Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on International Relations be discharged from further consideration of the resolution (H. Res. 99) expressing the condolences of the House of Representatives to the families of the victims of the terrorist attacks in Madrid that occurred one year ago, on March 11, 2004, and expressing deepest sympathy to the individuals injured in those attacks and to the people of the Kingdom of Spain, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. Speaker, I offer an amendment to the preamble.

Mr. Speaker, last week, the State of Michigan and Detroit area community lost a member whose life was characterized by an altruistic commitment to her fellow human beings.

As the youngest daughter of a mill owner and a loving mother, Elena Anuzis was born in Lithuania in 1920, where she grew up in a peaceful country home with three sisters and a brother. But shortly after she married Ceslovas Anuzis, their peaceful life together was ravaged by World War II and the Soviet Union's subsequent occupation of their nation. Fearful for their lives, Elena and Ceslovas fled their country and traveled to the United States, specifically to Michigan, where they settled in Detroit and raised their four children--Ausra, Gailute, Saulius and Andrius.

Elena, along with her husband, is honored by the state of Israel as ``Righteous Among the Nations,'' an honor bestowed to individuals who risked their lives to rescue Jews from the holocaust. Although their means were meager, they were willing to shelter Hasia Green-Gaslevitz, sent to them by a Catholic Nun from a nearby monastery. There is evidence the couple helped others. They rescued two Jewish girls from the Vilna Ghetto and found shelter for them at the home of a pharmacist in Lyda. They also provided false documentation for other Ghetto escapees.

Mr. Speaker, every day Americans live extraordinary lives, and Elena Anuzis exemplifies their quiet courage and sublime virtue. She triumphed over momentous trials and tribulations and, despite witnessing the horrors of inhumanity, she never ceased espying, eyeing and elevating the best in everyone; and, in essence and act, generously giving of her heart and soul to her fellow human beings. Let us then all pause to honor Elena; and extend our deepest condolences to her loved ones.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge and honor the doctors, nurses and staff of St. Mary Mercy Hospital, as they celebrate in receiving the 2005 HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence.

In receiving the award, St. Mary Mercy Hospital was ranked in the top 5 percent in the Nation for overall clinical excellence. The hospital also received the Health Grades Distinguished Hospital Award for Patient Safety, ranking them in the top 2 percent in the Nation for patient safety outcomes.

I am proud to report that the awards place St. Mary Mercy Hospital as 1 of 30 hospitals in the Nation to receive both designations within the same year. It is a testament to the dedication, devotion, and determination of the men and women who daily provide a high quality of care to patients.

Mr. Speaker, the heritage of the Felician Sisters is the foundation for St. Mary Mercy Hospital, which for the past 45 years, has been a premier provider of healthcare in our community. Founded by Blessed Mary Angela, whose care for the poor and homeless in Warsaw, Poland gave birth to the Felician congregation, the Felician Sisters were dedicated to a ministry of healing and service, based on Mary Angela's mission of ``responding to the needs of the times.''

In the spirit of Mary Angela and the Felician Sisters I stand today to commend and applaud the great doctors, nurses and staff of St. Mary Mercy Hospital for their national recognition and accomplishments. More importantly I praise these angels of medicine for upholding the oath of Hippocrates by ``maintaining the utmost respect for every human life.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge and honor the thousands of Michigan Rotarians as they celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Rotary, the world's first service club.

On February 23, 1905, The Rotary Club of Chicago was established by Paul Harris, an attorney who wished to recapture through a professional club the same friendly, small town spirit he experienced in his youth. Finding like-minded committed individuals, over time the organization was called the Rotary, because of the club's early practice of rotating meetings among members' offices.

From this humble but hearty beginning, Rotary's popularity burgeoned and clubs were formed from New York to San Francisco. By 1922 the organization began to expand outside of the United States, and so it adopted the name Rotary International to evidence its member clubs on six continents.

