[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 21]
[Senate]
[Page 27984]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             IRAQ ELECTIONS

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, elections are currently underway in Iraq. 
It is very exciting. The election formally in Iraq itself will be 
Thursday, although in the United States those Iraqi citizens are 
voting. They are actually voting in Tennessee at one of those distant, 
remote locations, remote from Iraq.
  That is a powerful statement to the progress made in Iraq over the 
last 2\1/2\ years, that this is the third election in the last year. At 
the first election in January, about 8.5 million turned out; at the 
next election in mid-October, over 10 million people turned out; at the 
third election, we will have to wait and see, but it looks as though 
there will be record numbers of individuals voting in Iraq.
  Two-and-a-half years ago, we had a country that had no representative 
government whatsoever and had a tyrant, Saddam Hussein, oppressing the 
people there. This morning, several of us had the opportunity to talk, 
by teleconferencing, with our Ambassador in Iraq, as well as General 
Casey. They did review with us a number of the real advances that have 
been made. When you look at issues such as Iraqis who are currently 
participating, they cited several statistics. In August 2004, there 
were five Iraqi army battalions actually in the fight. There are 
currently 97 Iraqi battalions in the fight. In July 2004, there were no 
ready operational divisional headquarters. Today there are at least 7 
operational divisional headquarters and 31 operational brigade 
headquarters.
  There has been huge progress over the last year, year and a half. In 
November 2004, there were about 110,000 fully trained and equipped 
Iraqi security forces. Today there are almost double that, a year 
later, 214,000 trained and equipped security forces.
  Does all of this make a difference? One of the fascinating statistics 
cited and brought to my attention was compared to last year, or at some 
point last year, how many tips were being provided by the Iraqi people. 
In many ways it reflects the confidence the Iraqi people have in law 
enforcement and security. In March, there were just under 500 tips to 
the Iraqi Armed Forces. In September 2005, there were 4,700 tips by 
Iraqi citizens to Iraqi and coalition forces. Therefore, information is 
flowing much more freely, which reflects, I believe, the confidence the 
Iraqis have in their security forces. One tip resulted in the 
disruption of an IED factory and the capture of 4,000 pounds of 
explosives and about a dozen 500-pound bombs. That shows the importance 
of the improved security by the Iraqi people and what it allows to 
flow, in terms of information.
  Mr. President, 75,000 Iraqi policemen are patrolling Iraqi cities, 
and another 5,700 are in training. I think we are seeing real progress 
there. There is much progress to make, but the progress being made 
currently, as we speak, and will be made over the next several days is 
truly exciting in terms of an operational, permanent government being 
formed. Lastly, as I mentioned earlier, it won't be until actually 
April that the new government is in place. The elections are occurring 
now. Certification takes place in December, and the final is in early 
January. From that point, the government takes root. So the government 
itself won't be formed until April of next year.

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