The 1-Year Anniversary of Iraqi Sovereignty

THE 1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF IRAQI SOVEREIGNTY -- (House of Representatives - June 28, 2005)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, as we celebrate the 1-year anniversary of Iraqi sovereignty, I would like to take the time to express my gratitude and appreciation for the men and women of the United States military who are fighting for freedom in Iraq and around the world, both those still fighting and those who have fallen. These soldiers of liberty are following the tradition of what Franklin Delano Roosevelt described as ``the greatest arsenal of democracy.''

From Bunker Hill to Gettysburg, and from the beaches of Normandy to the rice paddies of Vietnam, no nation has lost so many in the name of liberty. Indeed, never before in the history of mankind has one people acted to free so many of the world's oppressed, both within and beyond its borders.

America does not fight for land, glory or riches. No, Mr. Speaker, we fight to free those who live on the land, to spread the bounties of freedom, and to bring the riches of liberty to those who cannot do the job alone. So it has been, and so it is in Iraq. Our brave soldiers and support personnel are engaged in a battle as important as any the United States has ever before waged, for the success of democracy in Iraq is a crucial test of the ideals this Nation was founded upon.

Our founding texts all proclaim freedom's universalism. Liberty is not the unique right of Americans or even Westerners, but is mankind's right. Indeed, it is a right that according to our Declaration of Independence is unalienable.

We went to Iraq because Saddam Hussein's dictatorship was a threat to his neighbors, the Middle East, the United States and his own people. We remain in Iraq because we know that sometimes liberty needs some nursing before it can grow on its own. We have not abandoned other people of the world after their liberation, and we will not abandon Iraq. We will continue fighting for freedom's survival.

And while we know that the men and women who are lost to freedom's cause will never be forgotten, that knowledge can never fully heal the pain of their families. The hole left in their lives by their lost loved-one can never be fully filled. Still, from their sacrifice, much solace can be taken.

In times of war, it is often best to look to our history to see how past generations of Americans dealt with the loss of their countrymen in just causes. During the civil war, the most trying time in this Nation's history, hundreds of thousands of families lost their sons as they tried to save the union.

At the height of the casualties, President Lincoln sought to reassure a wounded nation. The Gettysburg address was a clarion call to those who heard his immortal words. In memory of the soldiers lost at the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln delivered the greatest 2 minutes in American oratorical history.

The speech's poignancy may never again be matched, as in just over 20 words Lincoln honored the dead for their service, ensured that their sacrifice would not be in vain, and captured the essence of the American experiment.

But I am afraid that too often Lincoln's words are forgotten, so I would like to read them aloud now so that all Members might hear them and take them to heart when considering our current conflict. For Lincoln's words are as true for our lost men and women in Iraq as they were for the fallen at Gettysburg:

``Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new Nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

``Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who died here that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.

``The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have hallowed it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.''

This is the most appropriate part: ``It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the Earth.''

Mr. Speaker, I am humbled by Lincoln's words. And while I cannot match their eloquence, I can heed their meaning. From the commitment of the fallen in Iraq, I will take increased devotion to the cause of liberty, the cause for which they fought, and I hope so too will all Members of this body.

President Lincoln used the Gettysburg address to honor the dead not by shirking from conflict, but rather by issuing a clarion call to continue fighting in their stead.

As we approach the Fourth of July, it is fitting that we celebrate Iraq's fledgling democracy, and remember those who fought for freedom's dawn there, and in other parts of the world.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the men and women of our Armed Forces, and hope they will return home soon with the knowledge that they have served in the tradition of America's Great Emancipator, and brought freedom to those who would otherwise never have known its glories.

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