[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 5]
[House]
[Pages 6232-6233]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       POSITIVE IRAQ WAR EFFORTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OSBORNE. Mr. Speaker, so often when we hear of events in the 
Middle East the reports are negative, sometimes even the discussion on 
the floor reflects a great deal of negativism.

                              {time}  1830

  Recently, I led a delegation to Jordan and Iraq and later to Germany. 
Matter of fact, we just returned yesterday. And I thought I would 
report on what I saw there because so often soldiers say we really wish 
you would go back and tell the American people the war we are fighting 
and not the one that they see on television or in the newspapers.
  So, on previous trips, I had been amazed at how positive the morale 
was. Everyplace that I went, soldiers seemed to be rather upbeat, 
pulled together, seemed to have a sense of mission.
  As we flew into the Al Asad, which is a somewhat remote base about 90 
miles west of Baghdad out in the desert, extreme cold, no vegetation, 
no trees, no grass, as we landed there in the dust and the sand, I 
thought, this is the place where we are going to see some people who 
are really pretty negative about what is going on, and I was really 
surprised.
  There were 180 Nebraskans from my home State there. That is why I 
went there. They had not had a CODEL there for at least 9 months, maybe 
never there. And again I saw the same thing, a sense of accomplishment, 
a real sense of pride in what they were doing. I pressed them, and I 
talked to them, and I still got no negative comments and no major 
complaints.
  We went on down to Baghdad, and we talked to General Petraeus, who is 
in charge of training the Iraqi soldiers, and General Casey, who is in 
charge of the overall command there. General Casey made the point that 
the infrastructure still needs improving. Obviously, the electricity is 
better, but it is still not working all the time. Sewage at times is 
not what it should be; and, at times, their oil pipelines are getting 
blown up. But, again, there is general improvement, but they both said 
the January 30 elections were truly a watershed event. Since that time, 
there has been a definite qualitative shift in what is happening in 
Iraq.
  I thought I would just point out some of the things that we were told 
and some of the things that we observed.
  General Casey said, and General Petraeus as well, that by the end of 
the year Iraqi troops should be out in front in all concentrations in 
Iraq. They would have, in many cases, U.S. backup, but there are right 
now several areas of Iraq that are totally controlled, with no U.S. 
backup, by Iraqi forces. So the training of the Iraqis has been 
excellent.
  The Iraqi intelligence is improving. Many Iraqis are now coming 
forward with information regarding insurgents that were not coming 
forward before. The attacks have been reduced, and the Iraqis are 
certainly much more confident of their future.
  Apparently, many of the Sunnis are regretting not having participated 
in the elections, and at this point they are beginning to volunteer for 
the army, for the police, which was something that was unheard of a few 
months ago, and the Sunnis are pressing to get a place at the table in 
the new government.
  There is no shortage of Iraqi recruits apparent at the present time. 
There are roughly 100 battalions of army Iraqis, 152,000 total have 
been trained and equipped, 85,000 police, 67,000 members of the army. 
The Iraqis have been provided with up-armored vehicles, body armor, 
about 130,000 sets. So they are well over halfway to their goal of 
270,000 Iraqi soldiers trained.
  Also, the Iraqis are performing much better, whether they are 
policemen or soldiers. The recent instigation or uprising in downtown 
Baghdad by al Sadr, where we have several thousands of his supporters 
demonstrating, it was well-orchestrated, but the thing that we did not 
hear was that whole situation was controlled by Iraqi police, with no 
U.S. backup, and so we find that they are much in control of the 
situation.
  We also had a chance to talk to Mr. al Jafari, the prime minister. 
When we asked him what he wanted to say to the American people, he had 
just been installed as prime minister the day before we saw him, he 
said, the thing I would like to say is we owe a debt of gratitude to 
the United States and particularly for the loss of soldiers. He said, 
when you sent your soldiers over here and the sacrifices they made, it 
is something we can never forget, and that we will always be grateful 
for.
  We asked him if he would have an inclusive government, if he would 
include the Kurds and Sunnis and Shiites. He said he would, and that 
remains to be seen, because he is linked with a very conservative 
Islamic Shiite party that has some ties to Iran. So I guess the proof 
will be in the pudding, and we will see what he does. He was very 
cordial, nice and intelligent; and, of course, they have a President at 
the present time, a Kurd named Talabani.
  We also were heartened by the progress women had made in Iraq, 
because at the present time every third name on the ballot last January 
30 was a female name. So we will have about 80 representatives of the 
275 member delegates to the constitutional convention.
  So, all in all, Mr. Speaker, we think things are better. They are not 
perfect,

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but it is heartening to see the progress that has been made.

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