[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10415-10417]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                IRAQ WAR

  Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, I wish to address a little-known secret, 
a secret to the media and therefore a secret to the American people; 
that is, we are winning the war in Iraq.
  Yesterday, I read an article--I think it was maybe the day before 
yesterday--in the New York Post by Ralph Peters. It was called 
``Success in Iraq: A Media Blackout.'' In it, he writes:

       As Iraqi and coalition forces pile up one success after 
     another, Iraq has magically vanished from the headlines. Want 
     a real ``inconvenient truth''? Progress in Iraq is powerful 
     and accelerating.

  I think he hit the nail on the head. When this war got tough, the 
cut-and-run defeatist provisions started making their way into bills 
and amendments. Those provisions send a powerful message to our troops 
and to our enemies: America is not committed to this fight.
  But America has remained committed, and through that commitment we 
continue to attain success. I have been to Iraq, and I have watched the 
tide turn. I believe I have been there many more times than any other 
Member. I am on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and I spend time 
there. I see, month after month, the changes in what has happened since 
the acceleration.
  My visit in June 2006 was in the wake of Zarqawi's death. Iraqis were 
operating under a 6-month-old parliament. Al-Qaida continued to 
challenge coalition forces throughout Iraq. In response, coalition 
forces launched 200 raids against al-Qaida, clearing out the 
strongholds. The newly appointed Defense Minister and I discussed the 
current situation in Iraq, the violence brought to that country by al-
Qaida, and the transformation beginning in Iraq. I saw the emergence of 
a sense of what Iraq could be.
  Fast forward to May 2007. I returned to Iraq and visited Ramadi, 
Fallujah, Baghdad, and several other areas. Ramadi went from being 
controlled by al-Qaida and hailed as a capital under control of the 
Iraqi troops--by the way, this was at a time when Ramadi was being 
declared as the potential terrorist capital of the world. We saw 
neighborhood security watch groups identifying the IEDs with orange 
spray paint. We saw joint security stations. Things started 
accelerating and improving over there. Increased burden-sharing was 
taken on by the Iraqis. Fallujah came under the control of the Iraqi 
brigade. We had our marines there going door to door World War II 
style. At that time, I observed--in May 2007--that all of the sudden it 
was under their own security. Al Anbar changed from a center of 
violence to a success story. In Baghdad, sectarian murders decreased 30 
percent, and joint security stations stood up, forming deep 
relationships between coalition and Iraqi forces and civilians--
``brotherhood of the close fight,'' as General Petraeus put it. You 
have to be there to see it and witness personally the excitement that 
is demonstrated by the Iraqis and the pride they have that they are now 
in a position to do things for themselves that they were depending on 
us for before.
  On July 30, 2007, 2 months after I returned from Iraq, Michael 
O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack wrote an op-ed piece in the New York 
Times. It was interesting because we had never seen anything positive 
about our troops or about the war effort in the New York Times. This 
one talked about troop morale, that it was high, with confidence in 
General Petraeus's strategy; civilian fatality rates were down roughly 
a third since the surge began; the streets in Baghdad were coming back 
to life with stores and shoppers. I can remember that. When I am over 
there, I will go into a shopping area and go up to someone carrying a 
baby and talk to them through an interpreter. That is where you get to 
people who are excited because there could be a new life in the young 
person. They noted that American troop levels in Tal Afar and Mosul 
numbered only in the hundreds because the Iraqis stepped up to the 
plate. More Iraqi units were well integrated in terms of ethnicity and 
religion. Local Iraqi leaders and businessmen were cooperating with 
embedded provincial reconstruction teams to revive the local economy 
and build new political structures.
  I returned to Iraq on August 30, and the surge continued its success. 
I traveled to the contingency operating base in Tikrit, Patrol Base 
Murray, south of Baghdad, and visited with Ambassador Crocker and 
General Petraeus, who gave his wonderful testimony this morning to the 
Senate Armed Services Committee.
  I saw again on July 30 a significantly changed Iraq. Less than half 
of the al-Qaida leaders who were in Baghdad when the surge began were 
still in the city. They either fled, have been killed, or have been 
captured. The U.S. troop surge in Iraq threw al-Qaida off balance and 
produced dramatic results. There was a 75-percent reduction in 
religious/ethnic killings in the capital. They doubled the seizures of 
insurgents' weapons caches. There was a rise in the number of al-Qaida 
kills and captures. There was the destruction of six media cells--
degrading al-Qaida's ability to spread propaganda. Anbar incidents and 
attacks dropped from 40 per day to less than 10 a day. This is between 
the two times I had been there. The economy grew and markets were open, 
crowded, stocked, selling fresh fruit, and running as you would expect 
them to. A large hospital project in the Sunni Triangle was back on 
track The Iraqi Army performance was significantly improving. Iraqi 
citizens formed a grassroots movement called Concerned Citizens League. 
Most of the

