[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 23936-23942]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    WAR ON TERROR--PROGRESS IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I take the floor tonight with my 
colleagues to talk about the values of freedom and the men and women 
who have, in very difficult places around the world, but especially in 
the warfighting theaters in Afghanistan and Iraq, have fought to change 
the world for freedom and, in doing so, to secure the United States of 
America, and to make us a more secure Nation, and to accrue to the 
benefit of generations over the next 10, 20 or 30 years.
  I thought to talk a little bit about, especially following the 
speakers who have deplored our policy and condemned our policy in Iraq 
and Afghanistan, I thought it might be important to remind ourselves 
why we are in those theaters.
  Madam Speaker, I brought tonight some of the citations for gallantry, 
gallantry that was carried out by American soldiers and sailors and 
airmen and marines in Iraq. I wanted to read one of those. Then I 
wanted to talk about what these soldiers and sailors and airmen and 
marines have purchased for the United States of America. I want to talk 
about the value of what they have done for our country.
  This individual is Lance Corporal Aaron C. Austin. This is a 
commendation, a copy of a commendation, and a posthumous Silver Star 
medal, the Nation's third highest award for valor that was sent over to 
our office by the Secretary of the Navy. It talks about the incredible 
job that this young lance corporal, one of the guys who makes the 
Marine Corps work, that is an enlisted man just a couple of ranks up 
from private, but somebody who has taken a leadership position, who 
leads a fire team or a squad in places like Fallujah or Ramadi.
  For conspicuous gallantry and bravery in action against the enemy as 
a Machine Gun Team Leader, Company E, 2d Battalion, 1st Marines, 
Regimental Combat Team-1, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary 
Force. That is a force that takes a very dangerous difficult area west 
of Baghdad.
  This great lance corporal, in an incredible firefight in which they 
were attacked from many different directions, by dozens of rocket-
propelled grenades, RPGs, attacked by thousands of machine gun rounds, 
and then assaulted to within 20 meters of their position, Lance 
Corporal Austin supported his fellow marines, 16 of whom were wounded 
in this firefight, ensured that they receive medical treatment, and 
then rallied the few remaining members of his platoon and rushed to the 
critical rooftop defensive position to withstand the attack. I am 
quoting, ``Braving withering enemy machine gun and rocket-propelled 
grenade fire, he reached the rooftop and prepared to throw a hand 
grenade. As he moved into a position from which to launch or throw this 
grenade, enemy machine gunfire struck Lance Corporal Austin multiple 
times in the chest. Undaunted by his injuries, and with heroic effort, 
Lance Corporal Austin threw his grenade which exploded amidst the 
enemy, halting their furious attack.''

                              {time}  2015

  He did that with the last efforts of his body before he succumbed to 
that mortal wound.
  By his bold leadership, wise judgment and complete dedication to 
duty, Lance Corporal Austin reflected great credit upon himself and 
upheld the highest tradition of the Marine Corps and the United States 
naval service. That is what Gordon England, Secretary of the Navy, said 
in this posthumous award of the Silver Star medal to this lance 
corporal, one of thousands of about 140,000 personnel who have been in 
the theater consistently over the last several years, accomplishing 
their mission in Iraq.
  So we know that this lance corporal had incredible bravery, and I 
think following especially the speakers who have criticized this 
mission and said it is without value, I think it is important to talk 
about the value for this Nation that this lance corporal and the other 
hundreds of thousands of men and women who wear the uniform of the 
United States have delivered to us through their service to our 
country.
  To hear the speakers who have criticized this mission talk, we 
somehow have created a terrorist enemy and an insurgent enemy that, 
because of our own fault, attacks America, and the way for us to hold 
off these attacks, to dampen these attacks, is to be suppliant and to 
do nothing and to be compliant, and somehow we have agitated and upset 
the enemy who otherwise would not be intending to hurt Americans.
  I am reminded that when those planes hit the United States in 9/11, 
it was following two major military operations that this country 
undertook. Interestingly, we took them both on behalf of Muslim 
nations, protecting them from neighboring nations, from the attacks of 
neighboring nations.
  One good question to ask the speakers who just finished was what did 
the United States do to deserve those attacks?
  They further said, well, we did not find any nuclear weapons, other 
weapons of mass destruction, in Iraq, and, Madam Speaker, let me tell 
you what we did find and what the world found and what history will 
reflect to the end of time.
  I keep in my desk drawer a picture of Iraqi Kurdish mothers holding 
their babies tightly against them as they lie dead where they fell on 
the hillsides in northern Iraq where Saddam Hussein killed them with 
weapons of mass destruction; that is, chemical weapons; that is, poison 
gas; the only leader, to my knowledge, since Adolf Hitler to kill his 
own people with poison gas.
  Every time I hear a speech about how things would have been better if 
the Americans did not show up, I pull that picture out to remind myself 
that things only get better when the Americans show up, and sometimes 
it is lonely, and sometimes it is tough, and sometimes we only find a 
few of our really toughest, closest allies like the Aussies and the 
Brits standing side by side with us. Although we now have lots of 
people from those countries that we liberated, which Donald Rumsfeld 
refers to as the new Europe, people like the Polish troops, who are 
securing, taking part in the multinational organization, securing the 
southern part of Iraq.
  Sometimes we have a difficult mission, but it is very clear to us 
since September 11 that if we do not change the world, the world is 
going to change us. For Americans who wonder why we have not been 
attacked over the last several years, why there has not been another 
September 11, one answer is that we have kept the bad guy off balance. 
We pursued them in caves, in mountains, at 12,000 feet high where they 
thought we would never get to them. We have gotten them in safe houses 
where they thought they were totally safe, and we have pursued them to 
places where they never dreamed we would be able to find them. Because 
of that, we have kept them off balance, and we have kept them in a 
position where it has been very difficult for them to organize another 
attack against the United States.
  The idea that we can somehow pull back into the United States and not 
pursue this war against terrorism and everything will be fine is a very 
erroneous idea. The men and women of our Armed Forces who are 
undertaking this very difficult mission in Iraq are accomplishing the 
mission. The mission is of great value because we have discovered in 
this century that when we have brought freedom to countries, those 
countries have not been a threat to the United States.
  We are not worried about the nuclear weapons in Great Britain's 
arsenal because Great Britain is a free nation. We are not worried 
about the nuclear weapons in the arsenals, for example, of France or 
Israel because they are free nations. But we are worried about nuclear 
weapons and the possibility of

