Scott McInnis

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Claus Hume and thank him for his extraordinary contributions to Colorado. Judge Hume is officially retiring as the Chief Judge of the Colorado Court of Appeals, and today I would like to honor his long and distinguished career of service to his community before this body of Congress and this nation. Judge Hume's legal career has spanned three decades. After a brief stint as a photographer, he graduated from the University of Colorado law school in 1965 and moved to Craig, Colorado, where he began his career and started a family. One of few lawyers in Craig, Judge Hume began working for the local prosecutor's office and was elected District Attorney in 1972, serving for two years until he was appointed to a district court judgeship. He served on the 14th Judicial District bench for thirteen years, until he received his appointment to the Colorado Court of Appeals in 1988. Judge Hume's service to Colorado is a credit to our state and I am grateful for his dedication to justice for all Coloradans. Mr. Speaker, Claus Hume is an exemplary servant to his community and to the State of Colorado, and it is with great pride that I recognize his career before this body of Congress and this nation. Judge Hume's presence in the courtroom will be greatly missed throughout the state, and I would like to extend to him my congratulations on his retirement and wish him the best in his future endeavors.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Dee Crane for her exemplary service to the Mesa County Valley School District in Colorado. Dee has been an educator for forty-two years and today I would like to honor her accomplishments before this body of Congress and this nation. Dee began teaching at Lincoln Orchard Mesa Elementary School before serving as Assistant Principal at Appleton, Pomona, and Lincoln Park Elementary Schools. She became principal at Taylor Elementary School in 1971 after two years as the district's Administrative Supervisor of Elementary Education. Since then, Dee has earned a reputation as an innovative and effective educator, consistently implementing new teaching methods and helping her students to achieve high scores on assessment tests. Dee also recognizes the critical role of parental and community involvement in a child's education, and works with the local PTA to organize volunteer programs at Taylor. As principal, Dee plays a very active role in the lives of her students and faculty, spending her days in classrooms and on the playground rather than in the principal's office. For her efforts, Dee has earned numerous community honors, most recently named a Woman of Distinction by the Grand Junction American Business Women's Association. Mr. Speaker, it is a great privilege to recognize Dee Crane for her service to Mesa County Valley School District and to elementary education in Western Colorado. Dee is a guiding force in the lives of her young students and a dedicated leader of Taylor Elementary School. It is my great privilege to honor her today, and I wish her the best in all of her future endeavors.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the Senior Center of Montrose, Colorado on the occasion of its thirtieth anniversary. Since 1973, the Senior Center has provided a place for seniors to gather, share a hot meal, and participate in a variety of group activities. The center plays a pivotal role in the Montrose community, and today I would like to celebrate its anniversary before this body of Congress and this nation. The Senior Center has grown and changed over the thirty years since it first offered a Valentine's Day bingo game, finally establishing a permanent meeting place in 1990 with the opening of the Montrose Pavilion. The center's meal program has steadily grown, now serving an average of 139 meals at the center and delivering seventy-two more to homebound seniors every day. The senior recreation department offers about twenty-five classes a week, introducing seniors to computers, yoga, and oil painting and offering events such as lectures and sporting tournaments for over 1,500 participants a month. In a rural community like Montrose, the senior center provides an important focal point for enhancing the lives of senior citizens, both physically and mentally. Mr. Speaker, the Montrose Senior Center has been providing many services crucial to the local senior community for thirty years and it shows no signs of slowing down. Its longevity is admirable--a credit to its members and the surrounding community. Today I would like to congratulate the Senior Center of Montrose for its outreach to the senior citizen community.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Harry Blowey and his contributions to this country. Harry began his service to our nation in the 1940s, serving in the Navy in the Pacific theatre during World War II, and today I would like to honor his accomplishments before this body of Congress and this nation. Harry was aboard an aircraft carrier, the USS Bismarck Sea, during the battle for Iwo Jima when his ship was hit by two Japanese kamikazes. The explosions broke the ship in half, and as the ship sank, Harry lowered himself down a line and jumped into the water, keeping himself afloat for five hours before he was rescued. Harry's ship was the last American aircraft carrier sunk in World War II. Harry also served as a belly-gunner during the battles for Leyte and Luzon in the Philippine Islands, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross, a Navy and Marine Corps medal for heroism, and three air medals for special combat missions. Now Harry is continuing to serve his country by sharing his story with his neighbors and the Veterans' History Project, ensuring that his experiences will be permanently archived at the U.S. Library of Congress. Mr. Speaker, it is a great privilege to honor Harry Blowey for his service to this country. He served selflessly during a time when our country was in great need. His actions have brought great credit to himself and his nation, and his willingness to share his story with posterity will benefit generations to come. Thanks, Harry, for your service to this nation.