Iraq

IRAQ

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I will say a few words about the supplemental appropriation which the leader just addressed a moment ago and we are addressing all week and also about the ongoing search for weapons of mass destruction.

I was in a Senate Armed Services Committee briefing when Dr. David Kay, one of the leaders of the Iraqi Survey Group, briefed me, and later briefed Congress as a whole, on the ongoing search for weapons of mass destruction. In that briefing and in the published statement he made that is now on the CIA Web site, he says:

In searching for retained stocks of chemical munitions, the ISG [Iraqi survey group] has had to contend with an almost unbelievable scale of Iraq's conventional weapons armory, which dwarfs by orders of magnitude the physical size of any conceivable stock of chemical weapons. For example, there are approximately 130 known Iraqi Ammunition Storage Points, many of which exceed 50 square miles—

I had to doublecheck that quote to make sure it was accurate because it boggles the mind.

Continuing—

50 square miles in size and hold an estimated 600,000 tons of artillery shells, rockets, aviation bombs and other ordnance. Of these 130 ASP's, approximately 120 remain unexamined. As Iraqi practice was not to mark much of their chemical ordnance and to store it the same as they would conventional weapons, the size of the required search effort is enormous.

Dr. Kay has a gift for understatement. Having only in this time since the fall of Saddam Hussein been able to examine 10 out of a possible 130 ammunition sites gives an idea of the tremendous task ahead. Perhaps the critics should give some pause about the ongoing search for weapons of mass destruction and the likelihood—indeed, I would say the probability—that we will find those weapons of mass destruction in the end.

The search is ongoing, but we know for certain that 17 U.N. resolutions and numerous inspection missions by the U.N. weapons inspection team from 1991 to 2003 were not sufficient to stop Saddam Hussein. Even though we have not yet found the degree of weapons we anticipated, it is clear Saddam Hussein lied to the world about his arsenal despite all the steps taken by the international community. There have also been significant finds that indicate we have only grazed the surface of Iraq's weapons capabilities.

According to the same report I quoted a moment ago:

The home of an Iraqi scientist brought the discovery of strains of biological organisms, one of which can be used to produce biological weapons. The team found new research on [Biological Weapons]-applicable agents, Brucella and Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), and continuing work on ricin and aflatoxin, none of which were made known to the U.N.

It will be many months before we will have a clear picture of the nature and extent of Saddam's weaponry, but already some things are crystal clear.

There are some in this body who have opposed the conflict in Iraq from the beginning. I disagree with them, but they have a right to their views. I am sad to say there are also those who have come close—too close—to exploiting for political gain the hardships we have encountered following Saddam's fall, hardships experienced in serving the cause of freedom. I believe that is wrong and should be repudiated in the strongest terms.

We all know Congress voted overwhelmingly to authorize the President to use necessary force to remove Saddam's regime in Iraq. Subsequent events, including Dr. Kay's report on behalf of the Iraqi Survey Group, have vindicated that decision. I am also glad to see that today France, Germany, and Russia are planning to support the resolution concerning our efforts in
Iraq before the U.N. Security Council. I would only hope the administration's critics in this body would express such strong support as well.

We all know that the great efforts and sacrifices made by our brave men in the coalition forces who ignored the beltway echo chamber and suggestions from the outset of quagmire, the cynical prognosticators who claim that our forces were on the brink of collapse, and the handwringing doubters who said Operation Iraqi Freedom was nothing but a pipe dream—we know these critics were wrong. The dedicated men and women of our coalition forces acted as true professionals. They were interested in actions and not words. We all know they liberated Baghdad in a mere 21 days.

Even in the face of that success, there still are naysayers who refuse to acknowledge the tremendous and dramatic accomplishments we have made as well as the necessity that we finish the task ahead. They are urging in so many words that we abandon Iraq, leaving behind an unstable nation still trying desperately to crawl up from under the rubble of destruction by Saddam's ruthless regime. That is a dangerous and an unwise suggestion.

