Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the Thirteenth Quadrennial Convention of the Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas SPJST, which will be held on June 8-11, 2008. For 111 years, SPJST has served as a fraternal organization and an educational tool for Czech immigrants to learn the democratic process, the value of free speech, and the importance of voting in their newly adopted homeland.

Today, there are more than 47,000 members of the SPJST in 120 lodges throughout the state of Texas. In recent years, SPJST has expanded to include youth activities and community service programs. As a result, many SPJST projects and members have been recognized by the Texas Fraternal Congress for their service and contribution to communities throughout Texas. SPJST has provided its members with identity and support throughout the years. In lodges all over the State of Texas, members are committed to helping those in need by working in hospitals, providing scholarships, and supporting drug abuse programs and other charities. The members of SPJST have upheld the tradition of helping people to care for their families and their communities.

With its great commitment to its members, communities, and organizations that it serves, SPJST embodies the value and tradition of the great State of Texas.

Madam Speaker, this week is National Crime Victims' Rights Week.

This Congress should be working to make our cities, our streets, our States, our Nation safer for crime victims instead of talking about things like beaches and protecting union bosses.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was created 10 years ago, and this is about to expire in a few months.

Let me tell you, having spent 21 years on the bench, I probably tried 250 to 300 aggravated sexual assault cases. One was an adult, the balance were children.

This is epidemic in this country. It's time for this Congress to get on board and work on the Internet Sex Offender Prohibition Act, which would punish people for using the Internet to find victims for their sexual offenses as child predators and would increase and enhance the punishment for those crimes.

This is important work. This is work this Congress needs to do to protect our children and make our streets safe.

I thank you for yielding to me. My friend from California is gracious to do so.

Let me start off by telling you what happened when I decided I was going to Colombia. My daughter, who lives here in Washington, called me up and said, Daddy, I told you not to go down to Colombia. Didn't you see ``Clear and Present Danger?'' Didn't you see that movie? Have you lost your mind?

I want to point that out because I think that's a lot of what the American people think about Colombia when it comes to their mind, they think of that movie and that book. And I am pleased to say that I was very pleasantly surprised to find a very peaceable place where an awful lot of people have done an awful lot of hard work to get violent people out of their country and to get those people who joined defense bands and guerrilla bands to lay down their weapons.

I was in Medellin.

Absolutely. Transformed it completely. It's a joy to be in Medellin, it really is. And, you know, the Medellin cartels are gone, and they are prospering.

And, you know, they talked to us and they said, look, we are trying to stand up for democracy and free enterprise, we believe in this system. And this trade agreement is the linchpin that holds it all together for this country that has worked so desperately to solve problems that, quite frankly, not very many countries in the world would have been able to solve. Getting 40,000 people to lay down their arms is a major project.

We did. We divided into groups and met with an assortment of both male and female. And you're right--

You know, the first question, they all started talking about how they joined the paramilitary unit. They told about families being slaughtered, being separated from their families, having to run and escape the guerrillas that came out of the woods. And they ran to escape, and then came back to find their families slaughtered, and so they joined a paramilitary group. And a question was asked, rather naively, I think, by us, you mean, you were carrying weapons? Absolutely. Every one of them, male and female, were carrying weapons. And now they are working in programs that are changing the culture of these people that joined the violent behavior. They have laid down their weapons. We asked them why. They said the comandantes said we have talked to the president, we lay down our weapons, and they did.

They are out studying. They're proud to say they're getting high school educations. They're proud to say they're going to trade schools. A few were proud to say they had received admission to university. These were jungle fighters just a short while ago, and now they are coming into society and working very hard because they see a future for Colombia. And this future rests upon a world of free enterprise and trade, and this agreement starts the

process that gives them many opportunities for free trade around the world.

I agree wholeheartedly that I think an up-or-down vote and we will have a Colombia free-trade agreement. I think that our Democratic colleagues will be reasonable and understand this. And I think we have the votes to get it done.

But I think Speaker Pelosi needs to release this and let us have a vote. That is the key thing. And you notice that letter you just read kept talking about national security. What we really have here, if you look at it closely, is a contest of two socialist--we used to call them Communist--a regime in Hugo Chavez, and we have Uribe who is trying to create a free democracy, and a free enterprise system. These are two, side-by-side competing systems that will influence that entire continent.

