Iraqi Progress

IRAQI PROGRESS -- (House of Representatives - December 06, 2005)

(Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, during August of 2003, I was with a bipartisan CODEL in Iraq. We were in one of Saddam Hussein's old bunkers and had a briefing from members of the Coalition Provisional Authority. United States State Department, General Sanchez, was there. They outlined their plan for reconstituting the Government of Iraq and civil society in Iraq.

This plan involved selecting Iraqi citizens to form an interim constitution leading to the institution of a provisional government, which would then set the stage for selecting representatives to the Transitional National Assembly, who would write the final Iraqi constitution which, after ratification, would culminate with the election of the new Iraqi government. All but the last step have now been accomplished, basically adhering to the time line set up by the administration, the only deviation being a somewhat condensing of the timeline at the request of cleric al-Sistani.

There is no question that there are those in the country of Iraq who feel they would be better served by continued chaos in the region. This is not the position of most of the people who live in the country of Iraq. The insurgency, the terrorists, hold no tactical advantage. They hold no territory. This is a fight that they know they cannot win on tactical grounds.

The only way for us to lose this fight is to lose our political will at home. Our soldiers have done everything which we have asked. Congress should not desert them now.

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