Election In Iraq

ELECTION IN IRAQ -- (Senate - January 31, 2005)

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, let me acknowledge my colleague from the State of South Dakota, who is unique in this Chamber. Those who voted on the question of whether America should go to war in Iraq were certainly representing our constituents in thinking of the American people in that historic and tremendous decision. My colleague from South Dakota, TIM JOHNSON, was the only Member of the Senate who understood that decision would affect his family directly. I am glad your son is home safely. I am glad he is now living in Illinois. I hope he is still enjoying that experience and happy about his recent marriage to a Lithuanian-American woman, and I wish them the very best.

For those who ask the question, and it has been asked by some, How can Members of Congress appreciate what a war means if none of their children are serving, my colleague, TIM JOHNSON from South Dakota certainly understood that personally as others have in the past.

What a great triumph yesterday. There was a possibility that all the violence in Iraq would discourage people from voting. One can understand that when they are lobbing mortar shells in the green zone, the protected zone in Baghdad where American soldiers a couple weeks ago were eating a meal. One can understand the vulnerability of life in Iraq.

Each citizen had to make a decision yesterday in Iraq, whether to risk their life to vote. It appears millions were prepared to do so. As Senator Lott of Mississippi said earlier, after they voted, they dipped their finger into this indelible ink, an indication they had already voted so there was no duplication voting, and that ink was on their hands today, testimony, as well, for the insurgents that these Iraqis had defied the insurgency to cast a vote for their future.

It was a great triumph, a triumph of human spirit, and a triumph for the Iraqi people, all that they have been through, to finally have this moment to have an election. A great deal has to be said for the men and women of our American military who made it possible. They risked their lives again yesterday, as they do every day in Iraq, to try to bring this to a peaceful end. They were successful yesterday in creating the zone of safety so that the Iraqi people could be part of this triumphant moment in their history.

I thought about that triumphant moment as I reflected on information I received over the weekend about two Marine Corps corporals from Illinois who died on January 26 of last week in the deadliest day of the war for the United States. That was the day when the Marine Corps helicopter crashed and 31 Marines lost their lives. Among those 31 Marines were Hector Ramos of Aurora and Nathaniel Moore of Champaign, young men in their twenties who volunteered to serve this country, who with great pride joined the Marine Corps, went through the rigorous training, and went off to risk their lives for America. That story has been told and retold thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of times, but we do not appreciate how important that decision is by each of the men and women in the military until a tragedy occurs, as it did with the crash of this helicopter a few days ago.

I read the stories in the paper about the two young men. They were excellent people. I am sorry I did not get to know them. I dropped notes to their families expressing my sorrow about their loss, and I am sure everyone in America will join in expressing sorrow for the loss of some 1,400 now, American soldiers, who have made the supreme sacrifice in this war in Iraq.

What it leads to is this: If yesterday was a turning point in Iraq for their self-governance, the question I am prepared to ask is, Was yesterday a turning point in terms of Iraq's security in its future? We have been trying for almost 2 years to train Iraqis to take responsibility for guarding their own country, and we have had a terrible time of it. The administration gives us inflated numbers, 120,000 Iraqis in their army and security force, and yet other military experts say no, only 4,000 will be willing to stand and fight. Many more have gone through the training, but they are not willing to defend their country.

So what happens? One-hundred fifty thousand Americans risk their lives just like the marines who went down in that helicopter last week and the others who have died since.

My question to this administration in the White House here, as well as the new government in Baghdad, is this: Now that you have reached this new point in your history of self-governance, of the responsibility of controlling your own future and your own fate, will you now step up and meet with our President and our leaders and discuss the day and how soon it will come when Iraq can defend itself? How soon can we expect Iraqis, trained, well-equipped, to stand in and take the place of American soldiers to come home?

Illinois is not unlike a lot of other States. Seventy percent of our National Guard have been activated or have already served in Iraq. I have attended sendoffs and the welcome-homes. They are emotional times. I went a few weeks ago to Litchfield, IL, and saw 80 of our National Guardsmen who were activated in an infantry unit off for 5 months training in Ft. Stewart, GA, and for a 12-month deployment in Iraq. Emotions ran high in the Litchfield High School gymnasium that Saturday afternoon as the troops stood at attention and the families faced them and we all wished them the very best and told them they would be in our prayers, as they should be.

I would like to be able to say to the families who are waiting anxiously back in the United States that the election yesterday meant something. It meant that we have reached a turning point. It meant that Iraq is now going to take responsibility for its own future. We have been talking about it for a long time, for over a year and a half, and have little to show for it. Now is the time for concrete results, for this administration to meet with the new Government of Iraq and to start moving in a specific pattern, in a definable schedule, toward a real goal of starting to bring American troops home.

When I hear that, then I will be ready to stand up and applaud what happened yesterday; not just for the courage of the voters but the courage and leadership of the new Government in Iraq, that they will stand up for their people so that our soldiers can come home safely, which is what we all pray for.

That is what I took from yesterday's election, a great triumph for the Iraqi people. Tragedies that we have seen involving Americans, I hope, will diminish now. This administration has to move us beyond the promise to the reality of the Iraqis defending themselves.

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