[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26945]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 IRAQIS MUST RESOLVE THEIR DIFFERENCES

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I just had the opportunity to travel in a 
bipartisan codel to the Middle East, particularly to Baghdad.
  Robin Williams had an album at one time, ``Reality, What a Concept.'' 
I thought about it while I was there. I saw a lot of reality. I saw our 
soldiers in life-and-death situations and doing it in a heroic fashion. 
They told me about their need to be redeployed over there not every 15 
months, but every 12 months because the pressure is wearing on them and 
on their personal lives. The divorce rate is high, and it really takes 
a toll on their lives. They see the people working for the private 
companies over there making so much more money than them, the 
contractors, and they say, why should we re-enlist. But they do it 
because they're proud Americans.
  But then we met with Prime Minister Maliki, and he said the sectarian 
war was over. Well, Prime Minister Maliki, it's not, and until the 
Iraqis deal with reality and deal with the Sunni and Shia differences, 
there won't be peace in Iraq and our soldiers will be working for a 
group that doesn't understand the problem, which is their own internal 
politics. The Iraqis must resolve their differences.

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