Iraq

Floor Speech

IRAQ -- (Senate - April 08, 2008)

Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I know many people have been watching General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker reporting on what is going on in Iraq. Obviously, it is very important information, and I would hope we would heed what they are saying.

Regrettably, I must say that too many in the Democratic Party remain in denial over the progress being made in Iraq and still remain politically vested in defeat. We have heard the leaders of the party say: Oh, we have already lost. They believe that might give them an advantage in the November elections. That is certainly a bad way to decide what our strategy should be to defend the security of the United States.

We have made great progress in our fight against terrorism. The war is far from won, but today there is no question that the central battleground in the global war on terror is Iraq. Our men and women in the military are fighting the al-Qaida terrorists there in Iraq, where Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri say they are going to establish their caliphate. We are fighting that war so that future generations will not have to fight them on our own soil.

For my colleagues who argue we should not be fighting them in Iraq but in Afghanistan, let me get you a little bit of intelligence news.

Al-Qaida is not in Afghanistan. Al-Qaida left Afghanistan after we deposed Saddam Hussein. What we are fighting there are the indigenous Taliban insurgents, not al-Qaida.

More than anyone else, our brave veterans who are fighting in Iraq against the al-Qaida know the dangers of defeat. They know what they and others like them have done. Their word to us is: We as a nation, but more specifically we as your military, have made too many contributions and too many sacrifices to walk away from this essential battle for our freedom and declare defeat.

My own son, a marine, returned last fall from his second tour of Iraq with his scout snipers. He returned on success because they cleaned al-Qaida out of Falluja and Al Anbar, and they turned the job of keeping security over to the Iraqi Sunni Citizens Watch and the police.

If my colleagues will listen today to the voices of veterans who are on the Hill in their tan golf shirts, they are the voice of people who have been in the field--the Vets for Freedom, with whom I have had the honor of being this morning, and to General Petraeus and Admiral Crocker--these are the people we need to listen to, not the voices of moveon.org and the Code Pink extremists. We need to bring our troops home, but we need to bring them home on success. That is what they fought for; that is what they are there for.

As one man in the field reported today: You can't be for us, for the troops, and against the war because we are the war.

Despite the evidence of progress in Iraq, the media seems trigger happy to report bad news. Less than 48 hours after Iraqi security forces began their campaign against the militant Shia factions in Basra, the media already was declaring the operation a failure. The operation initiated on March 25 was designed to quell rogue factions of Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army. In covering the fighting, the press displayed its previously seen penchant for quickly throwing in the towel when the military operation does not instantaneously achieve its goals. If the operation were a failure and didn't meet its goals, then why did Muqtada al-Sadr order a cease-fire? I don't know of any commander who has declared a cease-fire when he is winning.

Right now, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker are testifying before the Senate on the progress being made in Iraq. I expect that testimony will show that the new counterinsurgency, or COIN strategy, backed up by the surge, has been working and has brought Iraqi citizens to our side in the fight against al-Qaida.

Since the surge forces began operating under this new policy in mid-2007 and the adoption of the COIN strategy, there is some important security progress to point to. Overall violence in Iraq, civilian deaths, sectarian killings, and attacks on American forces are all down. Coalition forces have captured or killed thousands of extremists in Iraq, including hundreds of key al-Qaida leaders and operatives. American troops are beginning to return home on success.

In addition to security progress, the Iraqis are also making critical political progress. While this front has been the slowest--and we must continue to demand that the Iraqis assume greater control--the Government has taken several important steps. The Iraqi Government has enacted a pension law that keeps the promises made to Sunnis. It has enacted a debaath- ification law that allows midlevel Baath Party members to reenter political and civic life. It has passed a budget that focuses spending on security reconstruction projects and provincial governments. It has enacted an amnesty law, and it has reached agreement on a provincial powers law that will ensure the Iraqis the right to be heard in upcoming elections.

Democrats are in denial of the progress in Iraq despite this evidence of both security and political gain. Their rejection of the reality in Iraq does not extend just to the current Petraeus and Crocker testimony, however. Some who favor retreat and defeat in Iraq have also taken issue with the classified Iraq National Intelligence Estimate, or NIE, distributed to lawmakers last week.

Always quick to tout and cherry-pick information from a NIE that can be twisted to support their motives, the retreat-and-defeat gang has outright rejected the latest Iraqi intelligence report. They claim it is ``too rosy.''

Unfortunately, this denial is no more than rhetoric and fodder for the mainstream media because we know that defeat in Iraq would have serious national security implications and do great harm to our image around the world, an image that so many of our colleagues on the other side say they wish to repair. Iraq is the central battleground in the war on terror. In addition to giving al-Qaida safe haven, defeat in Iraq would embolden a possibly nuclear-armed Iraq. The intelligence community has stated in an open hearing before the Intelligence Committee earlier this year that if we withdraw from Iraq before their army and police can maintain security, violence and chaos will spread across the region.

This has been a tough fight. We have lost over 4,000 of our bravest and finest men and women. The surest and most fitting way to honor their memory and their service is to ensure victory, not defeat.

Mr. President, I have several Members on my side who have been waiting for time in morning business. What is the situation?

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republicans control 9 minutes.

Mr. BOND. I yield the floor.

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