And that is why this is in our national security interest. It is not just a trade agreement which is going to benefit American workers. It is a security agreement that points to the direction that we stand up for what we believe in, democracy and free enterprise.

I thank my friend for yielding, and I thank my friend for holding this special order this night where we try to lay the truth out about what is going on with our soldiers.

I have had the opportunity to go to Iraq on four different occasions and visit with soldiers. I am a blessed Congressman in that I have the very privilege and honor of representing Fort Hood, Texas. Fort Hood, Texas, is the only two division post in America, and both of those divisions are now famous for operations that have taken place in Iraq.

The 4th Infantry Division, one of the divisions at Fort Hood, captured Saddam Hussein. The 1st Calvary Division put on a free election in Baghdad. Both were major accomplishments in this war, major accomplishments in the future of Iraq, and the blood, sweat and tears that went into those projects have been brought back to central Texas on numerous occasions. So it is clearly an honor for me to be able to stand up and talk about what is going on in Iraq and why we, in my opinion, my humble opinion, and I think the opinion of those who really think about the issues, it is my opinion that we must stay the course.

What I want to be able to promise, I want to look every soldier that I see, and I see soldiers every week because I go back home every week and I go visit these soldiers, and I see them and I tell them what I want for them is I want them to come home, just like every American wants those soldiers to come home. But when the 4th Infantry Division, III Corps and the 1st Calvary Division and all those the other fine soldiers march out of Iraq, I want to see them marching out under ``The Star Spangled Banner'' and the red, white and blue, and not the white flag, and that is what they want too.

Every soldier I have spoken to, bar none, has told me they are doing a good job, they are winning, they will win, they want to stay the course. They want to finish the job they started. They say they owe it to their fallen comrades. They owe it to the effort they have put forward on behalf of humanity in Iraq.

I get real upset and tired when I hear people ragging on and insulting and writing stories about the ``evil American soldier.'' The evil American soldier that they describe doesn't exist. American soldiers are some of the closest things to sainthood that I have seen, because they are willing to stand up and fight for people, in many cases that don't even like them.

But what is really wonderful and what has changed in Iraq and what needs to be recognized by everyone is the last time I was over there in July, previous to that I was over there in May of 2006. First let me tell you, May of 2006 the weather was a lot better than the last day of July in 2007, and it was, as we say in Texas, it was hotter than a $3 pistol over there. But, seriously, when I went over this time, the difference was the interaction between ordinary Iraqi civilians and United States marines and United States soldiers. And they all talked about it at length, and I saw it demonstrated.

Prior to that time, I had never seen an Iraqi policeman anywhere. When we were in Ramadi, there was a pickup truck full of policemen on every corner and they were patrolling the streets, and people, ordinary people, were doing ordinary business in an area that had at one time been the bloodiest battlefield in Iraq, where they had pounded each other for days across this five-lane road. Now, ordinary Iraqi citizens of all ages, dressed all different ways, men and women and children, were walking, going about ordinary business there, addressing United States soldiers and United States marines, talking to them, discussing things with them, discussing things with their local politicians. It was an amazing turnaround. Amazing.

I talked to a young soldier, he couldn't have been more than about 19, a tow-headed kid, and I said, ``Tell me how it has changed?'' He said, ``Well, sir, you know, they plant these explosive devices in these streets and they plant them in the curbs and they plant them in garbage cans.'' He said, ``Boy, we used to crawl down these streets, watching everything, looking everywhere, just really concerned that the next step might blow up on us. Now we approach the streets and a member of the Friends of Iraq,'' I believe it is called, they have a belt across their chest, ``steps out and says, `Excuse me, but don't go down this street. There is an explosive device planted in the middle of street. The arms of the other explosives are in that blue building over there. And one block over, the green front building, that is where the guys who planted it are.' '' He said, ``Sir, that makes life a whole lot easier for a marine patrolling the streets here.'' You know what? That is a good story, because that is Iraqis talking to soldiers.

We visited with sheiks, and they told us that they had come to the realization when al Qaeda began to kidnap their families and try to make them take certain positions by kidnapping their families, they realized, like a revelation, who the bad guys were.