[[Page 23937]]

nuclear weapons being obtained by nations which sponsor terrorism and 
which are themselves tyrannical to their people.
  Every time we establish a nation which is free, and it does not have 
to be a perfect democracy or a perfect republic, but a Nation that has 
a modicum of freedom for its own people, and which has a benign 
relationship, a good relationship with the United States, and which is 
not our enemy, and which will not be a launching point for future 
terrorist operations, then we have achieved something of value that 
will accrue to the benefit of future generations of Americans. That is 
what our troops are doing. Our troops are doing something which is 
worthwhile and which is good.
  For my friends who read off very solemnly the names of dead 
Americans, please do not give the impression that their lives were 
given without value, without reason, without cause, because they were 
given as a result of a very important mission. They have given great 
value to our country, and we owe all of them a great debt of gratitude.
  Madam Speaker, I have some other citations that I will read at a 
later time. I am just talking a little bit about these great men and 
women who serve our country in uniform, who I think agreed with the 
proposition that what we are doing in Iraq is the right thing.
  What I would like to do right now, though, is yield to the 
gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), because she has a few 
things to say about this issue, and then we have five or six other 
colleagues that I would like to discuss this very important American 
mission with. I yield to the gentlewoman from Tennessee.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California 
so much for yielding.
  The gentleman from California (Chairman Hunter) has done a wonderful 
job in leading in this war on terror and leading in securing this 
homeland and homeland security, which is right at the top of concerns 
of the American people. He is a true leader, and this House is 
fortunate to have him as chairman of the Committee on Armed Services. 
This country is fortunate to have his leadership on this issue.
  Madam Speaker, over the last few weeks, I have noticed a change in 
the rhetoric, a troubling trend in the rhetoric. We have heard some of 
it here tonight, and it really saddens me when those that are opposed 
to an aggressive war on terror speak as they speak.
  Increasingly we are seeing those that oppose the war downplay the 
importance of the war, or they are trying to minimize the seriousness 
of the sacrifice that our military is making. I find that very sad.
  I do not know what the intent of those comments are. I dare not even 
venture to think what the intent of those comments might be that we are 
hearing from the far left in this country, and I certainly hope that 
they will reconsider those comments, but unfortunately, the message 
those on the left are sending is that we do not favor an aggressive war 
on terrorism and that we are not winning.
  Madam Speaker, they could not be further from the truth, and I want 
to say thank you to all of these military families, especially the 
families whose family members the chairman is going to read those 
citations tonight, thank them for that sacrifice, thank these moms and 
dads who are here. They really are on the frontline in homeland 
security, these moms that are tending to children, the dads that are 
tending to children, while their spouse is deployed. Right here in this 
country, they are on the frontline. They are making a tremendous 
sacrifice, and we appreciate that.
  My hope is that some of these families are watching tonight and will 
hear this, and I want to thank every man and woman who is in uniform, 
and I want them to know this. We are grateful and so thankful for their 
courage and their commitment. We believe that what we are doing in 
Afghanistan and Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and around the world, we believe 
in it. We believe in this mission, and we do not believe that the work 
in Iraq is in vain.
  I would say this to them: Do not let anyone from the left or the 
right make you think otherwise. We believe in you. We know it is tough. 
We all know it is tough. Do we mourn each and every time we lose an 
American servicemember? Absolutely. It breaks our heart. Are there days 
when we think the sun will not shine on our mission? Absolutely. But 
Madam Speaker, we fight through those moments of doubt because we do 
not want our kids and our grandchildren to ever face another September 
11. We do not want our kids to pay the price for inaction, and that is 
the price they would be called on to pay.
  I could stand here and I could read through a list, all of my 
colleagues could join me in reading through a list, of achievements in 
Afghanistan and Iraq and not even begin to mention the other Middle 
Eastern countries, but I am not going to do that. It would take a long 
time. I could talk about how we are dismantling al Qaeda, piece by 
piece, every single day. I could talk about the fundamental change we 
are trying to bring to a region that has spawned terrorism for decades 
before we responded, but I know my colleagues are going to speak to 
that.
  So I simply want to thank our troops and thank our families. I want 
to thank the men and women who are serving at Fort Campbell, the 101st 
Airborne, which is currently deploying. I want to welcome home from 
Iraq Tennessee's own 278th Regimental Combat Team of the National 
Guard. They are returning to their families and loved ones this week, 
and we welcome them.
  To the families whose loved ones will not be coming home, you are in 
our thoughts and our prayers. Your suffering is one we cannot fully 
comprehend, but your sacrifice is never going to be forgotten. We thank 
you, we appreciate you, and we pray God will bless you.
  Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman, and I 
want to thank her for being such a great representative of those men 
and women who serve, particularly coming out of her National Guard unit 
and the 101st Airborne, a legendary division.
  I might say to the gentlewoman that a lot was made of the movie Band 
of Brothers, a story of the 101st in World War II. Of course, we have 
referred to a lot of those people as the Greatest Generation, and 
indeed, they were a great generation. But in reading about the exploits 
and meeting with the individuals of the 101st Air Mobile Division, 
which today is, in fact, getting ready and going into the northern AO, 
a very difficult place, and having already served in Iraq, I think it 
can fairly be said they are the greatest generation. They are every bit 
as good and great and capable as the people that fought in the Battle 
of the Bulge and went up those cliffs at Normandy. We are very proud of 
them.
  I thank the gentlewoman, and I would like to yield to the gentleman 
from New Hampshire (Mr. Bradley), who has been a great supporter of the 
troops and worked with us to put together a great defense bill this 
year.
  Mr. BRADLEY of New Hampshire. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman 
for the opportunity to be here this evening.
  When our troops go into battle, they are blessed to have a chairman 
who will fight for their body armor, who will fight for the resources 
they need to prevail in every fight in this war on terrorism, and the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter) has done that, bar none. You 
have made it your mission. You have sons that are serving in Iraq. 
Thank you for the service that you give.
  Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, do not go too far in praising me. My son 
did serve a couple of tours in Iraq, but just like lots and lots of 
other sons.
  Mr. BRADLEY of New Hampshire. Madam Speaker, I think that is what is 
so important tonight, that all of us here, and I think most of us that 
are here to speak tonight, have been to Iraq. I have been twice, and I 
am struck, as I am sure you are struck, by the dedication of our 
soldiers. Let us face it, it is a difficult mission.

