[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 25261-25262]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                                  IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OSBORNE. Madam Speaker, in roughly 1 month, general elections 
will be held in Iraq. I would like to comment on my perceptions as to 
what I have seen as I visited there on three different occasions and 
talked to many of our soldiers. Soldiers often comment on the fact that 
there are really two wars, apparently, going on in Iraq. There is a war 
that they see on CNN, and they watch cable television regularly. Then 
there is the war that they are actually fighting.
  Apparently, in their minds, at least, there is some discrepancy 
between the two versions. They have asked me to come back on occasion 
and talk about what they see happening over there.

[[Page 25262]]

  First of all, in the area of education, 746 schools have been 
renovated, and these projects have all been completed; 36,000 teachers 
have been trained since the war started; attendance in the schools is 
up by 80 percent, and most of these increases are young women, who are 
attending school for the first time.
  In the area of health care, 17 new hospitals have been built; 3.2 
million children under the age of 5 have been vaccinated for the first 
time, 97 percent of all children have been vaccinated; 700,000 pregnant 
women have been vaccinated; and 142 new clinics are currently under 
construction or have been completed. It is certainly not perfect, but 
it is an improvement.
  As far as the economy is concerned, many small businesses and 
entrepreneurial activities are springing up. As you fly over Baghdad at 
tree-top level, you see satellite dishes on practically every building. 
They were not there under Saddam. Newspapers are springing up. Many 
news outlets that were not there are present today. There are 1 million 
more automobiles in Iraq today than under Saddam, and Iraqi income, of 
course, has increased as well.
  As far as a political process, as many people know, the elections for 
a constitutional assembly were held last January, and the turnout 
exceeded expectations. The constitution was written in August. The 
constitution was approved about 2 weeks ago, October 15, with a 78 
percent approval rating. A new government will be elected December 15, 
and the Sunnis have been kind of a wild card here. They boycotted in 
large numbers the first election, and it appears that they will 
participate fully in the December 15 elections.
  As far as an exit strategy, you often hear that there is none. Yet at 
the present time 210,000 Iraqi security forces have been trained and 
equipped as of this date. The goal is 270,000 total, so we are more 
than three-fourths of the way toward our goal. There is no shortage of 
recruits. Every time they put out a call, more people volunteer than 
they have room for in the Iraqi army.
  Some areas of Iraq are totally controlled at the present time by 
Iraqis with no American backup. The intent is to draw down U.S. troops 
as Iraqis are prepared to control their own destiny. That is the exit 
strategy. We are moving in that direction. It is certainly not done 
yet, and we will be there for some time.
  The next few weeks will be violent before the elections. It will be a 
very difficult time. Some agree and some disagree that we should have 
gone into Iraq, but we are there, and this is an irrefutable fact. The 
observation from a soldier in Kuwait is something I would like to pass 
on at this time. He said this: We pull out and we pull out prematurely, 
three things are going to happen.
  Number one, every soldier who died or was wounded will have been 
sacrificed in vain. Currently the morale of our troops is generally 
very good. They do not want to leave prematurely. Many of them have 
reenlisted.
  Secondly, if we pull out early, Iraqis will die in large numbers. 
Tens of thousands and possibly hundreds of thousands will die. We will 
have broken a promise, and this is what happened after the first Gulf 
War. We cannot let the Iraqi people down at this point.
  Thirdly, if we pull out prematurely, at this point terrorists will be 
encouraged worldwide. They will be shown that terrorism does work. The 
U.S. will become an even bigger target, and our population will be 
under a greater threat.
  This is a difficult and a dangerous process. Nothing is certain at 
this point. It is difficult, but many positive things have happened. I 
think it is important that the American people be aware of these 
issues.

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