Americans had never kidnapped their families. Americans had never intimidated them in that fashion. They had never seen anything from American soldiers but trying to help, picking up the garbage, trying to make the sewer work, trying to make the electrical plant work. And then they realized these people were kidnapping their children and in many instances killing their children to try to pressure the sheiks to get their tribes to do certain things. So the sheiks said, that is it. That is it. We have had enough of this. And they went to their tribes and they told them, we are going to join the Americans.

These were Sunnis. So the first thing, of course, that we had to be concerned about was we hear so much about the difference between Sunnis and Shias, the sectarian violence. Was this going to create a rift in Iraq? We heard this story.

We have got General Funk who is a very good friend of mine who lives in my district. His son is in command in another location in Iraq. I also went to visit him while I was over there. He is a colonel. He told me that the week before, I think it was 11 or 12 Shiite sheiks came to his place where he was settled in and wanted to meet him and said, ``We have decided to join in helping the Americans get rid of al Qaeda.'' So that is the whole story.

Those of us who can remember back to the Vietnam War, we were told we were going to win the hearts and the minds of the people and that is how you won this type of war. We haven't heard that term in this war, but I remember that term. And the difference is, we never quite won the hearts and minds of the people because of mistakes that were made.

General Petraeus' plan was to capture the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people on our side, and I believe he is succeeding, and I believe, given the tools, he will continue to succeed. I can tell you one thing, he has got the best fighting force that ever walked on this Earth and the best bunch of human beings that are trying to help him do it, and we should support them in every form or fashion. That is what I think this war is all about. That is how we will walk out under the red, white and blue, and not a white flag.

So I thank my friend for yielding to me.

Absolutely. You know, a story I love to tell, because it was so funny, Kevin Brady, our colleague from Texas, was a chamber of commerce representative for a long time before he came to Congress. Of course, he worked for the local county commissioners, courts and city council and things like that.

Well, when we were in Ramadi we walked into the market, and there was this old man, and he looked like the ancient age, sitting in the chair in front of a kind of a destroyed shop. Right next door was another shop where a guy was putting wares out and getting ready to sell something. We were walking in with the general and also with the newly- elected mayor.

Well, immediately he called to have the mayor come over there, and he told the mayor, he said, ``Look,'' he said. ``You fixed his shop up. I want to know what the timetable is for fixing my shop up.'' And the mayor said, ``Oh, well, you know, we are getting the resources in. We will get it done.'' He said, ``Well, I am going to hold you to your promise, and I am going to come by the city hall and I am going to check on this, because I need my shop up so I can start operating too.''

Brady leaned over to me and says, ``It sounds like somebody at the city council meeting in The Woodlands in Texas.''

So, you know, that is the kind of normalcy we want to see start to happen, where people are starting to think about living their life, not dodging and ducking for their life. So to me that is a good story. That is a story that says peace is breaking out in some small area anyway, because this little old man wanted his shop open. That is a great story.

Yes, we do. Yes, we do. You know, it is very important, there has been a lot of talk about this latest fight down in Basra. Fifteen thousand Iraqis went into the fight there and there has been a lot of talk about over 1,000 of those Iraqis ran. That is kind of looking at that glass half full or half empty. Yes, maybe 1,000 or more soldiers turned and ran, but 14,000 stayed and fought.

If you went 3 years ago when I went on my second trip to Iraq and I sat down at a dinner table with a bunch of ordinary soldiers and said what are we trying to accomplish over here? And they said, sir, when they think about their units the way we think about our units, they will be a qualified fighting force over here, and we are trying to instill that in them.

I say 14,000 of them acted like soldiers, and that is something we should be proud of.

That's right. I thank the gentleman for recognizing me.

If you would yield for just a moment.

Hearing the comments of Dr. Gingrey, I was at the Vets for Freedom rally this morning, and someone read an e-mail that they had received from a captain in the field, and he said, it went something like this, I started my morning at daybreak, and I have been on three missions today. I have gotten home and I immediately went and checked the evening news, as we all do here in Iraq, to see what folks were saying back home, and I saw someone say ``I support the warriors, but I don't support the war.'' He said, ``Sir, we are the war.''

I think that's something we ought to remember. As far as they are concerned, not supporting their effort is not supporting them. We need to remember that before we hurt feelings.

Amen, brother.

Madam Speaker, on January 29, 2008, I was unable to be present for the final rollcall votes.