                              {time}  2030

  The sacrifice that is involved, a number of Americans have lost their 
lives

[[Page 23938]]

or have come home injured. There is a sacrifice for their families. 
There is no question about that. But when I have gone there, the 
dedication, the sense of purpose and progress that our troops are 
making is noteworthy. It is something that I wish most Americans could 
see, because when we look at the television and see it on the nightly 
news, you do not get the full balance of the picture of the progress 
that is being made.
  Yes, as I said before, it is a very difficult situation. There is a 
significant sacrifice that has to be made, but there is progress being 
made. The progress is our exit strategy. When our troops have 
successfully completed the mission, all of us, on a bipartisan basis, 
will be able to welcome them home to their loved ones and say job well 
done.
  Let us look at that progress. I had the opportunity to go in November 
2003 and in April 2005, and the difference was night and day. In 2003 
there was hardly any Iraqi security forces. The Iraqi security forces 
now total about 200,000 and are growing every day. Their training is 
improving. Their ability to operate independent of our forces is 
growing.
  Yes, we have to continue to improve upon the command and control 
structure and to make sure that they have all of the training and 
armament that they need, but we are making tremendous progress; and we 
are seeing it in the field as they are able to operate on their own and 
take the battle to the terrorists who are killing innocent women and 
children and Iraqi civilians indiscriminately. And the Iraqi security 
forces, a year from now or perhaps in that time frame, they will be 
fully trained, armed and equipped; and that is certainly significant, 
significant progress.
  When I was in Iraq in April, we had an opportunity to meet with a 
number of Iraqi women leaders, and they told me, and these are Iraqi 
people, they told me they are doing a much better job protecting their 
country and their citizens. Yes, there is still work that needs to be 
done, but hearing that from Iraqi people was very noteworthy.
  The other thing that is so important and we saw an example once again 
of progress is the steady march in Iraq toward democracy. The 
Constitution has now been ratified. It was a very democratic debate. 
The Sunnis in particular, many of them were opposed to it; but they 
went to the ballot box; and for the vast majority, it was a peaceful 
day. People voted. The majority of the Iraqi people, I believe it was 
nearly 80 percent, voted for the Constitution.
  What that means now, in December, there will be another round of 
voting for a permanent parliament that will have to go about the 
business of continuing the reconstruction. But as democracy takes hold, 
more than anything else that, in combination with the Iraqi security 
forces, will be what enables our troops to be able to know that they 
have done a good job, they will be more ancillary. They will first be 
able to withdraw to certain secure bases and then be able to come home 
with a job well done. That is the strategy that is in place. It is 
working. The number of Iraqi security forces is increasing every day. 
Their performance is improving, and democracy is gaining traction every 
day.
  With those two forces continuing, our troops will be able to come 
home. We will welcome them home to a job well done. Once again, it is 
an honor and pleasure to be here and to work with the gentleman on this 
important mission.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman; and I am reminded 
also, as I look down through the last several days in October, in fact 
starting with October 2, Iraqi Army soldiers captured bombers in 
Fallujah; October 5, Iraqi troops found and cleared improvised 
explosive devices in Fallujah; October 5, Iraqi soldiers seized a large 
weapons cache hidden by anti-Iraq forces in a school in Ramadi; October 
8, Iraqi Army forces detained a suspected Iraqi bomber in Fallujah.
  As we go down the line, we see the accomplishments of this force, 
which is a young new force, because we did not want to use the senior 
officers of Saddam Hussein's military. We needed to grow a force from 
scratch from this population. It has been tough. It has been rough. But 
these great Americans in the 2nd Marine Division, the 101st Airborne, 
the 3rd ID, which is going to be replaced shortly by the 4th ID in 
Baghdad, and all the rest of these tremendous troops who are serving, 
as we realized after New Orleans, are people with great talents, great 
ingenuity and great creativity. They can not only carry the day in a 
fire fight; they can also carry the day in training other personnel.
  The accomplishments of the new Iraqi military as it stands up and 
takes over these areas of responsibility, like Najaf, which previously 
was a very hot area, that is a reflection on the capability of our 
troops, an important capability, which is the capability to train 
others. And of course why would others not want to be like American 
troops, because they show the greatest characteristics and character of 
any troops in the world.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Davis), who 
has a daughter with a birthday today. Because of that, we have moved 
him to the front of the queue, but also because he has a great 
background in the military himself and really works hard for the men 
and women who wear the uniform of the United States.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, as a fellow Ranger, I thank the 
chairman. It is a great honor to serve in this Chamber. I think the one 
thing that has been very humbling to me is the experiences I shared 
visiting many of my friends that I have known for 28 and 29 years, 
serving around the world, serving in Afghanistan, serving in Iraq; and 
I think that their story is never told in this Chamber.
  Their story is very rarely told in the American media; and if it is 
told, it is told almost as an afterthought. The one thing I would share 
that my classmates from West Point, friends from when I served as an 
enlisted soldier, friends who are in command of units on the ground now 
in the theater, returned to the United States with one common feeling 
towards the American media and toward the left, and that is anger at a 
complete misrepresentation of what they are doing.
  I think the thing that we need to understand very clearly is that the 
battle to defeat the insurgents in Iraq is not taking place in Baghdad. 
It is not taking place in Tikrit and Fallujah and Mosul and Ramadi. 
That is where the kinetic end of the business is; but the insurgents 
are desperate. If Abu Mosab al-Zarqawi and Ayman al-Zawahiri in Iraq 
and Afghanistan can make the clear statement that they see the center 
of gravity of this fight right here in the United States and right here 
in American public opinion and in the willingness of American citizens 
to simply accept a call to duty, that is so clear when the American 
people have the facts.
  As I travel in my district and as I have traveled in this country, 
the one thing I find very clearly is if an American citizen has taken a 
moment to speak to a soldier or Marine who has served on the ground in 
Iraq or Afghanistan, they have a completely different opinion, a 
completely different opinion of what is happening.
  I think the thing that is remarkable to me, and I remember when I 
first joined the Army, is that the members of the left mocked the 
military. I remember receiving the Hitler salutes and being called a 
baby killer if I showed up on a college campus in uniform. The thing 
that is remarkable to me and some of the deceit about the American 
left, and frankly some of the deceit I see in this Chamber when we talk 
about the greatest struggle that the United States has faced since the 
end of the Second World War, is now the American soldier, to their 
disgust, is being used as a human shield to attack their use in defense 
of this Nation and defense of our freedom.
  To those on the left and my colleagues on the other side who go to 
great lengths to talk about how much they care about the American 
military, where were they when 18,000 American servicemen died between 
1983 and 1986 during peace and war in the service to this country? I 
think your lack of an answer to that ever in the media speaks for 
itself.