Throughout the years the organization has been remarkable for ``doing good in the world.'' For example in 1985, Rotarians made a commitment to immunize all of the world's children against polio. Today, contributions to the Rotary Foundation total more than $80 million annually and support a wide range of humanitarian grants and educational programs; and Rotarians have mobilized hundreds of thousands of volunteers and have immunized more than one billion children worldwide. In point of fact, by the end of 2005 Rotary will have contributed close to $500 million to this cause alone.

Mr. Speaker, for 100 years Rotary has striven to meet the challenges of a changing world, including such pressing issues as environmental degradation, illiteracy, world hunger, and at risk children. Let us then pause our own hectic pace and honor Rotarians for bringing hope and help to all humanity.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge and honor Roosevelt Elementary Cub Scout Pack 876, in Livonia, Michigan, as they join Cub Scout packs across the country in celebrating 75 years of Cub Scouting.

The ``Cubbing Program'' was introduced by the Boy Scouts of America in 1930, but its roots go all the way back to the first days of Scouting. With the early success of the Boy Scouts for boys 12 years and older, there was popular demand for the siblings of Scouts.

In 1916, Sir Robert Baden-Powell introduced the ``Wolf Cub'' program for younger boys. This program soon found its way to numerous communities in America. Finally, after 20 years of Boy Scouting in America, Cub Scouting was introduced. What has followed has been nothing short of phenomenal. Boasting more than 50,000,000 members since its inception, no program in history has had the far ranging impact on American youth than Cub Scouting.

Boys who take part in the Cub Scout program take part in interesting and meaningful activities with their friends. Through these activities, boys learn sportsmanship, moral virtues, and cooperation; and, further, in so doing, the Cub Scout program also strengthens families.

Mr. Speaker, for 75 years Cub Scouting has helped boys develop character. I hope my colleagues will join me in honoring the Cub Scout program, and the scores of beneficent men and women who help mold these boys into men of honor, and stellar citizens of America.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of a great public servant upon his retirement from his noble profession.

Fire Chief Rob Dahlman served the citizens of Wayne Michigan since he began his career with the Wayne Fire Department in May 1976 and continued his employment with the city for the next twenty-nine years. Rob was first promoted to Lieutenant in January 1990. Four years later, he was promoted to Deputy Fire Chief and Fire Marshal. Finally, he was promoted to Fire Chief in 1999.

His education includes a degree in Fire Science Technology from Henry Ford Community College cumulating with a State of Michigan certified specialist license, the first City of Wayne Fire Chief to achieve this status.

Fire Chief Dahlman's past affiliations and titles are vast and varied. He is a Certified Fire Inspector with the Michigan State Fire Marshal Office, and active member of the International Association of Arson Investigators, Metropolitan Detroit Fire Inspectors and the Michigan Fire Inspectors Society. Rob has been the Emergency Program Manager of the City of Wayne and was instrumental in instituting and effective emergency operations plan.

Under Fire Chief Dahlman's administration, the Wayne Fire Department achieved its goal of building a state-of-the-art fire department. In 2003, the force moved into a new facility which has set a high standard for neighboring fire departments to follow. He has also expanded the services the department provides by adding two new rescue units and helped secure funding to provide several other life saving pieces of equipment.

Fire Chief Dahlman once said, ``I am not a hero, but I am an individual who is constantly concerned about the well being of others.'' Rob's career has echoed this sentiment, which can be attested to by his long list of accomplishments and praise he has constantly received throughout his professional life as a firefighter.

His wife Robin, sons Ryan and Randy, daughter-in-law Kelly, and grandson Brandon should be extremely proud of the undeniable mark he has left on the community. We at home will remember and always benefit from his dedication and leadership.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of us all, I extend my sincere appreciation to Fire Chief Rob Dahlman for his fine service to our community and our country.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge and honor Judge Michael Batchik upon his retirement after 25 years of service to the citizens of the 52nd District Court, 1st Division and the 52nd District Court, 2nd Division of Oakland County, Michigan.

Professionally, Judge Batchik served as chairman of the Judicial Conference Committee of the State Bar of Michigan, and has been an active member of numerous judicial organizations, including the Representative Assembly and the American Judges' Association. Mike has served as president of the Michigan District Judges' Association and president of the Oakland County District Judges' Association. He is also a past president of the Walled Lake Rotary.