If present, I would have voted accordingly on the following rollcall votes:

Roll No. 27--``aye.''

Roll No. 28--``nay.''

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize a shining county in my district. Hamilton County will be celebrating its 150th birthday on Tuesday, January 22, 2008. Named after James Hamilton, a former Governor of South Carolina who aided the Republic of Texas when we made our break from Mexico, Hamilton County is believed to be the final resting place for ``Billy the Kid.'' Although noted by many as a county rooted deep in Texas history, undeniably the greatest asset of Hamilton County is its people.

Hamilton County people are the type who wave to strangers as they pass them driving down the highway. They are the type of people who get together to discuss politics, last night's football game, and their families over a piece of pie. They share a common sense of community where they look after one another. These people are a shining example of the Texas values that make this area of our State so genuine. I am extremely proud to have represented Hamilton County for 3 of the past 150 years and I wish them continued prosperity for another 150 years and beyond.

Madam Speaker, on December 17, 2007, I was unable to be present for two rollcall votes due to technological complications with my vote notification system.

If present, I would have voted accordingly on the following rollcall votes: rollcall No. 1163--``aye''; rollcall No. 1164--``aye.''

I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank the committee for all they have done on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this resolution honoring the memory of United States Marine Corps Corporal Steven Patrick Gill of Round Rock, Texas.

In January of 2002, Steven Gill placed his college education on hold to enlist in the United States Marine Corps. The events of September 11 moved Steven to take up arms to defend his country. On July 21, 2005, he paid the ultimate sacrifice while deployed in Iraq doing that duty of defending his country.

Steven Gill was born on November 3, 1980, to Bill and Rose Gill of Houston, Texas. After moving to Round Rock, my hometown, in 1993, Steven attended Westwood High School. He was an active member of King of Kings Lutheran Church, and took part in numerous mission trips to help those in need.

After high school, Steven enrolled at Concordia Lutheran College in Austin, Texas, where he studied towards his goal of becoming a youth minister in the Lutheran Church. As it did for so many Americans, the tragic events of September 11 changed the course of Steven's life.

Upon completion of basic training, Steven received follow-up training to become an infantry marine rifleman at the School of Infantry, Camp Pendleton, California. He also attended Amphibious Reconnaissance School at Naval Amphibious Base, Norfolk, Virginia. On July 21, 2005, Steven was serving as a reconnaissance man with Echo Company, Third Reconnaissance Battalion, Regimental Combat Team 8, Second Marine Division in Zaidon, Iraq, when he was killed in action.

Steven served one tour in Iraq and was awarded a Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, Selected Marine Corps Reserve, National Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, two GWOT Service Medals, and an Armed Forces Reserve Medal.

Steven Gill gave his life so we can enjoy the freedoms that we have today in this great Nation. It is my honor as his Congressman and a resident of Round Rock, Texas, to honor the sacrifice of Steven Gill for his country here today and to honor his family who gave us their son. As Congress returns to work after honoring our Nation's war heroes, I am proud to offer this small tribute to one of those heroes from Texas.

Madam Speaker, on November 6, 2007, I was unable to be present for two rollcall votes due to technological complications with my vote notification system.

If present, I would have voted accordingly on the following rollcall votes: roll No. 1044--``nay,'' and roll No. 1045--``aye.''

Madam Speaker, we've had a lot of talk about the veterans, and of course, it's coming up on Veterans Day so we're all going to be talking about the veterans.

We've got an opportunity to do something great. In a bipartisan manner, the MilCon-VA appropriations subcommittee passed out a bill that does great things for our veterans, as our colleagues have said here today.

But now a good bill, and I am blessed to serve on that subcommittee, a good bill is now going to be loaded down with spending pork and we're going to ask our soldiers, once again, to lug extra weight on behalf of the American citizens, and that's just flat wrong.

We need to have a clean bill, by itself, so we can fund the veterans. We're already a month late on doing this process. It's time to get ready, do our job, have a clean, non-loaded-down veterans bill pass out of this House. It's important for our soldiers. They deserve this blessing.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I rise in support of the motion to instruct conferees.

I've been sitting here listening to what's been said here today and trying to figure this all out. I think everybody, I think the American people are trying to figure it all out. It's an interesting process to analyze how the Congress is working on this appropriation process.