[[Page 23939]]

  When we talk about the success, I think it comes down to the fact 
that there is a political agenda that is driving this that has to do 
with taking America down at the expense of right. Moreover, I think 
that if we listen to what Abu Mosab al-Zarqawi and Ayman al-Zawahiri 
are really saying, they are more and more desperate, and ironically it 
feeds into the liberal media's desire to control the message in this 
country.
  I recently met with an editorial board of a major newspaper. We got 
into this very discussion when I met with the soldiers of an airborne 
unit I deployed in the Middle East with, the 1st 508th Parachute 
Infantry, now in the 173rd Airborne Brigade. The national media did not 
want to cover their successes. They were looking for disgruntled troops 
and could not understand why 100 percent of those soldiers wanted to 
reenlist. It is very simple: they believe in the mission they see on 
the ground.
  I brought this up with this editorial board about the successes of 
the 2nd Brigade Combat Team in East Baghdad that have totally 
neutralized that area, which was once very violent, working closely and 
receiving great support from the Iraqi people. In fact, the Iraqi 
people are moving more and more into the front lines providing 
intelligence, providing the needed information. They are in the fight.
  This editor of a major American daily newspaper looked me in the eye 
and said, ``Geoff, car bombs are more sexy than opening schools.'' My 
heart broke when I heard that, because for the sake of a few dollars of 
profit, for a bit of readership, he chose to distort the very heart of 
what is happening in the world in the struggle that we face.
  I would challenge those in this Chamber, as the left is selective, I 
would challenge those in this Chamber who want to talk about soldiers, 
and those watching on C-SPAN from around the United States, ignore the 
politicians. Talk to the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. I would 
challenge that in every community in the United States of America, 
invite a Marine, invite a soldier who has been on the ground, who has 
been in the theater and served working with the Iraqi people and 
trained the Iraqi security forces, and who understands who an IED is, 
and that it is not some convenient means to beat up on the 
administration or to engage in partisan political attacks, but has 
lifted a friend who has put his life on the line out of a wreckage.
  I would tell you to invite those people to talk to your Rotary clubs 
and your chamber of commerce, talk to the editorial boards of the local 
paper, and bypass these people who are bent on one thing, which is 
deceit of the actual mission, or a complete cultural misunderstanding 
of what is happening, and share those successes as we hear over and 
over again from the troops on the ground in every unit that comes back. 
There are is lack of recruits for the Iraqi security forces, and our 
units in combat are reenlisting at rates of 100 percent, and it means 
one thing: they believe in the mission. They see the success. They 
understand the seriousness of this fight; and ultimately they care 
about us in this Nation enough to serve.
  I thank all of you men and women who are serving on active duty right 
now who have accepted the call to duty. My prayer is that this Nation 
will rise up, that citizens all across this country will rise up on the 
east and west coasts and in the heartland and will accept the call to 
duty that we have as a Nation and this generation to protect the 
foundation of our freedom, to finish this job and to have the forces of 
tyranny and suppression of truth know once and for all that they cannot 
prevail.
  That is why they will not fight us in the street. They seek to win in 
American public opinion in the media or in criminal attacks against 
innocent civilians.
  With that, I thank the troops for serving. I thank my colleagues for 
having the courage to stand in this body and point the truth out, to 
cut through the political rhetoric. I challenge those in the media to 
cover the truth of what is happening and to bring our soldiers and our 
Marines' stories into the forefront so the American people get a true 
perspective.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for allowing me to 
speak tonight.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his statement and 
for his service and for all of the wonderful people that he represents.
  I add my thanks to folks that wear the uniform. They are our very 
best citizens.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Fort Benning, Georgia (Mr. 
Gingrey), who has done such a wonderful job on the Armed Services 
Committee and then moved on, but still has us in his heart. I thank the 
gentleman for all of the help that he gives.
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me thank the chairman for 
allowing me to be a part of this special hour and be with my 
colleagues. I am humbled from just listening to the remarks of the 
gentleman from Kentucky who just spoke and others.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, I just wanted 
to thank the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Davis) as he goes out the 
door because I know he has his beautiful daughter, Hannah, with him 
tonight. It was good of Hannah to come over and to watch Dad and delay 
her birthday celebration for a little bit.
  Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I had the great opportunity to visit Iraq 
on two occasions: in December of 2003, five days after the capture of 
Saddam Hussein, and then again in February of this year with my 
colleagues on the Committee on Rules. I want to say what I noticed in 
Iraq, in the theater of operation, was I met soldiers' soldiers and I 
met commanders' commanders; and I want to say, too, that the gentleman 
from California (Mr. Hunter), the chairman of our Committee on Armed 
Services, is a chairman's chairman. It was said earlier by other 
speakers the sacrifice he made himself while serving in Vietnam, and 
his sons now serving in Iraq.
  This is the kind of support that we need to show and let those young 
soldiers who are over there right now, maybe some of them are having a 
needed break, an opportunity to get out of harm's way and possibly 
watching the deliberations that are occurring right here this evening 
as we praise them and give them our support.