[[Page 10416]]

cities in America, including my cities in Oklahoma, have neighborhood 
watch programs, where the neighborhoods and people who live there are 
watching to prevent crimes. That is what is happening in Baghdad and 
throughout Iraq.
  You now see Baghdad returning to normalcy. You see kiddie pools, 
lawns cared for, amusement parks, and markets. The surge provided 
security, and security allowed local populations and governments to 
stand up. Basic economics took root, and Iraqis began spending money on 
Iraqi projects.
  In September, a month later, Katie Couric was there. If there is one 
who has been a critic of anything in this administration, our troops, 
or anything happening in Iraq, it is Katie Couric. She said:

       Well, I was surprised, you know, after I went to eastern 
     Baghdad. I was taken to the Allawi market, which is near 
     Haifa Street, which was the scene of that very bloody gun 
     battle back in January, and, you know, this market seemed to 
     be thriving, and there were a lot of people out and about. A 
     lot of family-owned businesses and vegetable stalls, and so 
     you do see signs of life that seem to be normal . . . the 
     situation is improving.

  Madam President, that is not Senator Inhofe talking, it is Katie 
Couric, who has been probably the worst critic of things over there. So 
people are realizing that good things are happening.
  Despite these successes, the truth about what our troops and the 
coalition have accomplished in Iraq, it is hidden by the mainstream 
media. In a recent report of the Media Research Center, it shows that 
as the improvements took place--this is the timeframe I was talking 
about, in late 2007. There were this many stories in 2007, and as 
things improved, it went from 178 in the month of September, down to 
108 in October, down to 68 in November, and it shows the media bias 
that is out there.
  As Ralph Peters put it in the article I quoted a minute ago:

       The basic mission of the American media between now and 
     November is to convince you, the voter, that Iraq's still a 
     hopeless mess.