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Sergeant Jerry Pino and thank him for the contributions he has made to the community police department of Pueblo, Colorado. Jerry recently retired after twenty-five years with the Pueblo police force, and today I would like to honor his accomplishments before this body of Congress and this nation. Jerry joined the department in 1978 after leaving the U.S. Marine Corps, and earned his promotion to sergeant in 1994. In the course of his career, Jerry won three commendations for his actions on the job, catching two armed robbery suspects by anticipating their escape route and almost single-handedly unraveling a theft ring. Just this past year, Jerry saved the life of an eighty-four year old woman when he found her collapsed just outside her apartment in freezing weather. As a former police officer myself, I know of the dedicated service, long hours and unrivaled commitment that our law enforcement officers give to their communities. Jerry's twenty-five years of service exemplify this dedication. Mr. Speaker it is a great privilege to honor Sergeant Jerry Pino and wish him the best as he leaves the Pueblo Police Department. He has been an effective officer and an integral part of the police force for twenty-five years. Jerry, thank you for your dedicated service.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Mike Davis of Pueblo, Colorado. As the president of Pueblo Community College, he has done much to promote the importance of higher education in my district, and today I would like to highlight his accomplishments before this body of Congress and this nation. Mike worked as a clinical social worker before entering academia as an instructor at Vincennes University in Indiana, the community college where he earned an associate's degree in psychology in 1972. Taking on increasing leadership roles at Vincennes, Mike eventually earned a doctorate in higher education administration. He came to Pueblo from Indiana to serve as PCC's executive vice president in 2000, assuming the job of president in 2001. As a community college graduate himself, Mike understands the pivotal role these institutions play in the intellectual development of his students. As president of PCC, Mike has been an exceptional supporter of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society that promotes scholarship and a lively intellectual climate among students at two-year colleges. Mike will receive the Shirley B. Gordon Award of Distinction from Phi Theta Kappa for his support of the society and its PCC chapter. Mr. Speaker, our nation's community colleges are learning centers for a wide variety of students, helping them to achieve their goals. Mike Davis encourages high standards for intellectual achievement in the academic community he heads, and his support for Phi Theta Kappa is only one measure of that support. It is a great privilege to salute Mike before this body of Congress and this nation for his achievements as both a teacher and a community leader.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, good evening to my colleagues. I appreciate the opportunity to address our group this evening. There are a number of different issues I want to talk about, but the issues I am going to talk about are going to focus on one thing, and that is America. I come back from a weekend in Colorado, spending time with my constituents out there, constituents of all different types of backgrounds. I can tell my colleagues that the morale in America, the patriotism in America I do not think could be stronger. These people that are against this war, I have some appreciation of some of their thoughts; but I want the Members to know that the people that are making all these anti-U.S. statements within the borders of this country I am absolutely convinced are a very small part of our population. I am very impressed, very impressed, with the amount of support, overwhelming support, for the troops of the United States of America. Thank God we are Americans. I feel so good about that. I want to tell my colleagues, on the back of my pickup I have a bumper sticker. My colleagues have all seen it before. A lot of my colleagues may have it on the back of their pick up or their car. It is pretty simple. It says: ``America, love it or leave it.'' That is not a bumper sticker that defies anybody's right for their freedom of speech under the first amendment. In fact, we know here on this House floor we have lots of debate on this House floor. We are very intense debate. It is one of the checks and balances in the government that we have of this country, but it at some point in time even on this House floor no matter how intense the debate is, with very few exceptions, at that point people on this floor I can say almost unanimously, almost unanimously, love this country, and I see no reason to be apologetic, no reason to be apologetic for saying to people if they do not love America, leave it. There are lots of choices in this world, but one does not have to go very far from American borders to understand that this is the one Nation of the few nations in the world that do not have a problem with people leaving. Our big problem is so many people want to come into this country because they understand the fundamental principles that have made this country so great, that have made this country stand out in world history as the leading country for democracy, as the country greater than any other country in recorded history, the country that has done more for its neighbors, as one of the few countries in history, after it goes to war or moves into other people's territory, as Colin Powell, our Secretary of State, so justifiably said the other day, the only time that