                              {time}  2045

  In the previous 5-minute litany that we heard from the other side, I 
think it was just the opposite. It was a little sad to hear them read 
names and then condemn the Commander in Chief, to condemn the cause.
  And, Mr. Speaker, I would like to throw out a couple of names of 
young soldiers that gave their life in Iraq. I could mention Specialist 
Justin Johnson from Armuchee, Georgia, just 2 years out of high school. 
His dad, Joe Johnson, actually is in the Reserves now serving, 
activated, asked to be activated, and yet he gave his son in the 
ultimate sacrifice.
  First Lieutenant Tyler Brown, president of the student body at my 
alma mater, Georgia Tech, had an opportunity to be in Arlington in the 
Honor Guard. But, no; instead he chose, he asked, to go to serve in 
Iraq, and, 2 weeks after he arrived there, was killed by a sniper. 
President of the student body at Georgia Tech just 4 years ago. I think 
of his family. I think of his mom and his dad and his brother and his 
sister.
  I think of Command Sergeant Major Eric Cooke, who at age 43, after 19 
years of service and four combat tours of duty, 1 day after I met him 
that first time in December of 2003 that I went to Iraq, on Christmas 
Eve, he gave his life by sitting in that seat in a Humvee so that one 
of his soldiers could get some needed rest.
  That is the kind of men and women that I want to honor and remember 
here tonight as we talk about these great patriots that are serving us 
so well.
  Mr. Speaker, I think it is all about one thing that we can remember. 
Those of us who are not veterans, those of us who are veterans, no 
matter what war we are talking about, and this country has been through 
a few in the 235 years

[[Page 23940]]

of our history, the soldiers, particularly those who have given their 
lives in combat, they do not want us to forget. They do not want us to 
forget. That is all they ask of us.
  And I am often reminded of that poem that was written by a Canadian 
physician serving with the Allies in World War I in Flanders, Belgium, 
when his buddy gave his life in combat. He wrote a poem, a tribute to 
him, and that is the great poem that we all know called ``In Flanders 
Fields.'' I will try to recite it, Mr. Speaker. I might not do a very 
good job, but it goes something like this:

     In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
     Between the crosses row on row,
     That mark our place; and in the sky
     The larks, still bravely singing, fly
     Scarce heard amid the guns below.
     We are the dead. Short days ago
     We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
     We loved and were loved, and now we lie
     In Flanders Fields.
     Take up our quarrel with the foe;
     To you from failing hands we throw
     The torch; be yours to hold it high.
     For if ye break faith with us who die
     We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
     In Flanders Fields.