  I returned to Iraq on March 30 of this year, just about the same time 
Prime Minister Maliki kicked off his Basra campaign. I was at Camp 
Bucca, right next to Basra, when they took the initiative. I was there 
working with Major General Stone and saw what his task force is doing 
now for detainees.
  Before I talk about detainees, let me say how proud their troops were 
that, for the first time in a major surge, they came into Basra to take 
care of their own province. We were there.
  I have been disturbed about the representation as to how our 
detainees have been treated. I stopped down at Camp Bucca, the largest 
detainee camp anywhere in all of Iraq. They separated the extremists 
and were arming the moderates with education and job skills. We found 
out that most of them--the vast majority of those who were detainees 
were actually working before they became detainees, and they were 
fighting because there is total unemployment there. The only place they 
could get a job was with the military.
  What General Stone has done such a great job of is retraining these 
people--training them to be carpenters and masons. It is very 
successful, truly turning bombers and criminals into productive Iraqi 
citizens and sending them back into the population. Out of 6,000 
released, only 13 were rearrested. That kind of tells us the success 
story. These people are integrating in and working on our side, working 
in neighborhood groups.
  We are now seeing the lowest violence indicators since April 2004. 
The Iraqi people are turning away from violence. The Government of Iraq 
is asserting more control, searching out militia and insurgent 
strongholds.
  Operations in Basra and, more recently, in Sadr City have shown the 
capabilities of the Iraqi security forces and the will of Iraqi 
leadership. I wish you could have been at the hearing this morning. You 
could have seen and listened to the progress being made in Sadr City. 
The Iraqi people are just taking back their streets.
  As Ralph Peters said in his article, instead of the media even 
mentioning the positive role the Iraqis are taking in fighting this 
war, they focus on a small fraction of Iraqi soldiers choosing not to 
fight. Mr. Peters, I agree with you that ``our troops deserve better, 
the Iraqis deserve better, and you, the American people, deserve 
better. The forces of freedom are winning.'' That is what he said, and 
I agree.
  Iraq is at a decisive turning point in its journey toward democracy. 
The surge created opportunities that the Iraqi people have not taken 
for granted. The ``awakening'' is spreading from Al Anbar to Diyala 
Province. ``Concerned Citizens Leagues,'' through coalition support, 
are now taking back Iraqi streets from the insurgents. The once 
turbulent and violent Al Anbar Province has returned to Iraqi control. 
They are actually doing these things themselves.
  The surge enabled the Government of Iraq to meet 12 out of the 
original 18 benchmarks set for it, including 4 out of the 6 legislative 
benchmarks. That means their Government is starting to put it together.
  Iraq has also conducted a surge, adding well over 100,000 additional 
soldiers--these are Iraqi security forces--and police to the ranks of 
its security forces in 2007 and is slowly increasing its capability to 
deploy and employ these forces.
  It is anticipated that Iraq will spend over $8 billion on security 
this year and $11 billion next year. Iraq's 2008 budget has allocated 
$13 billion for reconstruction, and a $5 billion supplemental budget 
this summer will further invest export revenues in building the 
infrastructure.
  What I am saying is that the reconstruction in that country is now 
being paid for by the Iraqis. One of the chief criticisms we have had 
by people whom I call the cut-and-run folks was that they are not 
paying their own part.
  One of the best programs we have is the Commander Emergency Relief 
Program, which allows our commanders to make determinations as to what 
needs to be done immediately. It is spending a small amount of money 
and will go a long way by doing it. How many people know that the Iraqi 
Government recently allocated $300 million for our forces to manage the 
Iraqi CERP? They are taking over their own responsibility.
  The Iraqi Government has also committed $163 million to gradually 
assume Sons of Iraq contracts, $510 million for small business loans, 
and $196 million for a joint training and reintegration program. Oil 
reserves are being shared with the provinces.
  Al-Qaida is a spent force in Iraq. Syria has ceased supporting 
foreign fighters in Iraq. The Saudis are cracking down on supporters of 
Islamic terrorists in their own country. Iran is becoming isolated.
  We have to remain focused and realize that these successes will not 
continue until we, the people, become so informed that we recognize the 
successes.
  The first thing I hear from the Iraqi forces on the many trips I have 
made there is that: The people of America don't appreciate what we are 
doing. Now they know more than before how much we do appreciate it, how 
critical it is that we stay with it.
  I think--and I will wind up with this--Ahmadinejad made a statement, 
and inadvertently he was a great help to us because when all the 
surrender resolutions were entered in this body, the President of Iran 
assumed one was going to pass and America was going to leave Iraq--he 
made the statement that when America leaves Iraq, it is going to create 
a vacuum, and we are going to fill that vacuum.
  Anyone who knows history in the Middle East knows there are no two 
groups who dislike each other more than the Iranians and Iraqis. That 
got the attention of the Iraqis. That is one of the many reasons, with 
the supernatural powers in intelligence and war capabilities of General 
Petraeus and General Odierno and some of the rest who are involved, 
that caused this whole thing to turn around.
  The success story is well told in the article to which I referred. I 
ask unanimous consent to have that article printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

[[Page 10417]]



                   Success in Iraq: A Media Blackout

                           (By Ralph Peters)

