INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Mr. President, first of all, let me say to my good friend from
The PRESIDING OFFICER: The Senator from Oklahoma.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Iowa that while there are so many things in which we find ourselves in
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: agreement as the months go by and the years go by, in this area we find
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: disagreement. I have to say this. I wasn't going to mention Guantanamo, but
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: since that is a subject of interest to everybody--and it certainly has the interest
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: of the Senator from Iowa--I only mention this, and I have done this before on
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: the Senate floor. I am very much concerned about this obsession we seem to
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: have in this country politically to take care of these terrorists who are
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: responsible for committing acts and killing Americans.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: I was down at Guantanamo. I've been there several times. One time was right
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: after everything started escalating and they started arriving there. Everybody
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: was concerned about the methods of questioning these individuals,
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: interrogating these prisoners. I remember going down and seeing a lot of them
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: doing everything they could to antagonize the troops, the handful of troops,
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: that we had down there to police that situation. It was really kind of pitiful.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: You sit there and look at these people. These are prisoners who probably have
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: never eaten better in their lives, have never had better medical attention in
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: their lives, have never really lived better than they live in Guantanamo. Yet
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: these are individuals who are terrorists. These are the worst, and these are
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: terrorists who have killed Americans. We all seem to have this propensity to be
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: more concerned about them than we are for the lives of Americans.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: I want to give a different perspective. I have had the honor, I believe, of being in
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: the Iraqi AOR--not always in Iraq, but AOR, the area of responsibility--more
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: than any other Member. I have watched this on a monthly basis since we have
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: gotten into this thing. As I look at it, I very carefully chose the word of
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: ``invasion'' on Iraq as opposed to a ``liberation'' of Iraq.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: I remember so well right after the first Iraqi war, I was honored to go over to
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Iraq the day that it was actually declared to be over. This was in Kuwait City.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: We had a thing called the ``first freedom flight.'' Alexander Haig was on that
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: flight with me, Tony Coheulo, my good Democratic friend, was on that flight
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: with me. Certainly, the Chair remembers him well.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: We also had one of the Kuwaiti nobility and his young daughter with us at the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: time. We got there, and they were burning the oil fields. It was obscure. Even
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: during the daylight hours you could not see anything. Actually, the Iraqis
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: didn't know that the war was over--those who were down there at that time. I
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: remember so well seeing the devastation.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: This little girl, I think, was 7 years old at the time. They wanted to go back to
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Kuwait to go to their mansion on the Persian Gulf, beautiful place, so that she
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: could go up in her bedroom and see her little dolls and her little animals. I
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: remember going up there with her, and we found out that their residence had
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: been used as one of Saddam Hussein's torture chambers. And I remember
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: going up to her bedroom with her and, in fact, that bedroom had been used as
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: a torture chamber, as one of Saddam Hussein's headquarters. And there were
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: body parts--ears, hands, just strewn all around the room. You thought: What
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: kind of a monster could this guy be, this Saddam Hussein be? What kind of
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: terror had this guy spent 30 years of his life terrorizing his fellow citizens. We
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: saw things like a little boy with his ear cut off. He was 9. The reason it was
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: done was he had a little American flag in his pocket, and I guess they found
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: that on him, and they considered that to be inappropriate.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Looking into mass graves and hearing the stories of individuals going through
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: grinders and begging to go head first so they would not torture them quite as
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: long, or being dropped into vats of acid, begging to be dropped in feet first.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: These are the kinds of people we are talking about, the kind of terrorists that
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: we are talking about over there. This is what Iraq was like. This is what
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Saddam Hussein was like.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: While I don't want to get into the debate about weapons of mass destruction, I
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: never had that as the argument. I had the fact that training was taking place
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: there; whether it was al-Qaida or not we don't know. In Salman Pak in Iraq,
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: they were training terrorists to hijack airplanes. Now whether they trained in
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: that area the particular 9/11 perpetrators, I have no way of knowing. But
