[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23645]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  WAIT FOR REPORT TO EVALUATE PROGRESS

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, as America awaits word from our military and 
diplomatic leaders in Iraq early next week, it is apparent to me that 
many in Congress seem prepared to prejudge our progress and dismiss the 
report of General David Petraeus even before he makes it.
  Many, as has been done here this morning, cite the recent GAO report 
as a basis for accepting retreat and defeat in Iraq. But as Fred Kagan 
of the American Enterprise Institute pointed out recently, the mandate 
of the GAO report was not to evaluate progress broadly defined in Iraq, 
it was to determine whether or not the Iraqi Government had met 18 
benchmarks set by the U.S. Government. Fred Kagan pointed out that the 
term ``Anbar'' actually only appears twice in the GAO report, despite 
the extraordinary progress in the Anbar Province where we have seen 
Sunni leadership come forward, working with marines, working with the 
al-Maliki government and defeating terrorism. The so-called ``triangle 
of death'' is so safe the President of the United States was able to 
land there and meet with Sunni and Shia leaders earlier this week.
  I think it is imperative that we stand with our soldiers, we wait and 
hear from our military and diplomatic leaders, and for the purpose of 
freedom in Iraq and for the purpose of our national honor, we accept 
nothing short of victory in that nation.

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