But when you really look down as to what we're doing here, we're trying to solve three problems this week on this issue of appropriations. We've got three areas that we're going to look at.

We've got a problem that we want to resolve. We want to fund the Department of Defense and the job that they do defending our Nation, and we've got an appropriations bill that deals with that, deals with protecting our soldiers in the field, getting their mission done and all the things that go attached to the Department of Defense.

We've got a second issue we want to deal with. We want to take care of those veterans that have served us so well and so proudly over the years, make sure that we fund the programs that are necessary for them and to do the necessary military construction of the various bases around the world that is necessary to make sure we're providing for our active duty military what they need. We have those two bills that we've got to deal with this week.

We have a third bill, which is the Labor-HHS bill, that deals with issues of labor, health and human services. All those are important bills. Let's figure out how we can best get this done. The American people gave us a little survey this last week. They told us the one thing they are mad at us about is they say, why don't you just get something done? Why don't you get through the bull and get down to doing the job? That's their number one complaint.

Let's look at this. What's the best way to do this? We've got a Defense bill that there is really no obstacles for that anybody can find. Everybody is pretty much okay on that. We've got a MilCon- Veterans bill. In fact, we made an agreement when we had that little fight over earmarks that we would let those go without even discussing the earmarks, because they were going to go fast track through and be done very quickly. Nobody has got a complaint with that.

Then we have got one bill that a third branch of government has a serious complaint with and has the ability to actually veto. Let's see. Is it an efficient way to do our job this day, to take the two bills we can get done very simply and attach it to a bill that has a major roadblock on it? Is that doing our business efficiently? It seems to be not a good idea to me, but maybe it is. But why would we want to do that? We can pass two easily. The third, we're going to have a long discussion about and a fight and maybe a veto. We could get it done if we separated them apart, but we're putting them together. Why do we do that? Maybe it's because they've got people on their side of the aisle that won't vote for the Defense bill. There are 89 of them that said they won't. So maybe this would coerce them to do it. Or maybe they think they can roll over the President and the Republicans on the issue of spending. Who knows. But let's get down and do it efficiently and just deal with Labor-HHS today.

I thank the gentleman for yielding. And I would also like to thank Ranking Member Buyer and Chairman Filner for bringing this forward today. I think this is an important resolution.

When I heard about the fact that someone had defaced the Vietnam Memorial, I just didn't really know what to think about it. It wasn't a front page item; it was a back page item. But to me it was just a shock. So I went down to the park to take a look at it.

And as I walked along there, and I know some others have done this too, you could see where this substance had cast what looked like a shadow across the names that were printed on portions of this wall. And it brought back to me a memory of the time when the traveling wall came to the town I am from in Round Rock, Texas, and was put up out in the park, and I went out there with one of my good friends and one of the lawyers who worked in my court who was a true Vietnam veteran and a hero, and we walked up to approach that wall. And it was sitting up on a hill in our park, and he got about 75 or 50 yards from the wall and he just stopped. And I said, Mike, are you going up there? And he said, Not right now. And then he stood there and stared at that wall and cried. And it

took him a long time before he approached that wall because, as he said, there were too many names on that wall that he missed and loved.

That wall means that kind of thing to our Vietnam veterans. And for someone to go out and deface the honor of these fallen heroes whose names were carved on that wall is intolerable. I too hope the Park Service finds these people and prosecutes them to the full extent of the law because this is a shame. It's not only a shame to our national monument, which is against the law, but it is a shame to our national honor that this happened. And that is why I brought this bill forward.

I want to note that there are others who feel the same way, and many of them are here today and I am thankful for them. The Gathering of Eagles and the AMVETS posted a $5,000 reward to try to find out who did this defacing of the wall. That's how much it means to them.

This act of vandalism cannot be tolerated, should not be tolerated. And by passing this resolution, we will reaffirm to our veterans who fought the war in Vietnam that they did it with honor, they did it with principle, and we respect them as our warriors who did their job and should have been treated accordingly with honor when they came home. We need to continue to honor our Vietnam vets. That's why I feel this resolution is so important. And I hope it will be passed unanimously by this House.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial serves as a memorial to the 2,700,000 men and women in the United States Armed Forces who served in the designated war zone during the Vietnam Era.

While serving in Southeast Asia or as a result of their wounds or a service-connected disability, 58,256 men and women died.