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: nonetheless, this is something that had to be--all you had to do was look into
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: the mass graves and hear the stories about weddings that had taken place and
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: how they would raid them and rape the women and bury them alive. That was
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: the scene, and that is what we were doing over there.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: But I really came to the floor to voice my objection to the Levin-Reed
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: amendment, number 2087. Winston Churchill once said, I'm going to read this:
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy. ..... Always
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: remember, however sure you are that you could easily win, that there would
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: not be a war if the other man did not think he also had a chance.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Now that was just as true in World War II when Churchill made the statement
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: as it is today. Today, we face an enemy who is determined, adaptive, and
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: willing to go to any means of terror and violence to win. He cannot be
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: negotiated with. You cannot negotiate with a terrorist. We keep hearing this,
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: we need to negotiate with them, but we cannot do that. They will not be
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: satisfied until the whole world is brought under their dreadful ideology. We
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: have seen this kind before in Stalin and Hitler, but never before has our enemy
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: metastasized this way.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: You know, in a way, you could say it is more dangerous now than it was back
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: then, than Hitler and Stalin because the mentality is different. These are people
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: who want to die and who are willing to die. And this is their way of going to
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: heaven. It is a totally different environment than under the other cultures in
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: the different wars. There is no centralized headquarters or one leader that we
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: can eliminate. There is no country involved. I don't think we have ever been
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: involved in a war against an enemy who didn't have a country. When you
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: defeat a country, you win the war. Well, there is nothing centralized that we
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: can point to. Victory would come the way it always has: Destroy the enemy,
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: undermine the support network, and expose the truth to the world that they
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: cannot win.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Any plan to leave Iraq before we have had a chance to understand the outcome
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: of the troop surge tells the enemy, first of all, they have been successful and
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: that their methods worked. And those individuals who were perpetrating the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: crimes of terrorism will come back and do them again. It gives them patience to
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: wait us out.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Do you believe that they do not watch our news or that they are not watching
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: us right now, and they scour our media for any chink in our resolve? Their very
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: survival depends on it, and they cannot win by force of arms. They can only
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: win by attacking our resolve.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Our country represents the light of freedom and democracy. Yet I fear that we
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: have begun a terrible introspective and downward cycle. Our resolve lasts for a
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: few months, or maybe a year, but all it takes is enough time and we break. Our
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: enemy knows this. Look at our mission in Somalia. I remember it so well. So
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: does the Senator presiding right now. They were dragging the naked bodies
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: through the streets of Mogadishu and our resolve was broken. Look at our
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: reaction to the bombings in Lebanon at Khobar Towers. Look at Vietnam.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: I am saying that we've got to realize that while this introspection guarantees
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: our freedom, it is also our greatest weakness. I recognize there have been
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: mistakes made in Iraq. In his January 10 speech, the President also recognized
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: this and has taken full responsibility for mistakes, which are made in every
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: war. Yet we still find ourselves in difficult situations about the best way ahead.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: And these decisions affect many lives, both of our soldiers who are in harm's
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: way and the American people they pledged to protect.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: We should debate. That is exactly what the Senate body intends to do. It is
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: what we have been doing. But how we fight and when we leave will determine
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: the fight our grandchildren face. I think we all agree that it would be disastrous
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: to leave Iraq precipitously. If we do, we know what we can expect: increased
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: levels of violence and the spread of extremist ideology. Iraq itself would collapse
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: in anarchy. We know this.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: A personal friend of mine, in fact he was down in Fort Sills Oklahoma, General
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Maples is now the DIA Director. This is a quote now. General Maples, said
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: "Continued coalition presence is the primary counter to a breakdown in central
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: this:
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: authority. Such a breakdown would have grave consequences for the people of
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Iraq, stability in the region, and U.S. strategic interests."