  That little poem that Dr. McCrae wrote in World War I, of course, is 
a very famous poem today, and it just says one thing, Mr. Speaker. It 
says, do not forget us. We died for our country. No matter what the 
cause, even if you do not agree with it, as we hear from the other side 
tonight and other times on this floor, we have got to remember the 
sacrifice, otherwise these 2,000 soldiers who have given their lives, 
and four times that many who have been injured, will indeed have died 
in vain. We will have forgotten them. We will not have taken up that 
torch that they are passing to us and they are asking us to hold it 
high.
  That is our obligation. We do not necessarily have to be veterans, 
combat veterans, like the gentleman from California (Chairman Hunter) 
or the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Davis) or the many men and women, 
too. And I think of the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Mrs. Wilson) and 
others who have served in this country. We are all serving. And I do 
not question the patriotism of the people on the other side until I 
hear them talking about the Commander in Chief and saying that he lied 
to the American people and that we did not need to be there, that we 
struck first. How quickly, Mr. Speaker, how quickly they forget 9/11.
  God bless our troops. God bless the gentleman from California 
(Chairman Hunter). We are behind them 100 percent, and we are winning, 
and we will continue to win and bring these soldiers home safe with a 
victory in hand.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman 
for a very eloquent statement. And I would just protest to my colleague 
that I did absolutely nothing special in Vietnam, and these guys and 
women who are serving in Iraq are real heroes and have performed 
extraordinarily.
  And I thought that was a very fitting recitation of Flanders Fields 
because the last line that the gentleman recited where the soldier 
says, take up our quarrel with the foe and do not fail us, was 
forgotten several times in this last century because we came out of 
World War I, the war that was supposed to end all wars, was so horrible 
we could not envision having a successor to World War I, and we let our 
guard down.
  And when we got into World War II, we found that we had neglected our 
Armed Forces, and it took an incredible build-up and lots of casualties 
before we had the industrial might of the United States and all of our 
population working and about half of them under uniform and pushing 
back on the Axis powers. And then we demobilized so quickly after World 
War II that when somebody asked General George Marshall how the 
demobilization was going, he said, It is not a demobilization; it is a 
route. We are throwing our weapons away.
  And because of that we had a third-rate nation, Korea, push us down 
that peninsula in 1950 and almost pushed us into the ocean before we 
rallied and came back up to what is now the DMZ.
  And we went through other fluctuations where we forgot that the 
admonition in that poem from people who gave their lives was to be 
strong and to fight for freedom and not to give up what we had. And we 
now realize that in this war against terror, we have to be strong, and 
we have to be forward-leaning because if we let the terrorists have 
safe haven like they had in Afghanistan where they could assemble their 
operations, where they could do their training, where they could gather 
their allies and have a platform to operate from, then we now know they 
could strike into America with that assemblage of capabilities. And 
that is what we are trying to deny them.
  And if we can have an Iraq that has a modicum of freedom, and we are 
not threatened by free nations, and has a good relationship with the 
United States, and will not be a springboard for future terrorist 
operations, that is going to be good for generations of Americans 
especially in this neighborhood.
  So it is an important thing that we are fighting for. It is a value. 
And the troops who have achieved this for us and are pushing forward 
with this mission are of value, and I think that is the essence of what 
the gentleman just said very eloquently, and I really appreciate his 
statement.
  Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Conaway), 
who has been a stalwart on the committee and really cares about the 
soldiers.
  Mr. CONAWAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding to me.
  It is an honor to serve with him on the Committee on Armed Services. 
Of all the committees in the House, if our country is at war, there is 
not a better place to serve if one is too old to do anything else. But 
this is a great committee to serve on. He leads this committee well, 
and it is a great honor for me to learn this business, working with him 
on that committee.
  I went to Iraq in July, and I want to talk a little bit about that. I 
grew up in west Texas. It is an arid desert. As we drove around some of 
the places in Baghdad and Kuwait, the territory, the scenery was 
remarkably similar to west Texas. I grew up where summers were hot, and 
the weather was bad, and the heat and blowing dirt, dust storms 
sometimes so bad that the street lights would come on at 2 o'clock in 
the afternoon. So I am a reasonably informed consumer about hot, bad 
weather.
  I got off the C-130 in Baghdad on that July day and stepped out into 
the meanest, nastiest weather I could have ever imagined. It was so 
much worse than anything I had ever experienced in west Texas. And we 
have got the finest group of young men and women, and some not so 
young, leading this country's fight in Iraq against the terrorists, 
doing an incredible job.
  I found a group of men and women whose morale was incredibly high. 
They knew they were doing the right thing. They knew they were well 
equipped. They knew they were well led. They knew they were doing a job 
that has to be done to protect this country. And they are accomplishing 
great things.
  The other side, it is almost as if they have got their fingers in 
their ears and their hands over their eyes because they do not see this 
march to progress that we are doing. The elections last week that we 
got the official word yesterday 78 percent of the country voted for 
this Constitution, an Iraqi Constitution, not an American Constitution 
but an Iraqi Constitution. The march, the votes we have had, the votes 
we will have in December. We are making progress.
  The stories that are not told is the electricity that is flowing, the 
commerce that is going on, the health care system that is reemerging, 
the stock market that is reemerging. All these good things that happen 
in this country get ignored, and it is partly our fault because we are 
not doing a very good job. Ever since I have gotten back from Iraq, 
every speech I have made, every talk I have given, I have included a 
piece of why it is important that we stay the course. And I hate to use 
that phrase. Let me rephrase that: that we finish this job, that we do 
not break faith, as our colleague just mentioned, with the young men 
and women who have led this fight.
  Liberty is not cheap. It comes at an incredibly high price. It is 
easy to be a

[[Page 23941]]