On Friday evening, September 7, 2007, the United States Park Police reported being notified of a light, oily, and unidentified substance that was spilled over portions of some of the names, panels, and paving stones of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

At least 14 of the 140 inscribed panels of the Memorial Wall were damaged.

The National Park Service has determined that the damage was the result of an act of vandalism.

Thank the Gathering of Eagles organization and AMVETS for bringing attention to this crime through the $5,000 reward they are offering and by spreading the word to their members.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, on September 7, 2007, I was unable to be present for all rollcall votes due to a family medical emergency.

If present, I would have voted accordingly on the following rollcall votes: Roll No. 860--``nay''; roll No. 861--``nay''; roll No. 862-- ``aye''; roll No. 863--``aye''; roll No. 864--``nay''.

Mr. Speaker, on September 6, 2007, I was unable to be present for all rollcall votes due to a family medical emergency.

If present, I would have voted accordingly on the following rollcall votes:

Roll No. 854--``nay''; Roll No. 855--``nay''; Roll No. 856--``aye''; Roll No. 857--``aye''; Roll No. 858--``aye''; Roll No. 859--``no''.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Speaker for recognizing me for this hour. We are up here this evening because I have had a chance to go to Iraq recently, and some of the things that I have heard in the House just a few minutes ago don't ring up with what I observed when I was in Iraq.

But I want to start off by saying this: When I went back home this past month, all over my district the main thing I heard from the people on Iraq, get the politics out of it and just tell us the truth of what you know and let us try to figure it all out together, and why don't we try to figure this out together instead of thinking about who is going to win the next election or who is going to get the next advantage in the political process. I kept hearing that over and over.

I want to get up, and some of my colleagues tonight are going to talk about what they know. Some of them have a lot more wisdom than I do because they have been there more times than I have and have had more experiences.

My experience is relatively limited. I have been to Iraq four times since I have been in Congress, the last time being late in the month of July. I went on a long weekend to Iraq. So I was there the first time right after we caught Saddam Hussein. The second time I was there was just before the elections took place. The third time was May a year ago when we were pondering what to do and there was discussion of Petraeus having a plan. And then recently this July.

I can tell you that the difference between May and July is the difference between daylight and dark as far as the comments that I received from American fighting men and women and from Iraqis that I visited with while I was there for what was just a real long weekend.

Soldiers are always proud of their mission and accept their mission, and they do their mission and duty and we should always be proud of them. But you didn't hear the kind of comments that we have heard now about the enthusiasm that our soldiers have for the fact that ordinary Iraqi citizens, as we say in baseball, are stepping up to the plate and they are taking a swing, and that swing is helping our soldiers and our marines as they do their duty to try to eliminate al Qaeda from being that thorn in the side of Iraqi freedom that is causing the ultimate cause of all of this violence that is going on in Iraq.

Someone here tonight said there is brazen political maneuvers. Well, what I am saying has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with the fact that within my district, I have 52,000 soldiers who reside within my district, all of whom have been deployed at least once and some as many as three times in Iraq. I have the largest military facility that exists in the United States, Fort Hood.

Our guys told us a lot of good news, and I will report the bad news. The bad news they told us is that 15 months is tough and it is hard on their families and they hope we can get this mission done so we don't have to continue 15-month rotations.

So I don't come back just preaching good news. Our military, our soldiers don't like the 15-month rotation, but they do their duty. But time and time again I had soldiers tell me: Man, whatever you do, don't pull the rug out from under us just as we are starting to see daylight. We are committed in blood, sweat and tears over here, and the Nation has committed its resources and we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Don't pull out the rug now. If you do, don't ask me to come back when this place goes to hell in a handbasket. That is a quote from a sergeant.

We have to think about this. We have big decisions to make this fall. General Petraeus is going to come over here, and he will tell us the truth about what is going on, and I don't think it is all going to be a beautiful, rosy picture. But I do think he is going to tell you what ordinary soldiers and ordinary marines told me, and that is, as compared to 6 to 9 months ago, it is substantially better. It has to do with the fact that we now have the necessary troops on the ground.

I would like to correct an error that a general asked me to correct. The surge did not start in February of this year. The surge was announced. The surge started the second week in July of this year. That is when the entire 30,000-soldier contingency was in Iraq, and at that point in time the plan began to be executed.