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: DNI Director John Negroponte and CIA Director General Hayden have agreed
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: with that statement and analysis.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Now it is not too late to avoid this. I don't think it is time to start cutting our
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: losses and hope all of this will somehow disappear, somehow it will go away. If
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: we can assist Iraq to reach the point of sustainable self-governance, then we
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: can bring defeat to our enemies and bring stability to the region. And we all
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: want this.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: To those who say we cannot win, I look to Bosnia. I have to say, Mr. President,
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: I was wrong in this case. That was a situation that many said and I said was
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: intractable, that we would be bogged down for years and suffer thousands of
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: casualties. I really believed this. But today, I went back there to Bosnia and it
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: is peaceful. This is directly because of our military involvement. So I learned a
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: lesson in Bosnia.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: When I heard President Bush ask for our support for a troop surge, I heard the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: same message from many soldiers whom I have talked to in Baghdad, Fallujah,
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Tikrit, Balad, Mosul, and other areas. They said that they want to fight the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: enemy there and not at home. This is what the troops have been telling me on
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: these 14 trips I have made over there. They said they are in a fight to win and
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: that they will accomplish the mission. Their morale is very high, and they back
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: this up by reenlisting in record numbers.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: I watched one of the Sunday shows, and they are trying to say: Look at the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: dissatisfaction level. You know, you can ask some kind of question of all the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: troops over there and pull out some kind of answer that can be misinterpreted.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: The true test is those individuals who are fighting the hardest and facing the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: most risk are the very ones who have the highest re-enlistment rate we have
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: seen in modern history. We are seeing re-enlistments in record numbers right
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: now, and the sacrifice our service men and women pay demand we pursue
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: every possibility to leave stability in our wake.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: The permanent Iraqi Government has only been in power since May. Many of
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: the leaders have never had any kind of opportunity to run any kind of
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: government before, let alone under the terrible circumstances they face. While
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Saddam was in power, they were in jail or they were in exile. They were on the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: outside. Now they have to build coalitions and a democracy that took us many
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: years to achieve here in this country. I think sometimes we forget that fact.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Last week, Hassan al-Suneid, he's a Shiite legislator and adviser to Prime
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Minister al-Maliki, was quoted in the Washington Post. This is what he said,
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: this is an adviser to al-Maliki:
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: If the Americans withdraw, the militias and the armed groups will attack each
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: other, and that means a sure civil war. What concerns me really is that U.S.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: troops might submit to the Democrats' decision and withdraw without thinking
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: about Iraq's situation and what will happen to the Iraqi people.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: We owe it to the sacrifice of the brave service member, we owe it to the Iraqi
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: people, and we owe it to our children and grandchildren. Give our soldiers
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: everything they need to win, and if Iraq doesn't step up, then it will be time to
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: go but not until then.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: You know, we haven't given enough time to see if the surge is working. July 15
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: was supposed to be an interim White House update. We know the benchmarks
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: that were there, some 16 benchmarks. It is my understanding eight are
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: proceeding as planned, eight of them are not, and two are kind of mixed
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: signals. We know the surge has enabled a number of things to happen, such as
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: a new engagement strategy, which I will talk about in a minute. It is called the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: joint security stations. It's a huge increase in tips, tips that we've gotten. Tips
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: are pieces of information that come from the Iraqi people that tell us where
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: IEDs are, that tell us where individuals are, where terrorists are. These are the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: qualified tips. They are accelerating on a daily basis. It has enabled us to stage
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: offensives throughout Iraq without significantly diluting our troops in Baghdad.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: It has enabled the commanders to chase down al-Qaida and keep them from
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: regrouping and attacking areas that have been historical sanctuaries of the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: al-Qaida.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: September 15 is when General Petraeus will give us a report. Now, let's not
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: forget, that is what the law says. We passed a law. We passed a law either in
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: March or May. The law says September 15 is the date he will come forth, this
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: great general, General Petraeus, who is over there right now. It will give him
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: time to say what our situation is and what we should do if a change is
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: necessary. We owe it to him at this time.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: A total surge force, of course, has just been in place for 2 weeks. We have some
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: good indicators that the time to make that kind of change is September. We
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: cannot change the terms of the deal now. That was the deal, and that is written
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: into law.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: My colleague Senator DeMint stated it well. He said, quote:
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: "If we're going to govern effectively, we can't change our minds every week."
