[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 1950-1951]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1800
              WHO WILL GAIN THE TRUST OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Barrett of South Carolina). Under a 
previous order of the House, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, we are all celebrating Iraq's election, and I 
certainly join in the celebration. But I hope we realize that the great 
slogan that was almost universal, every candidate, every party says, 
Vote and the Americans will go home soon; the more you vote, the faster 
we will get the occupying troops out. I think we should understand 
that.
  We have a problem here with the trust of the Iraqi people. The 
problem is, who will gain the trust of the Iraqi people. Will we be 
able to gain that trust by behaving in a certain way, not just speaking 
and talking about guaranteeing liberty and freedom, but also justice?
  Will we be able to gain the trust before the outside forces of bin 
Laden?
  Time is on bin Laden's side. The longer we wait, the longer we 
hesitate, the longer we occupy Iraq and stay there, the more he will 
gather in new forces and recruit new people to come in. So we don't 
have an infinite amount of time.
  We should prepare an exit strategy and move on that exit strategy 
immediately. The problem is, how do you gain the trust of the people of 
Iraq in order to guarantee that the insurgents will have no support 
among the people. The less support the insurgents have among the 
people, the more secure Iraq will become.
  Step one in any successful departure from Iraq, and I think we can 
have a successful end to this occupation, step one in that successful 
end to the occupation would be to put a discussion of oil on the table. 
An open and truthful discussion of the oil revenues of Iraq should be 
on the world table.
  Oil is part of the problem. Oil can be a part of the solution. In 
fact, oil is possibly the major problem, and oil can be the major 
solution. Let us have an honest discussion of what is going to happen 
to the revenue earned by the oil of Iraq.
  Iraq is quite fortunate. Despite all of its great troubles, it does 
have beneath the soil enough oil to keep the country prosperous for 
many decades to come. It does have enough oil to rebuild the country 
and to do things that resources can provide.
  Within the next 90 days, if you want a successful exit strategy, 
within the next 90 days a conference should be called. An international 
conference should be called on the distribution of the oil revenue of 
Iraq.
  What will the distribution of that revenue be?
  I think the conference should guarantee that the great majority of 
the revenue, most of the revenue will go to the Iraqi people. Whether 
that is paid directly to the Iraqi Government or whether it is through 
some taxing arrangement on privately produced oil from private 
companies does not matter. Some way, we should guarantee that the 
benefits of the oil, the revenue, most of it, goes to the people of 
Iraq.
  There are other problems, because people have invested in the oil 
wells of Iraq. There are problems, because a great deal of money has to 
be poured in the provision of technical assistance. Technical 
assistance, and the cost of that, is part of the problem with respect 
to France and Russia's and Germany's involvement in Iraq before the 
war. France, Russia, all must be invited to the table. Germany, China, 
everybody should come to the table. We need the sanctioning of whatever 
agreement is reached by the entire international community. If the 
Iraqis will trust what happens and believe it is true, it must have all 
the people at the table who can guarantee it will be carried out 
appropriately.
  Step two would be to say, once we have dealt with the problem of oil, 
and there is so little discussion of the problem of oil, of what 
exactly is the role of oil in this whole conflict, it is frightening. 
It is dishonest, of course, not to discuss oil and how oil brought us 
there and how oil is being handled right now.
  When we moved our troops into Iraq, most people don't know it, but we 
immediately secured the oil wells. Before they dealt with the museums 
or the city halls, the hospitals or any other facility, the Marines and 
the invading forces secured the oil wells.
  There are some written agreements already, I understand, that the oil 
industry in the future in Iraq must be privatized. I do not know how 
such agreements can be enforced. I do not know how they could be 
generated, but I hear rumors that privatization of the oil is a 
condition that is written somehow into the agreement with the Iraqi 
interim government, and it has to be a part of the constitution, et 
cetera.
  Oil is a problem. Let us guarantee that the greater benefits of that 
oil go to the Iraqi people. Once you have done that, in the next 90 
days, that can be done, once you have done that, then steps can be 
taken to move forward toward a constitutional government.
  The people elected now were elected primarily to write a 
constitution. They should be given an incentive by being told that 
after this constitutional process, a certain number of days after that 
process, we are leaving. They should be given that incentive.
  I understand the scheduling probably is a year away. I do not know 
exactly what the timetable is at that point. But if they have to delay, 
then they delay the occupation. If they move it faster, there will be 
some incentive there so that they will see the occupying troops leave 
that much sooner. It does not take rocket science to resolve this 
problem if there is going to be real honesty.
  The great fear of the Iraqi people is that they will get no justice. 
And if they fear they will get no justice, they will turn more and more 
to outsiders. Bin Laden and his insurgents will become stronger and 
stronger, and more

[[Page 1951]]

and more Americans will lose their lives, and more and more dollars 
from American taxpayers will be pumped into this situation needlessly.
  I say that we should understand that. Oil was the problem and oil can 
be the final solution.

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