But the idea that we were building up troops brought good news. The surge is now less than 6 weeks old. That's the truth about what the surge is. In fact, one of the people who is in charge of bringing these additional forces to Iraq told me, he said: You know, I hear you are having votes to pull out in 2 weeks or 2 months. Well, just tell somebody it took us a hard 6 months to get 30,000 soldiers over here, and if you think you can move 160,000 out of here in 120 days, you have lost your mind. It can't be done.

The reality of that war is they come over there on ships, and just like they did in the Second World War, they train before they go in, and when they are ready, they go in. And the whole 30,000 finally arrived in July.

So the picture, as I see it, is good news because of Iraqi involvement, and we will talk some more about that. Right now I would like to recognize Chris Shays, my colleague who has probably been to Iraq more than any Member of this Congress. Congressman Shays, do you want to share your feelings.

Well, I thank my colleague for those very, very intelligent comments and for your experience. How many trips have you made?

Eighteen times. Well, my little four don't sound like a whole lot.

Well, that's true. I want to thank you and I'm sure our soldiers want to thank you, too.

The trip that I was on, I had some wonderful Members of Congress who are here. A couple of them are here tonight. My friend Mr. Davis from Tennessee was there with us, and I believe that was his first trip to Iraq. I would like to yield to Mr. Davis.

I thank my colleague from Tennessee. We had a great experience on that trip.

One of my good buddies up here and colleagues is Phil Gingrey from Georgia. Congressman Gingrey has a more recent trip than the trip I was on in July. I believe Congressman Gingrey just got back a couple weeks ago.

So he will tell us about his experience on a trip that took place early in August and let him tell us what he saw and how he feels about things.

I told everybody about that trip to Iraq. The man who led that trip to Iraq is here, Congressman Mike Burgess, one of my classmates, came into Congress with me. He is from the great State of Texas, the northern part of our State, from the Dallas-Ft. Worth-Denton area.

Congressman Burgess was the leader of our group that went over for our long weekend. Congressman Burgess may tell us about the trip and has pictures to look at.

I thank my friend for his comments tonight. He led a really great congressional delegation over there.

My friend from Louisiana (Mr. Boustany) is here. He just came in. And I would like to hear what he has to say about his experience in dealing with this issue of the war in Iraq. I yield whatever time he may consume.

I yield to the gentleman from Connecticut.

Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, as I was listening to everybody talk here and listening to people talk earlier today, I get struck by the history of this Chamber. And as I was sitting here, I wondered how often this debate had occurred during my lifetime or did it occur during my lifetime. I would like to think I am a student of history, but I will admit that my concentration on history from the end of the Second World War until I was in high school, there is a gap there where it is only kind of the history of me and not the history of the United States. So I don't know a lot about it, but I was thinking the Second World War in Europe ended in 1944. Germany was divided into zones, I believe, until 1952. So we actually were the government of a zone, as were Britain and

France, from 1944 to 1952. I wonder if this debate took place in this Congress during that period of time: Bring our troops home. Why don't those people stand up a government over there? Why can't they get their act together? I wonder if that debate took place. I don't know. I might go look it up and try to find out.

Japan we defeated in 1945, unconditional surrender. And yet MacArthur established the occupation of Japan and, in fact, was heavily criticized when the Korean War broke out for still being the czar of Japan. And occupation forces remained in Japan until some time in the mid 1950s. I wonder if that debate went on about Japan. The last time I checked, which was the day before yesterday when I was talking to some soldiers at Fort Hood, we still have troops in Korea, and that war technically ended in 1954 I believe it was, 1952 or 1954, and we still have troops there. And I don't know if during the 1950s we had debates about why can't those people get their act together? Why do we have to defend that country? Why do we have to defend them? I don't hear that debate anymore, and there are still American soldiers standing watch in Korea.

I am not saying that we are going to occupy for this period of time, but where is our commitment to the commitment that our soldiers have given us? That deeply concerns me. I worry about it. And I can tell you our fighting men and women worry about it too.

So I guess that is why we get up here on the floor of the House and we want to let the American people know what we saw and what we heard and what we experienced. And I know the fighting generation that are living today; those soldiers are a great generation. The question is, will we be also ranked as a great generation, the people back home, for standing behind this great generation as they have done an outstanding job in defeating our enemy.