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Now let's not give a knee-jerk reaction to the headlines of IEDs and sectarian
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: killings. This is exactly what the enemy is aiming its propaganda toward. And I
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: recognize this is not the fight we thought we were going to be getting into, but it
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: is the fight that is before us now.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: I admire Prime Minister Maliki's assessment. I'll quote him again now:
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: "A fundamental struggle is being fought on Iraqi soil between those who believe
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: that Iraqis, after a long nightmare, can retrieve their dignity and freedom, and
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: others who think that oppression is the order of things and that Iraqis are
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: doomed to a political culture of terror, prisons and mass graves."
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Now, I want to share one last thing in just a minute. Before I do, I want to put
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: up a chart. If my colleagues will remember, we had the Webb amendment
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: which would have dictated terms of how we do our troops deployments. At that
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: time, I used this chart. I think we have to keep in mind that one of the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: problems we had in orchestrating a surge and trying to address this now is
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: that we went through a pretty tough climb back in the 1990s.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: This chart shows, if we look at the black line, this was the 1993 baseline
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: increase by inflation. In other words, if we did just what we took in 1993 and
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: only increased it by the inflation, this is where we would be by the year 2000.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Now, the Clinton administration is actually represented by this red line. If we
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: take the difference between the status quo and what his recommendation was
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: in his budget, it is $412 billion total. We, in our wisdom, saw we were able to
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: raise it to this green line in the middle. But it still is $313 billion less.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Now, I suggest to you that a lot of that represents our troop levels because the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: most expensive thing we have in defense is the troop levels. So we are in the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: situation now where we have to see if this is going to work, if the changes, the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: surge, General Petraeus and all his efforts are taking place.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: I mentioned the President's speech of January 10th. Now I did it for a reason
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: because I went back and reread that speech. If you read it, it talks about the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: victory being in a bottoms-up situation. In other words, instead of the top
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: down, from the top political leaders down, it is going to be from the roots, from
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: the people in these various communities. And that is exactly what I witnessed.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: I will share with you what I witnessed the last time I was there. Keep in mind
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: that just a few weeks ago, long before the full surge effect was taking place, I
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: spent a lot of time in Anbar Province in Ramadi, in Fallujah, as well as in
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Baghdad. And what I saw was some changes. I think a lot of it was due to the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: fact that we have had a lot of the cut-and-run or surrender resolutions and the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Iraqi people are very much concerned that that's is what we are going to do,
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: and that all of a sudden got their attention.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: What I will share with you, Mr. President, I know we spend a lot of time and it
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: is important that we talk about the political leaders. Al-Maliki, we do talk about
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: him. He is the Prime Minister. We talked about Prime Minister Jasim. We
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: talked about Dr. Rubaie. What I noticed last time is a bottoms-up dramatic
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: improvement, not coming from the political leaders but from the religious
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: leaders. This is what I witnessed.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: My colleagues might remember, we stood on the Senate floor a year ago and
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: said the terrorists are saying Ramadi will become the terrorist capital of the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: world. Now Ramadi is secure. If you go next door to Fallujah--and we
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: remember the World War II type of door-to-door activities that were taking
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: place there. The marines did a miraculous job, but Fallujah at the time I got
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: over there on this last trip was secure. But the important thing is it was
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: secured by the Iraqi security forces. They were the ones providing security at
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: I mentioned a minute ago the joint security stations. This is a bottoms-up type
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: that time.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: of thing. I noticed in Baghdad, where, instead of our troops going out into the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: field, then coming back to the Green Zone at night, they stayed out there. They
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: bed down in the homes with the Iraqi forces. They develop intimate relations
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: and I talked with people who experienced this, theirs and ours. I didn't see that
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: in any of the previous trips over there.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: If I can single out one thing that is causing the improvement's that we've
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: having, the bottoms-up improvement we have seen so far as a result of this
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: surge announcement that was made just a few months ago, it would be the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: attitude of the clerics and the imams in the mosques. What we're seeing right
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: now, and we monitor these, by the way. Our intelligence is at all these mosque
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: meetings where they meet once a week. As most of us do on Sunday in our
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: churches, mosques meet at different times. Nonetheless, they have weekly
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: services. In weekly services prior to January of this year, 85 percent of the
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: messages that were given in the mosques by the clerics were messages that
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: were anti-American messages. They started reducing, and by April we went
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: through the entire month without one mosque giving an anti-American
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: message. That is why we are getting the support of the people, the bottoms-up
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: that we are talking about and the President was talking about back on
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: January 10. We are seeing these individuals doing the same thing.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: I don't think there is a person watching us or present in this Chamber today
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: who isn't from a State that has such things as the Neighborhood Watch
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: Programs. Well, that is what they have over there right now, and they are
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: watching and they are going around with spray cans and spraying circles
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: around undetonated IEDs so that our troops don't get into them. And so this is
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: the type of cooperation we have not seen before.
