|
Those Who Have Borne The Battle
HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF
OF CALIFORNIA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, September 9, 2004
Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, 2 days ago the United States
military announced that 1,000 military personnel have
been killed in Iraq. For every American this is a time
to contemplate the totality of the sacrifice of these
brave Americans.
I recently returned from my second visit to our forces
in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was awed by the courage,
determination, and dedication of our troops who are
fighting a brutal enemy thousands of miles from home.
Our soldiers, Marines, sailors, airmen, and coast guard
are doing their job magnificently; but as we continue
to battle a stubborn and pernicious insurgency in Iraq,
Congress must take stock of the needs of our troops
in battle and the challenges they will face when they
come home.
We owe it to the more than 1,000 Americans who have
died in Iraq and to their comrades serving there still
to ensure that we put Iraq on the road to democracy
and that we assist the Iraqi Government in building
the security forces, army and police, that it needs
to defend itself.
Since I was first in Iraq, the political transition
has made important strides, but the security situation
has worsened considerably; and our troops are shouldering
an incredible load for the rest of us.
A year ago, the insurgency appeared confined to a few
hundred Baathists, Saddam Fedeyeen, a small contingent
of foreign fighters, and criminals released by Hussein
before the war. Regrettably, the insurgency has spread,
fueled by a much more substantial influx of foreign
fighters and made more complex by Shiite uprisings in
what had been more tranquil parts of the country.
The insurgents have embraced the tactics of foreign
fighters. Suicide bombings and kidnappings have become
much more sophisticated. Improvised explosive devices,
IEDs, which take a daily toll on our troops, used to
be easily visible to American personnel as they drove
through the country. Now, they are buried, with only
a slender wire of an antenna protruding above the ground
and detonated remotely. Clearly our forces face a determined
foe.
There is no question that the burden of this war has
fallen exclusively on the shoulders of our men and women
in uniform. While the military may always bear a disproportionate
share of the burden in wartime, it is especially acute
now. Even as our Guard and Reserve are constantly being
called up and our active duty forces are stretched thin,
the general population has been asked to make no sacrifice
for a war effort that we are financing through debt.
Our troops are paying doubly for this war, first on
the battlefield and then in the form of crushing deficits
that have fundamentally weakened our economy. Some only
barely out of their teens, our troops will be paying
for this war for the rest of their lives, even if they
return home uninjured. They will pay for it in the form
of higher mortgages on their first home, on credit card
debt, and in taxes to repay the national debt.
Even as we speak, the families of our troops are struggling,
losing jobs, businesses and piling up debt. I met a
young Marine from my district in Pasadena who had been
serving in Iraq since February and was due to return
in the fall, return home. He had just learned that his
wife had been called up and that she will be deployed
to Iraq in the fall. Their planes may literally pass
each other in the night.
We must not forget the nearly 7,000 Americans who have
been wounded, more than 1,000 in the last month alone.
Many of these wounds are grievous and many others might
have been prevented had our troops been better equipped
from the start of the war. Our troops now have the body
armor they need and are driving armored Humvees, but
they should never have gone into battle without these
life-saving protections.
In an American military hospital in Baghdad, I spoke
with several Marines hit with IEDs. Two Marines, who
lay side by side in adjoining hospital beds, were riding
in the same armored Humvee when they were struck. While
these two Marines had shrapnel embedded in their legs
and faces, a third Marine in the same Humvee was lucky
and walked away unharmed. A fourth Marine they told
me had not been so lucky. He died on the operating table
the night before.
These young men and women and nearly 7,000 other wounded
are returning to a Congress that seems to have forgotten
Abraham Lincoln's admonition ``to care for him who has
borne the battle.'' We provide insufficient medical
care for our veterans, and VA centers around the country
are closing their doors, even as they are needed more
than ever.
In our towns, cities and counties, thousands of individual
Americans have pitched in to help our returning soldiers,
but our Federal Government has lagged far behind. Until
recently, our wounded were charged for the food they
ate while recovering at Walter Reed Army Hospital.
I realize that time is short in this Congress, but I
hope when we consider the VA-HUD appropriations bill
later this month and in our work on defense and veterans
issues in the 109th Congress that we consider the extraordinary
price that we as a Nation have asked of the men and
women of our Armed Forces and that we match our words
with deeds.
|
