A
Practical View (inclined to action as opposed to speculation) towers above and overshadows the
sensationalism, and the negativism, that this thread begs for...
POSITIVE IRAQ WAR EFFORTS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a
previous order of the House, the gentleman
from Nebraska (Mr. OSBORNE) is
recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. OSBORNE.
Mr. Speaker, so often
when we hear of events in the Middle
East the reports are negative, sometimes
even the discussion on the floor
reflects a great deal of negativism.
Recently, I led a delegation to Jordan
and Iraq and later to Germany.
Matter of fact, we just returned yesterday.
And I thought I would report on
what I saw there because so often soldiers
say we really wish you would go
back and tell the American people the
war we are fighting and not the one
that they see on television or in the
newspapers.
So, on previous trips, I had been
amazed at how positive the morale
was. Everyplace that I went, soldiers
seemed to be rather upbeat, pulled together,
seemed to have a sense of mission.
As we flew into the Al Asad, which is
a somewhat remote base about 90 miles
west of Baghdad out in the desert, extreme
cold, no vegetation, no trees, no
grass, as we landed there in the dust
and the sand, I thought, this is the
place where we are going to see some
people who are really pretty negative
about what is going on, and I was really
surprised.
There were 180 Nebraskans from my
home State there. That is why I went
there. They had not had a CODEL there
for at least 9 months, maybe never
there. And again I saw the same thing,
a sense of accomplishment, a real sense
of pride in what they were doing. I
pressed them, and I talked to them,
and I still got no negative comments
and no major complaints.
We went on down to Baghdad, and we
talked to General Petraeus, who is in
charge of training the Iraqi soldiers,
and General Casey, who is in charge of
the overall command there. General
Casey made the point that the infrastructure
still needs improving. Obviously,
the electricity is better, but it is
still not working all the time. Sewage
at times is not what it should be; and,
at times, their oil pipelines are getting
blown up. But, again, there is general
improvement, but they both said the
January 30 elections were truly a watershed
event. Since that time, there
has been a definite qualitative shift in
what is happening in Iraq.
I thought I would just point out some
of the things that we were told and
some of the things that we observed.
General Casey said, and General
Petraeus as well, that by the end of the
year Iraqi troops should be out in front
in all concentrations in Iraq. They
would have, in many cases, U.S.
backup, but there are right now several
areas of Iraq that are totally controlled,
with no U.S. backup, by Iraqi
forces. So the training of the Iraqis has
been excellent.
The Iraqi intelligence is improving.
Many Iraqis are now coming forward
with information regarding insurgents
that were not coming forward before.
The attacks have been reduced, and the
Iraqis are certainly much more confident
of their future.
Apparently, many of the Sunnis are
regretting not having participated in
the elections, and at this point they
are beginning to volunteer for the
army, for the police, which was something
that was unheard of a few
months ago, and the Sunnis are pressing
to get a place at the table in the
new government.
There is no shortage of Iraqi recruits
apparent at the present time. There are
roughly 100 battalions of army Iraqis,
152,000 total have been trained and
equipped, 85,000 police, 67,000 members
of the army. The Iraqis have been provided
with up-armored vehicles, body
armor, about 130,000 sets. So they are
well over halfway to their goal of
270,000 Iraqi soldiers trained.
Also, the Iraqis are performing much
better, whether they are policemen or
soldiers. The recent instigation or uprising
in downtown Baghdad by al
Sadr, where we have several thousands
of his supporters demonstrating, it was
well-orchestrated, but the thing that
we did not hear was that whole situation
was controlled by Iraqi police,
with no U.S. backup, and so we find
that they are much in control of the
situation.
We also had a chance to talk to Mr.
al Jafari, the prime minister. When we
asked him what he wanted to say to
the American people, he had just been
installed as prime minister the day before
we saw him, he said, the thing I
would like to say is we owe a debt of
gratitude to the United States and particularly
for the loss of soldiers. He
said, when you sent your soldiers over
here and the sacrifices they made, it is
something we can never forget, and
that we will always be grateful for.
We asked him if he would have an inclusive
government, if he would include
the Kurds and Sunnis and Shiites.
He said he would, and that remains
to be seen, because he is linked
with a very conservative Islamic Shiite
party that has some ties to Iran. So I
guess the proof will be in the pudding.
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