During his tenure in the 52nd District Court, Judge Batchik initiated and implemented a highly successful jail alternative program. The program involves sentencing non-violent offenders to work in a structured community service program in lieu of jail, including a garden program that produces food for charitable organizations in the district. He has also been actively involved in implementing the very positive and successful ``Sobriety Court'' program at the Court. This program has been a key turning point in the lives of many drunk drivers, as well as reducing recidivism.

Mr. Speaker, I extend our entire community's sincere appreciation and gratitude to Judge Michael Batchik for his fine service to our community and our country; and wish him and his wife, Connie, the very best as they begin the next chapter of their lives.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge and honor Doctor G. William Caddell upon his retirement after 23 years of service to the citizens of Oakland County, Michigan.

A chiropractor by profession, Doc heeded the call to public service and was elected to the Oakland County Board of Commissioners in 1979. As a county commissioner Doc served on the Board's Finance Committee and served as its chairman.

In January of 1993, Doc was appointed Deputy Clerk/Register for Oakland County by Clerk/Register Lynn D. Allen. During his tenure as Deputy Clerk/Register, Doc supervised day-to-day operations and made a commitment to bring the latest technology to the office in order to better serve the citizens of Oakland County.

In 1998, Doc became the Clerk/Register of Deeds. The primary responsibility of this elected office is to record, store and retrieve documents for future use and to preserve them for historical purposes. Doc continued to introduce technology to enhance the efficiency and service of the Clerk/Register Office. Significant improvements include the scanning of legal documents so they are available to the public at the counter and to county prosecutors in their offices, thus saving significant staff time; the scanning of approximately two million birth, death and marriage records which may now be ordered by the public on the internet; the ability to apply for a passport at the county office, including photographs; the establishment of eRecording of land records; and the utilization of a geographic information system to accurately draw property lines. Because of Doc's innovation, the Oakland County Clerk/Register of Deeds Office is recognized throughout the state as the ``model'' office.

Professionally, Doc was very active with state organizations. He was appointed in 2003 by Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land to a 30 member State Plan Advisory Committee formed to address election reform pursuant to the federal Help America Vote Act. He is president of the Michigan Association of County Clerks. He is a past president of the Michigan Chiropractic Council and has served on the Board of Directors for the International Chiropractors' Association.

Mr. Speaker, I extend our entire community's sincere appreciation and gratitude to G. William Caddell for his fine service to our community and our country; and wish him, his wife Beverly, son Jonathan, son Geoff and daughter-in-law Heather, and grandchildren Clinton Derek, Luke Jordan, and Sydney Adelaid, the brightest future of continued blessings the God Lord allows.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge and honor Mr. Ronald Voorheis upon his retirement after 48 years of service to the citizens of the Charter Township of White Lake, Michigan.

Ron's roots in White Lake date back to 1840 when his great-great grandfather bought more than 300 acres of land. The Voorheis family farmed the land until the 1970s when Ron's father retired from farming. Nineteen acres remain in the Voorheis family today.

Ron was appointed Township Treasurer in 1956, a period when White Lake Township had a population of 4,000 and was governed by a five- member, part-time board. The fire department was volunteer, the chiefs were part-time, and there was no central dispatch. The wives of the firemen took turns in answering the fire calls from their houses. The police officers were paid just $1 per year.

Since then, the population of the township has grown to more than 30,000 citizens. Many of the farms are gone, and the main two-lane highway is a now a four-lane highway with a beautiful boulevard. The fire department and the police department are staffed with full-time professional firefighters and police officers. Ron has been a member of the leadership team guiding the growth of the township, helping to ensure the quality of life for all of the residents.

While Ron will be admired for his leadership and contributions to White Lake Township far

into the future, he should also be recognized for his service to the Michigan Townships Association where he served as a board member since 1968 and as the organization's president in 1978. Even though he will be leaving public service, Ron intends to remain active in the White Lake Historical Society and his church.