This mission must end when we complete the task of stabilizing Iraq and we are able to hand power over to leaders who are elected by a free Iraqi people—not before. While we all want to return Iraq to the Iraqi people as soon as possible, and at the same time get our troops back home as soon as possible, these well-intentioned desires should not blind us to our duty to finish the job we started. There is no doubt that the enemies of democracy in Iraq, both inside and outside of that country, will exploit any short-lived commitment.

Indeed, I believe the evidence is overwhelming that the events of September 11 were largely caused by the apparent lack of
American resolve to defeat terrorism, and what we are doing today—maintaining our strong resolve and finishing the job that we started in the war against terror in Afghanistan and Iraq—is absolutely essential to our success.

If we leave Iraq prematurely, we will play into the hands of the terrorists and Baathist remnants. They are counting on the resolve of the coalition to falter, freeing them to seek to regain control of this fledgling nation. We must not cut and run and, in so doing, leave the Iraqi people as they are, undefended, or we risk the possibility that the sacrifices that have been made by this Nation, and particularly our military and other coalition forces, will all be for naught.

Today in Iraq there is religious freedom and human rights unlike anything seen during Saddam's regime. The Iraqi people now have hope where there was formerly only despair. They have hope for a future that must have seemed like only a dream a few short months ago.

The "blame America first" gang is grasping for anything they can to prop up the illusion they were right all along. But the absence, so far, of weapons of mass destruction and stockpiles of biological agents does not mean Saddam's Iraq was some kind of sunny paradise or a thriving garden dictatorship, one long springtime for Saddam. Nothing—nothing—could be further from the truth.

We have not yet found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but let me remind all of us what we have found. We have found torture chambers. We have found execution sites. We have found prisons where children were held in order to coerce their parents to bend to Saddam's will. We have found a legacy of fear and terror, the vestiges of years of tyranny and cruelty. We have found as many as 300,000 people—maybe more—buried in mass graves throughout Iraq in nearly 100 reported sites. They stretch from Basrah to Baghdad, from Najaf to Kirkuk. These stand as silent monuments of Saddam's
ruthlessness left behind for all to see.

For the Iraqi people living under Saddam, peace—if you can call it that—was far more bloody than the current war.

To those who continue to doubt our mission in Iraq, I say this: Peace is a good thing but at what price is it purchased? By turning our backs on suffering, genocide, and evil? By tolerating those who defy the civilized world and encourage, facilitate, and promote international terrorism?

If the 20th century has taught us anything, it is that if America is to fulfill its role as the guardian of the free world, a beacon of light shining in the darkness, we cannot allow bloodthirsty tyrants such as Saddam Hussein to act with impunity.

Clearly, there are obstacles to overcome in Iraq, and there will be setbacks along the way. Yet we cannot allow the politics of the moment or the upcoming Presidential election to undermine the war on terror and American resolve.

I believe the task that falls to us at this moment in history is spreading the blessings of liberty and bringing the light of freedom to a nation that has, for too long, been imprisoned by darkness.

We must not falter in our efforts. We must not play political games while the world turns inward. We must fulfill our duty to defend America's interests abroad and ensure that the tragedies of September 11 are never repeated.

In the end, if there is one thing certain, it is this: In Iraq the mass murder has stopped. And we stopped it. The Iraqi people and the American people and all the people of the civilized world are better off for it.

Those who would play political games with our mission in Iraq, even while our brave men and women labor to secure and stabilize this fledging nation, risk dishonoring the memories of those who sacrificed all in opposing this bloodthirsty regime.

No, Mr. President, we must not cut and run, leaving the Iraqi people with a promise unfulfilled. Success in Iraq depends enormously on our willingness to stay the course and finishing the job we started, and through it all, we owe our men and women in uniform our unequivocal support as they labor in a dangerous place for an honorable cause.

In summary, America needs from this body and from its leaders less babble and more backbone.

Mr. President, with that, I yield the floor.