hawk, but we hawks ought to know the cost. Every one of my colleagues 
has been with me and others to Walter Reed and to Bethesda to go out 
there and hug the necks of those young men and women whose lives are 
forever changed, in some instances in a blink of an eyelash, to hug 
their necks, to thank them.
  I have had three casualties since I have been elected. The first was 
a young man that was killed in November of last year, Brian Baker; 
another young man killed this summer, Mario Castillo; a young man who 
was killed from Odessa. I go see those families. There is nothing one 
can say. One cannot make the pain any easier, but I go hug their necks 
and tell them thank you, thank you on behalf of the country for their 
sacrifice.
  I was sitting that evening with young widow Amy Baker, pregnant with 
twins who would not see their dad. It is a high price we are paying, 
but liberty is not cheap. Through that crushing grief that only a young 
widow can feel, she looked at me with tears streaming down our her face 
and she said, You make sure you tell President Bush to finish this 
fight. Do not let Brian have died in vain. Do not, in effect, break 
faith with Brian, because he knew he was doing the right job. He knew 
he was there getting something done.
  The gentleman mentioned earlier the ``greatest generation,'' and it 
was. My dad is in that generation. He fought World War II. He fought in 
Korea. And they accomplished great things. But the men and women who 
have done this fight in Afghanistan and Iraq can lay claim to having 
freed over 50 million people. We can argue about weapons of mass 
destruction and why we got where we are and all that kind of stuff, and 
there is a place for that. Let us do that. But at its core, they have 
freed 50 million people. Twenty-five million people in Afghanistan have 
gone to vote, created a democracy there. It is not perfect, but they 
are free today. They were under the Taliban, one of the most horrible 
regimes we can imagine, where the women were chattel. If I did not like 
something my wife did, I would just cut her head off, slit her throat, 
and let her die on the side of the road. They are no longer in charge 
over there; Karzai is. And a democracy is emerging there.
  Twenty-seven million people are free in Iraq today, out from under 
the jackboot of Saddam Hussein, arguably the most ruthless, cold-
blooded killer of any generation. He is in jail on trial for his life, 
as he should be.
  So let us do not lose sight of the fact that we have accomplished 
great things, and we will stay in Iraq and get this job finished.
  Let me close with a story in Afghanistan. We went from Iraq to 
Afghanistan, and we went out to a forward operating base, flew out of 
Kabul on a Chinook helicopter for about an hour, across a landscape 
where the way of life had not changed in 1,000 years: nomadic herders, 
tents, mud huts, sheep, those kinds of things. We landed in this 
forward-operating base, and this lieutenant colonel in charge there 
told us this story about they were on patrol one day, mounted in 
Humvees, and they were going down this dirt path because there are no 
paved roads in this part of the world. A young 10-year-old boy comes 
running out of a village that they were approaching, waving his arms 
and screaming and hollering, trying to get their attention. They 
stopped and waited for him to get there. And he breathlessly told them 
that the bad guys had come the night before and put a bomb in their 
path just ahead of that Humvee.

                              {time}  2100

  So our guys dismounted, got out there. Sure enough, there was a bomb, 
bad enough that it would have killed everybody in that lead Humvee. 
They disarmed it. And as they were getting ready to proceed, the 
lieutenant. colonel asked that young man, why did you risk your life to 
come tell us this, because obviously you are a marked individual now 
for having helped the other side. The 10-year-old little boy, in that 
innocence of youth, simply looked at him and said, well, when the 
Americans came, I got to start going to school.
  So the anecdotes are full of these types of stories all over the 
place, what wonderful things our country has done on behalf of these 
people in Afghanistan and Iraq. It has come at a high price, but 
liberty always comes at a high price; to get it originally and to keep 
it comes at a very, very high price.
  I want to thank each one of those moms and dads and husbands and 
wives and children tonight who grieve over the loss of a loved one, who 
grieve over the injury of a loved one. I thank you. It sounds awful 
trite and there is not much more we can do, but each one of us who 
expresses it does it from the absolute core of our being, to tell these 
families thank you so very much for your sacrifice.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for letting me participate tonight. 
I appreciate that. God bless each and every one of our men and women in 
uniform tonight, wherever they are serving, whatever their 
responsibilities are, and particularly bless their families as they 
make sacrifices that most of us do not have to make, that we are not 
called upon to make.
  So we simply want to make sure that every single day somebody 
somewhere thanks them and their loved ones for their service to this 
country. God bless each one of them, and God bless this great United 
States of America.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman, 
and I just want to echo his comments.
  I am looking at what our young men and women are doing. The gentleman 
mentioned the Greatest Generation, and they did great stuff in Normandy 
and Bastone and Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. And we had wonderful people, 
wonderful troops in Vietnam.
  The gentleman said I was a combat soldier. Compared to these guys, I 
was not a combat soldier. I had an easy tour in Vietnam. And compared 
to what these people went through, these young people who drove that 
iron spear up into Baghdad, who were told when they were going, and 
Tommy Franks testified before us on the Committee on Armed Services, 
General Franks testified that they heard on the radio back and forth 
between Saddam Hussein's commanders, ``Get ready to use the special 
weapon,'' and they thought that was nerve gas, those young people were 
moving ahead into what they thought was a nerve gas battlefield, and 
they moved ahead.
  And this maelstrom of IEDs, these remotely detonated devices, which 
are very deadly, very tough, all of the conditions that they have gone 
through and fought through, the massive dust storms, the ambushes and 
that intense heat that the gentleman from west Texas interestingly 
mentioned, that makes them, in my estimation, as good as the Greatest 
Generation, and from my point of view, the Greatest Generation are 
those folks that are over there right now.
  I appreciate the gentleman for his support for these people. We will 
keep on working. I know we will finish this mission, and we acknowledge 
the value of those men and women who have carried it to date.
  Mr. CONAWAY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield further, let me 
say one more thing, if I might, and the gentleman said it already. A 
free Iraq, an Iraq that is at peace with its neighbors is no longer a 
sanctuary for the bad guys, will make the Middle East a safer place to 
be; and by extension, this country will also be a much safer place, as 
will the world.
  So I agree with the gentleman's assessment, and we will finish the 
job.
  Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I would like to yield 
the balance of my time to the gentlewoman who has organized and led 
this Special Order, the great gentlewoman from Virginia (Mrs. Drake), a 
great member of the Committee on Armed Services. She has waited until 
last, and she is our cleanup hitter. I yield to the gentlewoman, and I 
thank her for her great work and her trips to the warfighting theaters.
  Mrs. DRAKE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the chairman for 
organizing this tonight, and I would also like to thank the gentleman 
for giving me the privilege of leading a Committee on Armed Services 
trip to Iraq at the very end of September-early October. It was my very 
first trip.

