Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006-- Continued

DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006--Continued -- (Senate - October 25, 2005)

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I would like to thank the distinguished manager of the bill, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on which I am honored to serve, for his accommodation. I certainly do not want to detract from the efforts to complete this important appropriations bill. I do thank the Senator for yielding to me so I may address some of the historic events occurring today in Iraq. This has been the subject of other speakers. I thought it was important that while this is on the minds of a lot of people, that we talk about some of our successes in Iraq and what the facts are with regard to what reality is like there on the ground.

I am disappointed to hear some Members, primarily on the other side of the aisle, this morning blaming America for the insurgency and claiming that our military does not have a plan for victory. That is not true as a factual matter, and they know it. As recently as a couple of weeks ago, we had the commander of the coalition forces in Iraq, General George Casey, and the CENTCOM commander, General John Abizaid here, along with Secretary Rumsfeld and others, to talk precisely about what conditions were like on the ground in Iraq, how our plan was going, and what the future looked like. We do have a plan, and I wanted to talk about it for a minute.

I want to note my concern that to use Iraq as a convenient political football only undercuts the brave young men and women who are fighting there, not only on behalf of the beleaguered Iraqi people but on behalf of us here. We know that the central front in the war on terror today is in Iraq. We know that foreign fighters and other jihadists who adhere to an extremist ideology, who believe that they can use force to kill innocent Americans because they simply hate who we are and our way of life, that Iraq is where they are being drawn. If we leave prematurely, if we fail to finish the job that we have undertaken there, then it will simply leave a haven available for those who want to train, recruit, and finance international terrorism and who will then threaten us on our own shores, as we were hit dramatically on September 11.

In reality, it is the critics of our military that have no plan. They simply want to cut and run. They believe in retreat. The most disturbing of all, their proposals serve merely to divide the American people.

I am particularly concerned when I hear people make the argument, as I have heard on the floor of the Senate, that Iraq was not a threat to the United States and the rest of the world. Perhaps these critics need to be reminded of the statement of President Clinton in 1998 which clearly lays out the threat that Iraq posed at that time. President Clinton said, talking about Saddam:

What if he fails to comply, and we fail to act, or we take some ambiguous third route which gives him yet more opportunities to develop this program of weapons of mass destruction ..... He will then conclude he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction. And some day, some way, I guarantee you, he'll use the arsenal.

This was on February 17, 1998, President Bill Clinton.

Then, on December 16, 1998, President Clinton said:

The hard fact is that so long as Saddam remains in power, he threatens the well-being of this people, the peace of the region, and the security of the world. The best way to end that threat once and for all is with a new Iraqi government, a government ready to live in peace with its neighbors, a government that respects the rights of its people.

That was President Clinton on December 16, 1998. I am pleased that this body passed that same year the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, which stated:

It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime.

The Congress passed that legislation because, indeed, Saddam Hussein was a threat in 1998 and remained a threat. Fortunately, today, he is no longer a threat. But we must stay the course.

Complaints without solutions are simply not productive. What are the proposals coming from those who criticize our current efforts in Iraq? Some complain that we don't have enough troops in Iraq to finish the job, but at the same time all they talk about is creating an arbitrary timetable for cutting and running and bringing those troops home before they finish the job, before we finish the job. Then others say our presence in Iraq actually creates additional terrorism. But what they don't explain is what we would leave the Iraqis with if we were to leave prematurely. Again, complaints are not solutions.

GEN George Casey, whom I mentioned a moment ago, who is the leader of the coalition forces in Iraq, said when he testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee:

We're in a tough fight but we've been in tough fights before to advance the cause of democracy and to protect our way of life. We should not be afraid of this fight. We and the Iraqi people will prevail in this battle of wills if we don't lose ours.

Again:

We and the Iraqi people will prevail in this battle of wills if we don't lose ours.

Just this morning, we heard that the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq has announced an overwhelming majority of Iraqis has approved the country's constitution; that is, 78 percent of those who voted yes to approve that constitution which has now been cleared. You know what. Their voter turnout was 63 percent, better than most elections we hold here in the United States, given our long tradition of constitutional democracy.

Soon the Iraqi people will have a chance to elect their elected representatives in parliamentary elections on December 15 which will provide the final step in their march to democracy and self-determination.

Yes, the Nation of Iraq has made remarkable political progress in the last 2 years, but they still have a way to go to achieve a fully functioning democracy. Last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and in her eloquent remarks she clearly outlined the political and military strategy in Iraq: Clear, hold, build. Clear, hold, build. That is to clear areas from insurgent control, to hold them securely, and to build durable national Iraqi institutions.