the United States of America has kept territory in a foreign country was under a request for someplace to bury our soldiers. This country has got a lot to be proud of, and I carry that bumper stick with a great deal of pride, ``America, love it or leave it.'' And I can tell my colleagues there are a lot of people in this country, by far the overwhelming majority, they love this country, and they love what this country stands for, and they support the troops of the United States of America. I know we have got some people out there, and I am going to address some of their issues, some protesters out there that are not only not supporting the troops of the United States of America, but in California and in other places in this Nation, they are actually carrying signs that say: ``We support our troops as long as they shoot their officers.'' ``We support our troops as long as they shoot our officers.'' It is an absolute disgrace. We have other people who, for self-interest, frankly, on the Democratic side, very limited but on that side who are seeking the office of President itself who stand out there and say we need a regime change in this country. Let me tell my colleagues about the administration that we have, in my opinion, running this country. George W. Bush, I think he is doing an outstanding job. What President in history has had two wars, has had a September 11, has lost the Space Shuttle, was handed a bad economy and it is still going south? The strength of our President is second to none. The strength of our President is what will lead this country through this fog, and I can tell my colleagues that when the storm came in, when the conditions got nasty, we did not see our President anchor the boat at the dock where it was the safest. We saw our President turn that boat into the storm to guide people through the storm. In my opinion and I want to tell my colleagues in the opinion of Democrat and Republican, in my travels, in my calls, in my contacts throughout this country, Democrat and Republican admire the President that we have. They think this President is up to the job. They think this President is leading the country in the right direction. They think this President is doing the right thing in taking out of power the worst mass murderer in the history of the world and, by the way, the worst mass murderer of Muslims. Saddam Hussein has killed more Muslims than any other man known in recorded world history, and that effort to take him out is being led by our President. By the way, I do not want to downplay the assistance we are getting from our allies. I have time after time after time read in newspapers or heard people say this is the United States picking a fight. As Worley says in his song ``Have you Forgotten?'' which is the number one song on the country hits, after September 11 maybe we are out there looking to resolve this situation, but the fact is it is not the United States standing alone. In fact, if we take a look at the coalition that our President and his cabinet has put together, it is very impressive. Our long-time solid allies, Tony Blair and the British, and Tony Blair, if my colleagues want to take a look at an example of a profile in courage, we have got it right there. The British, the United Kingdom, a country that has long understood freedom, a country that has very judiciously, very judiciously, used their military might for good and just causes. And then we can go on to the European continent, and I hear people say this is a split between the United States and Europe. It is not a split between the United States and Europe. It is a split between the United States and the French, the United States and the German leadership, the United States and Belgium; but it is not a split between Europe. Jacques Chirac would like us to think that France is Europe. Jacques Chirac would tell the other countries in Europe that France is the ruling country of Europe and that when France speaks, it is as if it is the voice for Europe, and it is not. In fact, we have more countries in Europe that support the United States of America and our position than support the position of the French. Take a look at it. We can start with the British. We can go to the Italians. We can go to the Spanish. We can go to the Polish. We can go to the Netherlands. We can go to Australia. Throughout the world nations throughout this world and their leadership recognize that the mission undertaken by the United States and that willing coalition is the mission that is correct. It is the mission for the right cause, and it is the right time to undertake that mission. We have strong support, strong support amongst our allies. This is not the United States acting alone, although I will tell my colleagues that our country must always be prepared, must always be prepared because of our strength, because of our leadership, because of our history of democracy, we must always be prepared to act for the interests of humanity even if it means acting alone that we will find in our history. To the best of my knowledge, I do not remember anytime in our history that the United States has ever had to act alone. Why? Why does the United States not have to act alone including in the current war that we are involved? It is really pretty simple. It is because the causes that this country acts on, it is on the right side. It acts for the right reasons. It goes forward with the right intentions; and when we are right, when we have got the right cause, when we are headed in the right direction, it is easy for other countries to support us because other countries too, being right is not exclusive to the United States of America and being strong and having the might to help your friends and to help people that are under the wicked hands of somebody like Saddam Hussein, in my opinion it is a pretty easy decision to make. The French walked away from it. The Germans walked away from it. The Belgians walked away from it. But the countries