[[Page 23942]]

  We flew into Kuwait City and landed there on the airstrip to take a 
C-130 into Baghdad. There on that airstrip, I had my very first 
conversation with one of our soldiers. As I spoke with him, he looked 
at me and he said, Ma'am, I know what I am doing, I know why I am doing 
it, and if I have anything to do with it, there will never be another 
attack on our Nation. He said, So don't worry about me, just pray for 
me. And he picked up his gear and he walked away.
  As we got on that plane, I had another conversation with one of our 
military members who was assigned to that C-130. He told me his 
enlistment was almost up, but when he got home he was going to join the 
Reserve unit in his home area. And he said to me, You know, I won't be 
coming back here anytime soon, because in that Reserve unit, everyone 
volunteers to come to Iraq, and I won't have a turn to come back for 
some time.
  It hit me right there before we ever left Kuwait City that, first of 
all, these are volunteers who voluntarily join our military, and many 
of them volunteer to go to Iraq or to return to Iraq.
  That evening, we had dinner with our troops in Baghdad. A young woman 
from Virginia looked me right in the eye, and the first thing she said 
was, Why aren't our elected leaders telling America what we are doing? 
I told her that I already had determined that, that we had done a very 
poor job of telling the American people what they are doing over there, 
why they are doing it, the threat to America if they do not succeed, 
and the great success stories that they are having there. And I 
promised her that we would tell their story here in America.
  These people know why they are there. They know what they are doing. 
But their question, these American heroes who are serving for us, their 
question is, what are the American people thinking and what are they 
saying?
  That gave me the opportunity to tell them the stories from back home. 
To tell them about a cab driver in Phoenix, Arizona, that I met this 
summer who told me he is from Iraq, he has been here 16 years, he has 
family there, and he goes back on contract to help train the Iraqi 
troops. When he realized I was a Member of Congress, he stopped the 
cab, turned around and said, Will you please thank the American people 
for me for what you have done for Iraq? He said, You people work harder 
than anyone I have ever seen. He said, I don't think you even sleep, 
and you are doing it all for us.
  I told them about a presentation at Sea World this summer before 
Shamu came on that was the commercial from the Super Bowl, where our 
troops walk into an airport in their camouflage and everyone stood and 
clapped. And I told them how the audience when that presentation was 
done, they were standing, they were clapping, they were cheering and 
they were crying. Of course, I said to my daughter, And you thought you 
were in the minority.
  What I will tell them next time is what happened in Shannon, Ireland, 
on our way back, and a group of Marines walked through the airport in 
their camouflage and everyone stood and everyone clapped for those 
Marines in Ireland.
  But I also told them that I believe that their generation will also 
be named. We have talked a lot tonight about World War II, and they are 
being named the Greatest Generation. I truly believe history will name 
them; and I have decided until history does, that I am going to call 
them the Freedom Believers.
  We saw the success of what they are doing there. We met with units 
that work with IEDs and the EOD unit, that they are able to find and 
disarm and blow up a lot of these bombs. We met with the 42nd MP 
Brigade.
  We toured that base in Baghdad, and then we flew to Balad Air Base. 
In that 60-mile trip, flying very fast and very low in an Army 
helicopter, what we saw were green agricultural fields. And those 
fields, the people that were working them were waving at us in the 
helicopter. When I commented on that when I reached Balad to General 
Frank Gorenc, he told me that happens all the time. We toured the 
hospital there, and we saw that we not only treat Iraqi civilians who 
have been injured; we treat the insurgents or the terrorists themselves 
that are doing this damage there.
  These young men and women and those commanders know the success that 
is taking place in Iraq. They know that Saddam Hussein did not maintain 
their infrastructure there, that there was much deferred maintenance, 
that there was also deliberate destruction that was caused by sabotage 
and looters.
  But USAID is hard at work in Iraq. They have a publication that they 
have done which talks about the improvements they are making to the 
infrastructure, the 2,500 schools countrywide that have been rehabbed, 
over 32,000 teachers and administrators that have been taught, $20.7 
million in grants to create partnerships between U.S. and Iraqi 
universities, 200 USAID missionary personnel there at work, and over 
80,000 Iraqis at work in sectors throughout the country.
  These young men and women also understand the threat to the Nation. 
This shows our having dinner in Baghdad. This is in Qatar as we were 
leaving with the military men and women we met there.
  But these young men and women and the commanders understand the 
threat to the world. We all know that Osama bin Laden made an edict in 
1998, and he said, ``Anyone who believes in Allah is to find Americans 
and to kill them.''
  What this map shows in green is their immediate goal. We have all 
heard and read Osama bin Laden's words and their mission to take over 
the entire world. None of us can believe that. This is their current 
goal. In the very bottom corner is their goal in 100 years, and when 
you see that in color and you see that their entire goal is not a 
little country in the Middle East, their goal is the entire world, it 
makes you understand that they are at war with civilization.
  We as Americans, some of us think that Iraq is a local conflict. Iraq 
is the centerpiece of that puzzle, of that very much bigger plan of the 
people who would go after you and I if they had the opportunity.
  It is difficult for us as Americans to understand that and to 
understand the threat. They have no tanks and they have no planes. They 
use our things. They use our planes. They use our subways. Their target 
is not the military; their target is us. It is only the military right 
now in Iraq.
  Our military men and women know that there is no option but to fight 
this war and to win, not only for Iraq, but for us as well. And they 
know about the spread of freedom. They are the Freedom Believers. They 
know the spread of democracy in the Middle East makes this a safer 
world for all of us. What they want is for the American people to 
understand that, and I thank them for their service.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for arranging this tonight.

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