[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 23055-23056]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            PROGRESS IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Shays). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I have to indicate what an inspiring talk 
that was that the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays) has provided 
this body and those who all may be tuned in. It was very touching, 
extremely informative, and most helpful; and it was a pleasure to hear.
  As I think about some of the comments that have been said in recent 
days regarding the Iraqis and the Iraqi government and those people who 
are trying to become a self-governing people, I am struck and I am 
brought back, as the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays) was, back 
to the days of this country's battle for independence, and all the 
naysayers that were around. It is estimated that perhaps less than a 
third were actually those who were actively involved in seeking 
independence and truly believed in the cause.
  Having been in Iraq earlier this year, after the January elections, 
having seen what the Iraqis were getting a glimpse of, it is like being 
a teacher and seeing the light come on with a student. They get it. 
They understand. Make no mistake, there are corrupt people in Iraq just 
as there are in America. There have been elections stolen in America. 
There have been, I am sure, improper voters everywhere there has ever 
been a vote. But this is truly an awesome historic time.
  Could it fail in Iraq? It sure could. Could it fail for sure if we 
abandon what has been done in the cause for which so many have already 
given their lives? It sure could. It could fail. And it is 
heartbreaking when people say, let us just get out before the job is 
done and let us just get out, meaning that those people who laid down 
their lives in service to this country, in helping to spread freedom 
and fighting insurgency and terrorists in other streets so we do not 
have those fights here in this country, we will, we have, but the major 
battles have been overseas because the terrorists get it.
  They understand once the seed of democracy begins to bloom in the 
Middle East, then it grows and it spreads seeds that then grow up and 
democracy spreads because once people get that glimpse of self-
government it is an incredible thing. Just like John Adams wrote his 
wife, Abigail, and explained, the thing that philosophers through the 
ages have talked about, this idea that people could govern themselves 
is just within our grasp. Oh, to be living in this time when it is so 
close within our grasp.
  Well, we have been the beneficiaries of that. As I spoke to people in 
Iraq one gentleman, tears began to come as he talked about how brutal 
and barbaric it had been in Iraq under Saddam and how because of 
Saddam's spies that

[[Page 23056]]

were everywhere, neighbors could no longer trust neighbors. They could 
not speak what they thought without worrying about somebody turning 
them in. They could not make anybody mad in the neighborhood because 
then somebody might enter a false report to get them arrested just out 
of spite. Even the spies had to be careful because they were spied on 
by others. And so it was a paranoid area.
  He said neighbors for years had quit speaking to neighbors out of 
this kind of fear and paranoia, but it was not just paranoia. There 
were really people out to get them in order to move up. I know having 
spent a summer in the Soviet Union, it was the Soviet Union when I was 
there back in 1973. I had asked one of the Soviet students when 
somebody rushed out of a room, I said, Where is that person going? He 
said, She is going to tell on me because in your country maybe money 
helps advance you, but in my country the only way you get anywhere is 
to step on other people on the way up.
  That is the way it was in Iraq. You stepped on other people to move 
forward, and it was a terrible time to live in. And this man, as tears 
welled up, he said on the day of the election neighbors that had not 
spoken for years, they came out, they held hands and they walked to the 
polls together to vote.
  Now, anybody that would seek to demean the great things that have 
already been accomplished that has put the self-government within these 
people's grasp so that the seed of democracy might grow and flourish 
and develop and spread to the surrounding countries, is just 
intolerable. There are great things that have occurred. There are 
people who have laid down their lives so this could happen. There are 
people who have laid down their lives in service to this country. There 
are people that have been wounded and hurt. And as the speaker said, we 
have visited those people, we have been with families at funerals and 
it is heartbreaking. But there is a seed of freedom and democracy and 
the potential for self-government that has been granted.
  Now, comparisons continue even tonight to be made by a colleague 
across the aisle who wants to compare this to Saigon. This is not 
Vietnam. Iraq is not Vietnam. It is completely different. That advisory 
action where we had advisors in Vietnam that was escalated by President 
Kennedy and then escalated further into a full war even though it was 
called police action by President Johnson, and then was ultimately, 
even though he is no hero of mine, President Nixon did get us out of 
Vietnam. I am not pleased with the way it was done, but people were 
made to die for nothing. But they did not die for nothing. They died 
for the ideal that man was created by their creator with God-given 
rights. They did not die for some wishy-washy government in Washington.
  Now, this election in Iraq and what is going on over there is 
historic. It is awesome. It is being done by valiant people to demean 
what has been done and the lives that have been sacrificed, even by 
Iraqis, is simply inappropriate, excessive political exuberance at the 
cost of truth, honesty and dignity.
  Now, the naysaying brutality that is being heard verbalizing this 
idea that we should have our head in the sand is simply inappropriate. 
I was grilled by some Al-Jazeera reporters. They said, You must have 
been upset by the January elections. Your candidate was not elected. I 
said, We were not here about a president. We were here about a process, 
that you would govern yourself, and you would select your own 
president.

                              {time}  2230

  It is not about a president. It is about a process. And they began to 
see.
  And some of the Sunnis had said, you know, we were told by our 
leaders not to vote; that, for one thing, the vote would not come off 
because of all the violence, and we saw that did not happen. People did 
vote anyway. We were also told it would be a fraud, that the Americans 
would use this as a way to install their puppet government. But that 
did not happen. The guy that was most friendly to the United States got 
third place. We saw, wow, this was a real election and we missed it. We 
are not going to let that happen again.
  And even though it may not have been a majority of the Sunnis, the 
Sunnis bravely came out and voted. And they voted knowing even still 
their religious leaders were speaking against it.
  I was able to relate to the Al-Jazeera and some of the Iraqis present 
with a story that can be depicted in the beautiful huge portrait 
outside this very floor of the Constitutional Convention with Chairman 
Washington standing there. The story that was told was of Benjamin 
Franklin sitting there, as depicted in his chair at the Constitutional 
Convention after they had come up with a document, finally. And he 
said, you know, I have been looking at that half of a sun engraved on 
the back of your chair trying to decide through the process of this 
convention if that was a rising sun or that was a setting sun, and now 
I believe it is a rising sun. And I related to the Iraqi reporters, I 
believe what I am seeing in this country is a rising sun.
  It is an incredible day in the history of mankind that in the area 
where many believe the cradle of mankind existed, where mankind 
started, for the first time in thousands of years that area is about to 
govern themselves. We have done a great thing.
  There are things that I have heard right here on this floor that I 
might disagree with our President over, but I thank God that he has 
stayed the course. Because if the seed of freedom and self-government 
is allowed to grow and flourish in Iraq, it will spread with other 
seeds. We are already seeing that, as the gentleman from Connecticut 
pointed out, in surrounding areas, if we stay the course long enough to 
let them take over, let them govern. We have trained their policemen. 
We are training their soldiers, and they are nearly ready to take over. 
What a glorious day that will be for them. They are not going to agree 
with us on many things, but they will be a free people and they will 
understand that freedom.
  I thank God that in the late 1700s, 1776 to 1789, that the naysayers 
that said how stupid this was, that those in France who were the 
naysayers to this gentleman, Lafayette, who really saw something in the 
potential for these colonies in America, I thank God, the very God we 
see inscribed above the Speaker's chair, where it says ``In God we 
trust,'' I thank that God that the naysayers did not prevail; that the 
naysayers, those with their heads in the sand, the negative people, 
that they did not prevail. Thank goodness that freedom won out.
  And I am praying to that same God that it prevails in the Middle 
East, despite the naysaying of those who would be heard even in this 
body itself. And, Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to have had the 
opportunity to have addressed this issue this evening.

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