that stood tall, that came out of that foxhole to take the fire to get rid of the evil empire over there, those countries are right too. This is a coalition of the willing, and I will tell my colleagues thank goodness we have got a President who is willing to stand up and take the heat, take the protest, take the derogatory remarks, take the editorials, take all the political correctness that they try to aim against him, and yet he has stayed steady as she goes. He is on course. He knows in his own mind what needs to be done to protect not only the United States of America but to protect the world. Right here on this House floor from this very seat, and I was sitting right out here and many of my colleagues were sitting right out here, the President said freedom is not a gift to the United States or exclusive to the United States; it is a gift to humanity, a gift given to the United States to carry out for humanity. That is paraphrased a little, but that is exactly on point. Take a look at what else we have with the President. Take a look at our team. Condoleezza Rice, recognized as one of the experts in the entire world on international affairs, and, by the way, I boast with some pride a Colorado product, she went to school in Denver, Colorado. Take a look at our vice President, Dick Cheney, very methodical, very experienced in these types of areas. I think one of the most well thought-out Vice Presidents this country has ever had. Take a look at Colin Powell, clearly, clearly recognized as one of the most respected men in the world. Dick Rumsfeld, the youngest Secretary of Defense we have ever had, the oldest Secretary of Defense we have ever had, somebody who fits the part in the Department of Defense perfectly, in my opinion. We have got the dream team out there. We have got the team that has led this. Remember how in Afghanistan, Afghanistan now, not Iraq, but remember how with Afghanistan we were hardly into our mission, hardly into our mission, before some of the national publications, the national press, some of it, came out and said, oh, my gosh, the United States is going to face stunning defeat. The United States underestimated the power of the Taliban, that brought down the Russian empire when they came in and tried to take over, chased them out of Afghanistan, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. They have done the same thing with Iraq. A week and a half ago, take a look at what the headlines were saying. They were talking about retreat, some of them. They were talking about how the United States greatly misjudged this, the United States has slowed down so much, the United States has been stopped. They really clearly underestimated the strength of Saddam Hussein and the dedication to his tyranny in the country. How interesting a week changes these newspapers. Now, all of a sudden, they are out there saying this is one of the greatest military triumphs we have seen. The battle is not over, but the United States and our troops over there, and our troops in the United States, by the way, have done a tremendous job. And what is different about this than Vietnam? I can tell you, in this war and in, I hope, all conflicts in the future, when our military people come home, or when we see military people on the street, they will be recognized as heroes. I cannot wait to put my arms around some of these young soldiers when they come home, back home to Colorado or Mississippi or Texas or whatever State. We are so, so darn proud of them. That is why I do not have any reluctance at all, as a U.S. Congressman, I have no reluctance at all when I drive around to have a bumper sticker on the back of my pickup that says ``America: Love it or leave it.'' I do not often get tears in my eyes. I do not know why it is, because I do have emotion, I have deep emotion. I have love, I have belief in a God, I have deep emotion, but I do not often tear up. But I have to tell you this weekend I teared up. What a wonderful thing our military did, not only what they did, but what it is representative of. I am talking about the rescue of our prisoner of war, Jessica Lynch. And what made me tear up when I read the words. Here she is: She has had her bones broken, she has been shot, I would assume she probably saw the execution of her fellow soldiers. What a traumatic event. Now she is a prisoner of war. All of a sudden, our soldier, our Jessica Lynch, and Jessica Lynch could be any soldier from any State, laying in that hospital bed, hears a racket, hears noise in the hospital. As the reports say, she puts her head under the sheet, and all of a sudden she hears a voice. ``We are United States soldiers. We are here to protect you and we are here to take you home.'' Imagine that. Your name, Jessica Lynch. That is what first happened. ``Jessica Lynch. We are United States soldiers. We are here to protect you. We are here to take you home.'' Bless her heart. She sticks her head out of the sheet and she says, ``I am an American soldier too. Do not let anybody leave me.'' Jessica Lynch is a face, as I said earlier, you could put on any military uniform in our country. What is so neat about this story is not only the rescue, but the fact that an American soldier never leaves an American soldier behind. We always go back and get our people, and we will continue to go back and get our people. But what is really significant about this is what it says, what America will do for another human being. And it is not just restricted to the soldiers. I can tell you that there are a lot of citizens of the country of Iraq that, once they know we are really there and that Saddam Hussein is really gone, they will feel the same comfort of freedom and the same comfort of security that Pfc. Lynch felt when her fellow soldiers came to take her home. What a neat story. And what a neat story about what the American fighting man and woman has done for a country many, many miles away from the border of our own. Sure we have a lot of