[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 21]
[House]
[Page 28541]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            IRAQI ELECTIONS

  (Mr. KENNEDY of Minnesota asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. KENNEDY of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, what a difference 2 years 
makes. In August of 2003, I was in Iraq, and every Marine I met wanted 
to show me the field that Iraqis began digging in as soon as they took 
control of it. A mass grave was there with 3,000 bodies, part of the 
400,000 to 500,000 mass graves around the country. This hopelessness 
has really driven the Iraqis to embrace the freedom that our brave 
soldiers have given them the opportunity for. That is why, as we stand 
here today, millions of Iraqis, Shia, Sunni, Kurds are giving the 
terrorists the finger, the ink-stained finger voting for the third time 
this year, and as they do that, they are piercing through the 
hopelessness that breeds terrorism. They are giving themselves the 
opportunities for a better life. They are transforming a region. They 
are making America safer. We applaud the Iraqis. We thank the American 
troops that have made this possible.

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