I could not agree more with Secretary Rice. This is a strategy that has been articulated for quite some time now by the President of the United States. This strategy is the only way we will see the blossoming of a democratic Iraq.

In 2003, not that long ago, the brutal reign of Saddam Hussein was brought to an end. The Iraqi people were liberated and a provisional government established. In 2004, a five-step plan was announced to end occupation in Iraq and to bring our troops home, and in 2005 that transition is well underway.

Our strategy is working. The Iraqi people will vote in elections in December and soon will select a government that will serve them for the next 4 years.

As I mentioned, Iraqi participation in these recent elections was very strong, including among Sunnis who boycotted the earlier election last January. These elections were also much more peaceful than the previous elections. A clear path is being charted to implement the rule of law and we must continue our support for the Iraqi people to achieve success.

It is clear that the implementation of the rule of law is the next step, a necessary next step to achieve stability in Iraq. It is in the absence of democracy, it is in the vacuum created by the absence of the rule of law, that there is no forum, no mechanism for justice to address grievances in which extremism will rear again its ugly head.

Only 2 short years ago the people of Iraq were oppressed by a brutal dictator. Those who privately yearned for freedom held their silence out of fear for their lives. No more. As it has been said before, freedom is on the march.

Part of implementing law and justice, not to mention providing a measure of closure for the people of Iraq, is the trial of Saddam Hussein which began on October 19. Unfortunately, this trial has been postponed because--and it comes as perhaps no surprise--the defense lawyers representing him said they needed more time to prepare.

Well, I for one do not begrudge them additional time, but it is not so much for them, because I doubt any level of preparation, any amount of investigation will absolve Saddam Hussein of the blood that is on his hands, but I do believe that perception is important, and it is important that the public perception, the international perspective be that this is, indeed, a fair proceeding and that Saddam Hussein, even the most brutal of tyrants and dictators, is, indeed, entitled to the protection of the rule of law and entitled to a fair process.

Of course, this trial is one of the first formal acts in the path to restoring the rule of law, and it is important Iraq demonstrate to the world that it can conduct this trial in a fair manner, as it is a foundational and deeply symbolic proceeding.

A series of declassified U.S. intelligence documents and other U.S. agency reports provides a wealth of evidence substantiating Saddam Hussein's human rights abuses and more evidence of Saddam's brutality is provided by the people of Iraq who had suffered under his boot heel for years. A portion of these documents concerned Saddam's responsibility, along with other members of his regime, for the massacre in 1982 of Shiites in a town 35 miles north of Baghdad after an unsuccessful coup d'etat, including an attempt on the dictator's life. It is said he may be tried at least a dozen times for crimes he committed during his regime, to include gassing of Kurds and suppression of a Shiite uprising in the south. However, the Iraqi Government is reportedly considering foregoing additional trials if Saddam is convicted as expected and such conviction results in the death penalty under the laws of the sovereign nation of Iraq.

In remarks before the United Nations, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said that under the rule of Saddam Hussein, Iraq was ``a murderous tyranny that lasted 35 years and today we are unearthing thousands of victims in horrifying testament.'' In a report entitled ``Mass Graves: Iraq's Legacy of Terror,'' compiled by the United States Agency for International Development, it is estimated that

nearly 400,000 Iraqis lie buried in mass graves--Kurds, Shiites, Sunnis, Egyptians, Kuwaitis, Iranians, all killed because neither Saddam Hussein nor his regime valued life in the least.

I am confident that some day in the not too distant future an appropriate measure of justice will be meted out to Saddam Hussein for the atrocities he committed against his own people, the people of Iraq. And that is as it should be. I am sure that the symbolism of this first tribunal being held in Iraq to try their former dictator is not lost on the people of Iraq. This restoration of the rule of law, this process which is designed to administer justice, is commensurate with the rule of law.

We must continue working with the Iraqi people to ensure that democracy, freedom, progress, free markets, self-governance, and the rule of law are allowed to flourish. It is the only way to promote stability in that country and throughout the greater Middle East.

There is no enemy on the face of the Earth that can defeat the people of the United States of America unless, of course, it is the American people ourselves, by losing our resolve to stay the course, to finish a job that was just in its initiation and which is just in its goals. We must stay the course. We must maintain our resolve. To hear the comments of those here in this body and elsewhere who would attempt to hijack this just cause in the interest of political gamesmanship does nothing but harm our efforts, the resolve of the American people, and undermine the heroic and noble efforts being carried out on a daily basis by our young men and women who are fighting in freedom's cause, not just for us but for the people of Iraq.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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