       May 20, 2008.--DO we still have troops in Iraq? Is there 
     still a conflict over there?
       If you rely on the so-called mainstream media, you may have 
     difficulty answering those questions these days. As Iraqi and 
     Coalition forces pile up one success after another, Iraq has 
     magically vanished from the headlines.
       Want a real ``inconvenient truth''? Progress in Iraq is 
     powerful and accelerating.
       But that fact isn't helpful to elite media commissars and 
     cadres determined to decide the presidential race over our 
     heads. How dare our troops win? Even worse, Iraqi troops are 
     winning. Daily.
       You won't see that above the fold in The New York Times. 
     And forget the Obama-intoxicated news networks--they've 
     adopted his story line that the clock stopped back in 2003.
       To be fair to the quit-Iraq-and-save-the-terrorists media, 
     they have covered a few recent stories from Iraq:
       When a rogue U.S. soldier used a Koran for target practice, 
     journalists pulled out all the stops to turn it into ``Abu 
     Ghraib, The Sequel.''
       Unforgivably, the Army handled the situation well. The 
     ``atrocity'' didn't get the traction the whorespondents hoped 
     for.
       When a battered, bleeding al Qaeda managed to set off a few 
     bombs targeting Sunni Arabs who'd turned against terror, 
     that, too, received delighted media play.
       As long as Baghdad-based journalists could hope that the 
     joint U.S.-Iraqi move into Sadr City would end disastrously, 
     we were treated to a brief flurry of headlines.
       A few weeks back, we heard about another Iraqi company--100 
     or so men--who declined to fight. The story was just 
     delicious, as far as the media were concerned.
       Then tragedy struck: As in Basra the month before, absent-
     without-leave (and hiding in Iran) Muqtada al Sadr quit under 
     pressure from Iraqi and U.S. troops. The missile and mortar 
     attacks on the Green Zone stopped. There's peace in the 
     streets.
       Today, Iraqi soldiers, not militia thugs, patrol the lanes 
     of Sadr City, where waste has replaced roadside bombs as the 
     greatest danger to careless footsteps. U.S. advisers and 
     troops support the effort, but Iraq's government has taken 
     another giant step forward in establishing law and order.
       My fellow Americans, have you read or seen a single 
     interview with any of the millions of Iraqis in Sadr City or 
     Basra who are thrilled that the gangster militias are gone 
     from their neighborhoods?
       Didn't think so. The basic mission of the American media 
     between now and November is to convince you, the voter, that 
     Iraq's still a hopeless mess.
       Meanwhile, they've performed yet another amazing magic 
     trick--making Kurdistan disappear.
       Remember the Kurds? Our allies in northern Iraq? When last 
     sighted, they were living in peace and building a robust 
     economy with regular elections, burgeoning universities and 
     municipal services that worked.
       After Israel, the most livable, decent place in the greater 
     Middle East is Iraqi Kurdistan. Wouldn't want that news 
     getting out.
       If the Kurds would only start slaughtering their neighbors 
     and bombing Coalition troops, they might get some attention. 
     Unfortunately, there are no U.S. or allied combat units in 
     Kurdistan for Kurds to bomb. They weren't needed. And 
     (benighted people that they are) the Kurds are proAmerican--
     despite the virulent anti-Kurdish prejudices prevalent in our 
     Saudi-smooching State Department.
       Developments just keep getting grimmer for the MoveOn.org 
     fan base in the media. Iraq's Sunni Arabs, who had supported 
     al Qaeda and homegrown insurgents, now support their 
     government and welcome U.S. troops. And, in southern Iraq, 
     the Iranians lost their bid for control to Iraq's government.
       Bury those stories on Page 36.
       Our troops deserve better. The Iraqis deserve better. You 
     deserve better. The forces of freedom are winning.
       Here in the Land of the Free, of course, freedom of the 
     press means the freedom to boycott good news from Iraq. But 
     the truth does have a way of coming out.
       The surge worked. Incontestably. Iraqis grew disenchanted 
     with extremism. Our military performed magnificently. More 
     and more Iraqis have stepped up to fight for their own 
     country. The Iraqi economy's taking off. And, for all its 
     faults, the Iraqi legislature has accomplished far more than 
     our own lobbyist-run Congress over the last 18 months.
       When Iraq seemed destined to become a huge American 
     embarrassment, our media couldn't get enough of it. Now that 
     Iraq looks like a success in the making, there's a virtual 
     news blackout.
       Of course, the front pages need copy. So you can read all 
     you want about the heroic efforts of the Chinese People's 
     Army in the wake of the earthquake.
       Tells you all you really need to know about our media: 
     American soldiers bad, Red Chinese troops good.
       Is Jane Fonda on her way to the earthquake zone yet?

  Mr. INHOFE. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington is recognized.

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