[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 22990-22991]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               REPORT OF CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 4, 2005, the gentlewoman from Virginia (Mrs. Drake) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. DRAKE. Mr. Speaker, I came today to talk about the great 
privilege I had just 2 weeks ago to lead a congressional delegation to 
Iraq. It was my very first trip. I did not know what to expect. But as 
we approached the airport and you could look down, all you saw was very 
brown, very barren, very flat land. I realized as we were coming into 
Kuwait City that we had done a very, very poor job as elected leaders 
to tell the American people what our military men and women are doing 
in Iraq, why they are doing it, the incredible progress that they are 
making and the consequences not only to Iraq and to the Middle East, to 
the U.S. but to the entire world if they were to fail.
  Since this was an armed services trip, our mission was to meet with 
the troops, to meet with their commanders, to learn more about their 
mission, to see some of the technology that they are able to use to 
help them, to hear of their successes and to hear of the problems or 
things that we as Members of Congress could help them with.
  The very first person that I met was a young man on that airstrip in 
Kuwait City as we were waiting to board a C-130. As I was talking to 
him, he looked up to me and he said, ``Ma'am, don't worry about me. I 
know what I'm doing and I know why I'm doing it, and I can tell you 
that there will never be another attack on our nation if I have 
anything to do with it. So don't worry. Just pray for me.'' And he 
walked away. What an overwhelming feeling that that was from somebody 
probably in their very, very early twenties.
  That same evening as we had dinner with troops from Virginia, and I 
would like to take a moment and thank the Peterson Foundation and AT&T 
who provided us with telephone cards to give to our very brave men and 
women so that they could call home, but there was a young woman from 
Virginia who looked me straight in the eye and I already knew this, I 
had already sensed it and felt it, but she looked at me and said, ``Why 
aren't our elected leaders telling America what we're doing?'' I had no 
answer for her, except to make the commitment to her that we would do 
that.
  Please understand that there are very huge successes that have been 
made in Iraq. We hear the stories, and any story is one too many, about 
our men and women who are injured or killed by the IEDs. The stories 
that we do not hear are about how successful our military men and women 
have been at finding these devices, at exploding them or disarming them 
before someone is hurt.
  We watched the Predator land on film as it has been patrolling around 
Iraq and certainly been a great asset to the military. We talked about 
civil things, such as the need for electricity, the talk about 
blackouts, and what we learned is that, yes, there are blackouts in 
Iraq but the biggest reason is because of increased demand for 
electricity. I did not know that Iraqis were out buying TV sets and 
refrigerators and other appliances and have greatly increased it. I was 
not aware of the condition that Saddam Hussein put his own country in 
and that for 6 years prior to this conflict that he was allowing raw 
sewage from Baghdad to flow into the Tigris River.
  During Saddam Hussein's reign, there were no independent TV stations. 
Today, there are 44. No independent commercial radio stations. Today, 
there are 72. No independent newspapers and magazines. Today, there are 
100. We also do not talk about the huge successes of the Iraqi security 
force and the fact that we as Americans have turned over 24 fully 
operational bases to the Iraqi government.
  We flew from Baghdad to Balad air base by helicopter. We flew very 
low and very fast. I was surprised, first of all, to see how green the 
nation was in that area, and more surprised to see the people who were 
working those agricultural fields who waved to that helicopter as it 
went by. When we landed in Balad, I talked to General Frank Gorenc, who 
used to be the commander at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia and whom 
I know, and I said, ``Frank, they're waving at us.'' They laughed and 
they said, ``Thelma, they always

[[Page 22991]]

wave at us. They're very glad that we're here.''
  I believe that these young men and women who are serving in Iraq are 
true American heroes. I believe that history will give them a name, 
just as they named my father's generation during World War II. I do not 
know what that name will be, but I can assure you that these young men 
and women understand the threat to our world but they need to know that 
America supports them and that America understands their mission.
  I told them stories from back home about a presentation at Sea World, 
about what a great job they were doing and about how Americans stood 
and clapped. And how in Ireland on our way back Marines entered that 
airport and they stood and clapped.

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