Mr. Speaker, I extend my sincere appreciation to Mr. Ronald Voorheis upon his retirement, and thank him for his fine service to our community and our country, and wish him the best.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge and honor Mrs. Bonnie Elliott upon her retirement after 21 years of service to the citizens of the Charter Township of White Lake, Michigan.

For nearly three decades, Bonnie has lived in Michigan's Lower Peninsula, though she has always yearned to return to her Upper Peninsula roots; and, upon her retirement, she will realize her dream of once again living the Upper Peninsula.

Bonnie served as Township Clerk for 16 years before being appointed as White Lake Township Supervisor five years ago. During her tenure, the Township has seen significant growth, becoming an enviable location to live and raise a family.

Through her work as a community activist, and an elected official, Bonnie has been integral to the heart of this growing township. She is a charter member of the White Lake Historical Society and a member of both the White

Lake Goodfellows and St. Patrick's Church. Bonnie devoted time to the renovation of the Dublin Community Senior Center, the development of the Ferdinand C. Vetter Park, the Judy Hawley Park, and improvements to the White Lake Cemetery.

Bonnie and her husband, Charles, should be extremely proud of the indelible mark she has left on the community. We will sorely miss Bonnie, but will continue to benefit from her dedication and leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I extend my sincere appreciation to Mrs. Bonnie Elliott upon her retirement, and thank her for her fine service to our community and our country. I wish Bonnie and Charles the very best on their retirement to Schoolcraft County in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge and honor the Milford Public Library, which is celebrating 75 years of service to the Milford, Michigan community.

On April 1, 1929, by a vote of 326 to 174, citizens approved the establishment of a free public library by levying a half-mill tax. However, the real beginnings of the Milford Library can be traced back to the 1890s. In March of 1895, the Milford Times reported about the beginnings of a new organization, the ``Ladies' Library Association.'' The goal of this fledgling group was to ``establish a library of high- class literature, sufficiently varied to suit the different tastes,'' and to which the members will have access. Later that month, the Times reported on the success of the organization, which had already attracted 52 members.

The members felt ``the need of something in the way of a public library has long been felt, and many hail with delight this project whereby at a small cost they can have access to the best of current literature.'' The Association imposed a $1.00 fee on members, which allowed them to draw one book from the collection each week.

Between the dissolution of the Association and the beginnings of the Public Library, the Milford Monday Literary Club sponsored a reading room for 15 years. The Club's collection of material was transferred to the new public library.

Mr. Speaker, for over 75 years the citizens of Milford, Michigan have continued to support the vision of the Ladies' Library Association and the Milford Public Library. I hope my colleagues will join me in thanking the citizens of Milford, Library Board Members and employees of the Milford Public Library for their outstanding service to the people of Michigan, and wish them well in the next 75 years.

Madam Speaker, I would like today to give not a novel, certainly not a unique overview of what I think some of the things we need to do to help win the battle of Iraq constitute. Again many of these things are being done, but I just want to try to put it forward as a comprehensive exposition of what we need to do to win. I think that there are three key areas involved in this struggle along all fronts upon which we have to continue to press: democracy, the economy and, of course, the military.

In terms of diplomacy, I believe everyone understands that the key now is the holding of free elections on time in Iraq. The U.N. has agreed with this, and while their support is welcome, it remains tenuous. We should encourage all member states of the U.N. to rise to the challenge of democracy in Iraq and provide the necessary personnel to defend the monitors and help these elections go forward. For as we know, what is going to happen is that the terrorist counterattack on democracy in Iraq will escalate. They will do everything they can to derail these elections. Yet that violence and terror in and of itself should not be enough to deter us and certainly should not deter the Iraqi people.

And as for the naysayers who claim that absent a perfect election in Iraq, it cannot be deemed a representative success, I would just like to ask those detractors to ask themselves why we demand more from the Iraqi people in a civil war than we demanded from ourselves in our own American civil war; because all one needs to do is to look at the map of 1864 to see that the States in rebellion did not participate in Abraham Lincoln's reelection. Yet I highly doubt that anyone today can say that it was not a representative election nor an election that was worthy of the American people.