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: This is what the President asked for on January 10th. I think anything prior to
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: our legal timeline of September 15th and getting an ultimate report from
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: General Petraeus would be a great disservice to our fighters over there as well
INHOFE, SEN. JAMES: as to Iraqis and with that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER: The Senator from Colorado.
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: r. President, I thank the senior Senator from Rhode Island
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: for allowing me to go ahead of him to deliver some remarks on the general
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: Department of Defense authorization bill. Senator Reed has not only been a
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: strong supporter of our military, but he has an understanding which is unique
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: for somebody who is a West Point graduate. As we move forward with this
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: debate on Iraq, his understanding of Iraq is second to none here on the Senate
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: floor, given the fact that he has been with this issue from the beginning. He has
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: made 10 trips into Iraq to understand the situation on the ground. We very
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: much look forward to his continuing leadership and contribution to the debate.
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: Mr. President, today, I rise because I want to praise the work of Chairman
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: Levin, Senator Warner, Senator McCain, Senator Reed, Senator Nelson, and
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: the members of the Armed Services Committee for developing a very good,
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: excellent product for us to consider in the Department of Defense authorization
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: bill.
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: As the Senate debates this week on the keystone issue of our time with respect
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: to the United States involvement in Iraq, we must not lose sight of the
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: importance of maintaining a strong national defense. And that strong national
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: defense is what is at the heart of the 2008 Department of Defense
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: Authorization Act.
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: The bill is a strong statement of support for our men and women in uniform. It
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: gives our military the tools it needs to confront an increasingly complex and
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: dynamic set of threats that we face around the world. It is a bill that will help
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: assure that our military remains the best equipped, the best trained, and the
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: best led fighting force in the world. Today, our men and women in uniform are
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: serving honorably around the world. In the mountains of Afghanistan, they are
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: tracking and killing al-Qaida and resurgent Taliban operatives that are
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: resisting the move toward democracy. In Iraq, they are confronting the
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: monumental task of stabilizing and rebuilding a country that is caught in the
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: middle of a sectarian violence and a spiraling, what many of us have
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: concluded is an intractable civil war. In the horn of Africa, in the Balkans, and
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: elsewhere, they are looking to bring peace, hope, and security to those war-torn
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: areas of the world.
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: I am immensely proud of the work of our troops both abroad and here at home,
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: for our National Guard, Reserve, and Active-Duty troops who protect our
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: homeland and help us respond to the threats of hurricanes, fires, and floods. I
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: know that all my colleagues share the appreciation I have for the work of our
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: military, and I know this shared appreciation gives us much common ground
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: from which to work. We all agree that our military must remain the strongest
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: and best equipped in the world, that our Nation's defense is the Federal
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: Government's top priority, and that our military families and our veterans
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: deserve the best our Nation can provide.
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: 5:01:15
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: More speeches but no Metavid video to go along with them. I think the rest is
SALAZAR, SEN. KEN: stuff added by the Congressional Record later on.