr. Speaker, history will look favorably on our role in Iraq and 
Afghanistan. History will record what amazing people these Americans 
were. It will be a good time in history for the United States and the 
Iraqi people.
  Mr. Speaker, freedom once again has ruled the day.

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