[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11265]
[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 New York (Mr. Owens) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, the war in Iraq is a monster storm. It is a 
social tsunami battering the positive components of our potentially 
great society. The billions of dollars being poured into this war could 
solve dozens of major catastrophic problems that are facing our Nation.
  Recently, a new report was released, authored partially by our own 
Science Committee, which said that we have a dangerously inadequate 
education system. When I came to Congress in 1983, Ronald Reagan was 
saying the same thing. He had a commission which came out with a report 
that said, our Nation is at risk. We still have not done anything of 
great substance to deal with the problems that were highlighted. We 
still have not appropriated the money to build laboratories in public 
schools, junior high schools and high schools. We still don't have 
adequate libraries. We still don't have the money which pays salaries 
which would produce the science teachers that are necessary.
  We have a crisis in health care. Forty million people are not covered 
at all and there are many others who are inadequately covered. We have 
falling standards of living with gross inequities. The assets that 
reflect wealth among black Americans total less than $20,000 per 
family. $120,000 per family for white Americans. Both standards are 
falling, not climbing.
  I am a member of the Out of Iraq Caucus. I welcome the opportunity 
tomorrow to begin a debate which would at least allow us to discuss in 
an open forum the problems we are facing. Any discussion is important 
because this is such an important problem. We have employment problems 
that are mushrooming, we have all kinds of things that should be 
discussed, and now is the time for all Americans to come forward and 
make their contribution toward a solution known.
  Common sense is welcome. It might shed a lot of light on some of the 
problems and offer some real solutions. Scientific expertise is 
welcomed. Mother wit. We need the fresh visions of the young and we 
need the seasoned wisdom of the elders. Everything we can do is needed 
in order to solve these problems. Let every question be set forth. Let 
every possible solution be stated. We Americans are faced with a 
problem which is far more complex than the inner workings of a nuclear 
bomb, I assure you. The present explorations of the vast universe by 
astrophysicists are not as challenging as the need for a meaningful 
solution to this war blunder in Iraq.
  There are many possible questions and solutions that I would urge 
should be placed on the agenda for discussion. However, I want to focus 
on just two of them tonight. One is the distribution of oil revenues. 
The other is the arrangements for the sharing of power among the 
majority Shiites and the minorities, mainly the Sunnis and the Kurds.
  Oil revenues. We need a transparent, open, full discussion of what 
are the arrangements that have been proposed, or are being proposed, or 
are already in place for the distribution of the oil revenues from the 
oil in the ground in Iraq. Oil is their greatest resource. They have 
one of the greatest resources in the world. They are number three or 
number four among the nations producing oil. Yet there is very little 
discussion about what we are doing. To what degree is Halliburton going 
to control the revenues as their payment for the reconstruction that 
they have done of some of the oil wells? To what degree are the oil 
companies going to control revenue because of their arrangements for 
the pipelines and the shipping and the retail outlets in various 
countries? What is going to happen to the oil? These are questions that 
are being asked by the people of Iraq, I assure you. These are 
questions that are stumbling blocks, I assure you, in the completion of 
a government. Everybody in every section of the country wants to know 
how the oil revenues are going to be distributed. If I live in a 
province where there is no oil, will my area benefit? These things need 
to be dealt with.
  Sharing power relates closely to this. We need to let them know they 
all share power. Regardless of whether they are Sunnis or Kurds or some 
other minority, the majority Shiites need to share power in some way.
  We have a problem with sharing power across the world. There are many 
nations now struggling with this problem, so we should bring to bear 
all of our possible solutions and try to help resolve the problems in 
Iraq. We need the most creative approaches possible for power sharing 
which gives all Iraqis a stake in their new democracy. Ending the war 
in Iraq, ending the massive death and injuries, ending the waste of 
billions of dollars must be our number one agenda. These problems must 
be solved. We must pass and implement the Murtha resolution now. We 
must bring the troops home now.

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