Situation in Iraq

SITUATION IN IRAQ -- (House of Representatives - September 05, 2007)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GINGREY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Tennessee, Zach Wamp, for, first of all, conducting this special order hour, leadership hour on the Republican side, and for allowing me and my colleague and great friend from Virginia, Thelma Drake, for being part of that. Doug Lamborn, the gentleman from Colorado, I think, has joined us.

Mr. Speaker, I was on the trip with Thelma Drake from Virginia when we visited Iraq and Afghanistan, and I am not going to repeat everything that she said, but I want my colleagues to know that this was my fourth trip to Iraq, my first opportunity to go to Afghanistan.

But this was a necessity that I go this fourth time. I think some 40 or 50 Members of the Congress during the so-called August recess spent 5 to 7 days in the Middle East and the combat zone in 120-degree weather.

Those of us on the Armed Services Committee, I am sure, felt duty bound to do this, particularly as we approach the report from General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker that's going to be delivered to the House on next Monday, September 10.

I have been four times, but this was the most meaningful visit, because I came to a realization, really, actually, it emboldened my feeling that we need to give victory a chance. Again, I want to thank Zach Wamp, the gentleman from Tennessee, for the passion that he brings to this issue. I thought he was just an expert on energy, but he is also an expert on national defense, more important, the global war on terror, as he so passionately explains this issue.

I was on the floor last night during some of our special order time, 5-minute speeches and the two sides, the Democratic majority has an hour and the Republican minority has an hour. I heard one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, a gentleman from Maryland, talking about losing a soldier, a 22-year-old brave patriot in his district, and he talked with the mom and was trying to, of course, console her.

The gentleman said on the floor last night, you know, it was sort of ironic, the mom of the fallen soldier said, isn't it ironic, I am here planning my son's

[Page: H10143]

funeral and the Commander in Chief is planning a wedding.

That's not the kind of commentary that we need on the floor of this House to suggest that the Commander in Chief doesn't care, that he has got his head in the sand and that each and every one of these 3,700 or so KIAs and 18,000 of our best and bravest that have sustained, in some instances, massive injuries, if you don't think that the Commander in Chief goes to bed every night with this on his heart, then you are just flat wrong.

I think the gentleman, on more reflection, would agree with what I am saying. This President cares. This Commander in Chief cares. He wants to give victory a chance.

It's not a matter of staying the course and same old same old, the Iraq Study Group, the gentleman from Indiana, the long-serving distinguished Democrat, 37 years in this body, and Ambassador Baker, Secretary Baker, served under three Republican Presidents, you have got two people that made some suggestions. One of the main suggestions that they made was we need a surge, we need more troops, especially in and around Baghdad, and those four provinces, where all of the violence, most of the violence, 95 percent of it, is occurring. This is exactly what the President responded to.

What did we hear from our friends on the other side of the aisle? Oh, well, you know, too little, too late.

Yet, you know, 3 or 4 years ago it was, well, you're not putting enough troops in there to do the job, you didn't listen to General Shinseki, it's a constant pulling the rug out from under the combatant commanders, and we see 435 people that want to be Commander in Chief. It just doesn't work that way.

In the Democratic special hour last night, after we talked about our experience in Iraq and these recent trips, the team on the Democratic side said, you know, we can't afford to spend this money. We've almost spent $1 trillion trying to win this global war on terror, and we need to be spending this money to repair bridges, to give more money to the gulf coast, to maybe even give more money than a 300 percent increase in the SCHIP program to cover every man, woman and child from cradle-to-grave with universal health care.

Even if I were for some of those things, I will tell you this, you spend that money on those things, and you don't protect our people from global terrorism, then you will see, in a New York minute, how quick that money would go down the toilet as these people blow up this infrastructure, just like they did 9/11, almost 6 years ago now, and killed 3,300, almost the same number, that we have lost in Iraq and Afghanistan over a 4-year period. They killed them within a period of 45 minutes.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GINGREY. I am so glad the gentleman brought that up, because what he is talking about, and I commend to all my colleagues, read the article, these were three, in one case, I think, a citizen of Germany, maybe of Islamic descent, but a German citizen, and not only were they planning on attacking Frankfurt, where most people fly into when they go into Western Europe, certainly from this country, but also, and I know the gentleman is aware of this, their plan was to attack Ramstein Air Force Base and the Landstuhl European Army Medical Center where every one of these troops, our troops, that are injured so severely, and our great physicians on the battlefield are able to save their lives to get them through Ramstein Air Force Base to that Landstuhl Army Medical Center there just a few miles away, and that's what they were going to attack.

Mr. WAMP. The lowest of the low who would attack your wounded and injured.

Mr. GINGREY. The lowest of the low.

Of course, I know we want to yield to our friend from Colorado, and we will hear from him in just a second, but as I conclude my remarks, I just want to say, and Mrs. Thelma Drake, the gentlewoman from Virginia mentioned this a little earlier, we had a report today in the House Armed Services Committee, a report that was requested by Congress in our last emergency supplemental, from the Government Accountability Office, the GAO, on these benchmarks, and the Comptroller General talked about the progress. Really, he talked mainly about lack of progress, and it was ironic that even though several of those benchmarks, we had made some progress, he pretty much gave the Iraqi government a failing report card.

I think that is disappointing here, just a matter of a few days prior to General Petraeus' report.

He even suggested that while General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker are highly professional and we would get a professional report from them, we would not get an unbiased report. The only unbiased report was coming from him and from the Government Accountability Office.

I suggested to him, during that hearing, you know, you might be unbiased, but your ability to interpret what you see on the ground certainly militarily may not come even close to General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. So let's wait for the report, let's give victory a chance. That's what I want to say to all my colleagues. Let's button our lips for the rest of this week, and let's see what the report says.

I would suggest that the President is going to listen to General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, and I would suggest that yes, indeed, the Iraqi government is making progress, that they are not making as fast of progress as we would hope, but we would continue to put pressure on them, but let's give victory a chance.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source