In terms of the economy, one of the things that we face in Iraq clearly is the passive-aggressive resistance of the Iraqi people. After years of oppression, after years of being terrorized and after seeing so many international promises fall away, it is very difficult for them to stand up and fight on their own without the assurance that the United States and our coalition partners will be behind them. But it is also important to remember that while we provide them the possibility of a transformational change from tyranny to democracy, we must always remember that in any representative political system there is also a transactional element; for it is one thing to profess ideals to an oppressed people who have been newly liberated, it is another thing to provide concrete, tangible benefits to the populace to show them the investment in their future.

I think that one of the things that we have to do in Iraq is build on the town council model. We have to take a bottom-up approach, a grassroots approach to reconstruction in Iraq. We have to have and invest full decision-making authority into town councils, tribal leaders, religious leaders, and other community organizations that have been set up, let them determine what infrastructure projects in their area must be worked upon, let them figure out the processes by which they will come to these determinations and let them have control of the money to implement these decisions. These are very formative, basic steps along the road to a transition to democracy and to building lasting institutions upon which the Iraqi people can build.

I also think that in conjunction with the grassroots approach to the local control of the decision-making and the implementation of those decisions is that we should adopt an Iraqi oil fund similar to the one that we have in the State of Alaska. The Iraqi oil fund would take portions of the proceeds from the sale of Iraq's oil, place it in a fund and distribute it per capita to the people of Iraq.

The benefits of such a model, which we have seen in Alaska, will be also readily apparent in Iraq. It will provide a direct economic benefit to the people of Iraq, showing them the stake in their future. It will provide an immediate jump-start to the Iraqi economy and get them up to the average per capita spending that is expected to start any semblance of a stable economy. I think we should also use it as spur to register adults to vote in the upcoming elections, for if one is not a registered voter, one cannot receive the benefits of the Iraq oil fund.

I think that this will also prove to help uproot terrorists because no terrorist will be eligible to receive the per capita annual appropriation from the Iraqi oil fund. This will also, in turn, I believe help the Iraqi people further their efforts to defend their oil infrastructure and further their efforts to uproot the terrorists who would disturb it because the money would be being taken out of their mouths. It would be taken out of their children's mouths. In short, it would be an intolerable situation for them to allow to continue.

I think that we would also see a quelling of some of the sectionalism. I think we would begin to see that oil, rather than a divisive force amongst the regions of Iraq, could then be used as a means of unifying them and perhaps give them a greater semblance of an Iraqi national identity.

As we have seen throughout the history of Iraq, oil has often been used as the dictator's tool for fueling his oppression of his people. If this oil fund is written into the Iraqi constitution, not only will it hasten the adoption of an Iraqi constitution, it will safeguard against one individual being able to rise up and usurp control of the oil funds because truly the oil will belong to the people, and I believe the people will jealously guard this right under their new constitution.

I think it will also do one other thing: It will make the people less susceptible to any attempts by the terrorists or any future dictator to prey upon their impoverishment by offering them blandishments or other remunerative items in return for their loyalty to a new regime or to a new movement.

I think from the United States' point of view it will do something very important: It will belie the perception amongst much of the Middle Eastern population and amongst some of Western Europe and amongst some of our own population that the United States is there to take the oil, for we are not. The oil belongs to the Iraqi people.

What more tangible, palpable way could that be proven than by having this put into their constitution?

I also believe it has another tangential benefit: that the United States, by being willing to help the Iraqi people establish an oil fund, the oil fund will stand in stark contrast to the Oil for Food scandal that was operated by the U.N. which was perpetrated on the people of Iraq and in which many corrupt politicians in both the U.N. and in Iraq benefited at the expense of the poor Iraqi people.

I think that finally under the economy, we have to look at debt forgiveness. It is one thing for world powers or other members of the world community to claim that a free and stable Iraq is not their problem to the point where they will send troops to help win this battle, but it is another thing to say that they will not forgive the debts they incurred dealing with Saddam Hussein to help further the goal of Iraqi prosperity on the road to democracy. If we think about it, every country that has sold weapons to Saddam Hussein and has outstanding debt on the basis of those weapons is asking the newly liberated Iraqi people to pay the debt for the guns and the weapons that Saddam Hussein used to kill and torture them into submission. I think that is an inhuman request of any government, and I think that unless the world powers that sold these weapons are prepared to forgive these debts, I think it is morally justified by the Iraqi people to repudiate any debts incurred by Saddam Hussein's regime for the acquisition of weapons, be they conventional, be they weapons of mass destruction, or be they dual-use technologies or any instrument of oppression that he applied to his people.

Militarily I think that we have to hone our military and our intelligence to a fine precision. I think we have to prioritize the three threats that we face in Iraq at the present time. They are, one, I think the foreign terrorists clearly, followed by the Baathists and the Sunnis, many of them who are operating with the foreign terrorists, and of course the radical Shiia Iraqis who have come back from the shelter of Iran. I think that these are prioritized by order of importance for the long term.

The foreign terrorists are there to drive the Americans out. I think that over time, the Baathist remnants that currently have a marriage of convenience with them, should the Americans be thrown out, the Baathists and the Sunnis will then immediately turn upon them, which will lead to a blood bath in the short run and could further incite a civil war. We have to start with the foreign terrorists and the Baathists in a simultaneous effort to eradicate them from the terror that they are perpetrating on their country.

Third, we must then face the threat from the radical Shiia movement personified by the radical cleric Moqta al-Sadr. And it is important to remember that at the outset of the Iran-Iraq War, in Saddam Hussein's mind he was fighting a defensive war, for after the Khameni regime attained power through the Iran revolution, they immediately began destabilizing the secular Baath regime and targeting members of the Baath government for assassination and terrorizing them to undermine the Sunni-Baathist secular party and replace it with the Shiia revolutionary government modeled upon Iran.

These people were then forced from the country by Saddam Hussein, where they were sheltered in Iran for decades. They have been returning, and as they return, let there be no doubt that the incidents we see in Najaf and in other areas of the south have been perpetrated in many ways by these people who have come back to continue the quest to establish an Iranian mullah model upon the people in Iraq.

The tactics that we see from all three, predominantly the terrorists and the Sunnis, of course, are very similar to those that were perpetrated by the Colombian cartel drug lord, Pablo Escobar, for, in short, he utilized a private army to terrorize and destabilize the Government of Colombia, and he used largesse to the population to in many cases buy their loyalty or at least their silence and submission. As for the largesse that is handed out, if we can refer back to the economic model that I laid out, I think that will be very helpful in preventing that type of temptation by the Iraqi people.

In terms of his private army and in terms of the efforts to destabilize the Iraqi government, they are very similar to what the Colombian drug lord did. He is targeting the police. He is targeting the army. He is targeting the government, especially law enforcement within the government, including the judiciary and ministers. He is targeting infrastructure. He is doing that to continue to disrupt the supply of oil and continue the impoverishment and the suffering of the Iraqi people. And, of course, they are targeting civilians to generally terrorize the country.

Finally, just as Escobar did, these are designed and geared as much towards inflicting casualties and wanton destruction as they are to influencing the media coverage of their action, and thus having a multiplying effect of their mass murder by bringing it to millions of homes across the globe.

What we have to do to stop this is to understand these tactics and to ourselves adapt to the targeting of these institutions and these individuals and guard against them. We must also make sure that we rely upon the fledgling Iraqi army security forces and citizenry in order to root out their infrastructure and destabilize them in the very same manner that they are trying to destabilize the people of Iraq. We have to address their organization, root and branch. We can do that. I believe we have started to, and I believe we will continue to.

We must also make sure that our coalition partners expediently and decisively strike back in troubled areas, whether or not the Iraqi national guard and security services are prepared, for in the final analysis, we cannot leave a Fallujah to be a hotbed of terrorism. We cannot leave Najaf and the holy shrines in Shiia Islam in the hands of a radical renegade cleric.

It is my belief that the people of Iraq have had enough of this and that what they really need to see is a decisive stand to reestablish order in that country. And if we are not prepared to do that, every day we wait, there is an erosion of confidence in the Iraqi government and in the coalition, and another day's worth of despair that brings Iraqi people closer to a newly implemented dictatorship of terror.

We must also make sure that we, the Nation that brought the world mass communication, fully engage in the battle of ideas and, yes, to use what is often thought a pejorative word, the battle of propaganda. We must get our message out to the Iraqi people. We must get our message out to the Arab world, and we must get our message out to the entire world. It is very critical that the people of Iraq see, through their newly bought satellite dishes, which were outlawed by Saddam Hussein, what freedom is doing and what the suffering and sacrifice of their own fellow Iraqis, notably the police and the military, who have been targeted for death, are doing to win that freedom.

I think we must also press as quickly as we can here in the domestic front to come up with new technologies to combat the tactics, especially the roadside bombs, that are attacking our troops in the field.

I think, finally, we must also make sure that we continue to empower American troops on the ground with the freedom to make combat decisions.

We must allow them to make these combat decisions free of political constraints in order to ensure that they come home to their loved ones with their mission accomplished.

Madam Speaker, in the end, through military, economic and diplomatic means, we must press forward, because our enemy is not only the terrorists, our enemy is time; for while this is a battle of resolve, it is also a battle of reason, and the longer Iraq appears to be irrational and unreasonable and incapable of governance, the time ticks on our keeping our resolve.

At the present time, let us remember that our task is far greater than that of the terrorists. The terrorists have the task of destabilizing a country. We and our coalition partners have the task of stabilizing it. The latter tasks is far harder. It will call upon our every ounce of commitment; it will call upon as well our every ounce of intelligence to come up with a rational plan to win this battle and to secure Iraq in the community of nations.

To anyone, I would welcome their comments. Anyone who has any suggestions, I would welcome them, because, in the end, this is an exposition of what I hope to be a rough outline of a coherent plan. Not having possession of the absolute truth more than anyone else, I would like to know what other people think, because at this time in our nation's history we are not Republicans, we are not Democrats, we are not ideologues, we are all Americans. So let us see what we can come up with, and, as we always have, we will win.

Madam Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 11 o'clock and 21 minutes p.m.), the House adjourned until tomorrow, Wednesday, September 29, 2004, at 10 a.m.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to claim the time of the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton).

Mr. Speaker, the basis of international alliances rests not upon ephemeral, nebulous sentimentality, but upon concrete national interests. To willfully ignore this truth and instead wallow in the wistful mists of melancholy and nostalgia is injurious for a nation at peace and lethal to a nation at war. To prove the point, I cite the Democratic presidential nominee's recent New York speech in which he said, ``In the dark days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy sent former Secretary of State Dean Acheson to Europe to build support. Acheson explained the situation to the French President de Gaulle, and then he offered to show him highly classified satellite photos as proof. De Gaulle waved the photos away saying, the word of the President of the United States is good enough for me.

It is a fine story, but what proves the point about changes in world circumstance I think is a story from 1966 about the Johnson administration's experience.

In 1966, upon being told that President Charles de Gaulle had taken France out of NATO and that all U.S. troops must be evacuated off of French soil, President Johnson mentioned to Secretary of State Dean Rusk that he should ask de Gaulle a rather pointed question. Dean implied in his answer that de Gaulle really should not be asked that in a meeting, but LBJ, a Texan, insisted.

During his meeting with de Gaulle, the Secretary of State did ask if his order to remove all U.S. troops from French soil also included the 60,000-plus soldiers buried in France from World War I to World War II. President de Gaulle did not respond.

Mr. Speaker, September 11 was a defining moment in the life of our country and, indeed, all the world. In such perilous times we must accept the hard truth of international alliances. While we regret the state of our erstwhile alliances, we must always strive to honor and expand the valorous new alliances that we have forged that are fighting for freedom throughout the world.