self-interest in this. We do not want a mass murderer like Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction. We do not want the worst killer in the history of the world, that has been the worst killer of Muslims, one of the worst mass murderers ever known, we do not want him to have those weapons. We know this individual has gassed his own people, 60,000 people in one incident; and, thank goodness, yesterday we drove a stake through the heart of his lead officer in charge of those kinds of programs, those programs of ricin, of nerve gas, of mustard gas. He died yesterday. We drove a stake through his heart, and Saddam Hussein is not far behind. So, sure, we have self-interest. We know what would happen in Iraq. If we did not handle Iraq today, it would be North Korea tomorrow. We realized in this generation, through the leadership of our President, and, frankly, through the leadership of most of us on this House floor, we recognized the time to stand up, the time to fight, had arrived. We were not like the French, that said negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. We were not like the Germans, that, for political purposes, for self-serving political purposes for the office of the president, ran and hid. The United States stood up, and our men and women stood up; and we stood up, as I said, not just for our own self-interest and the interests of the world to rid them of this person, but we stood up for the values of freedom, the values of democracy, the values of just fundamental, basic human rights for the people of Iraq. We stood up for the people of Iraq. It is the American soldier, the British soldier, even the Polish soldier and the Australian soldiers, that got out of that foxhole and have come into Iraq to give the people of Iraq the basic and fundamental principles of human rights, of human decency, of freedom, freedom of some expression. We have got an awful lot to be proud of. And this rescue over the last few days, man, am I proud of those people. Look at these soldiers here. They went to work. And look at the success, the successes that we have had. Sure, we are going to take more casualties. This thing is far from over. And we will rebuild this country. Not under the guidelines of the French, not under the guidelines of the Germans, not under the guidelines of the Russians or the United Nations, but under the guidelines of the United States, of the British, for a short period of time, and then under the guidelines of the people of Iraq. This Nation and our willing coalition will allow the people of Iraq, for the first time in many, many, many moons, for the first time in many, many, many years, to allow the people of Iraq to have a real government that represents them, a government of the people, by the people and for the people. And that would not have happened, that would not have happened if nations throughout this world had not been willing to stand up at the sacrifice of losing their own people. That would not have happened had we and that willing coalition not stood up. Imagine where we would be, imagine where the people of Iraq would be, 5 years from now had this willing coalition not stood up. Imagine where we would be, just like Chamberlain should have imagined where we would be in 1938 with Hitler. Imagine where we would be 5 years from now if we followed the French philosophy or the German philosophy in dealing with the country of Iraq and dealing with other problems throughout the world where we have tyrants that have in their hands weapons of mass destruction. And they have used them time and time and time again, and they have continued to defy international law and they have continued to defy the international community. We are on the right track. We are fighting for the right cause. We have not only the finest military in the world, we have the finest military in the history of the world, and every member of our military, whether you are stationed domestically, whether you are sitting out there on a ship, whether you are in transit, whether you are in South Korea, whether you are in the Philippines or Kuwait or Iraq, every member of the armed services of the United States of America can wear that uniform proudly. And I want every one of you to know that my colleagues, all of us here, we are so, so deeply indebted to and so proud of you. The symbol of what you will carry to the next generation is that this Nation is willing to stand up for what is right and stand against what is wrong. There is a lot to be said in that message. And that rescue this weekend, it made all of us feel good. But take a look at what it meant on a broader basis. That is what we are doing for the Iraqi people. We are freeing the Iraqi people. We are going to bring stability to that country. We are going to bring economic bliss. These people are going to get to enjoy material things we take for granted in this country. And it is in large part due to the leadership of our President, and in large part due to the dedication and sacrifice of our military forces, and in large part, in large part due to the patriotism of America to the average Joe and the average Jane on the street that say, America will stand for what it believes, America will help its allies, America will help its friends, America is a country that will go into history, into the future as well as our past, as the finest country in the history of the world. And I am proud of it, and I am proud to have that bumper sticker on the back of my pickup, ``America: Love it or leave it.'' I want to mention a couple of other things. I am not trying to trivialize or treat lightly the difficulties that we have had with the French. I know that lately there have been efforts to change the word from ``French toast'' to ``freedom toast,'' or figure out some other name on the menu, and not to do this or that with the French, and I understand that. There is a lot of anger back here. There is a lot of anger with the American citizens about a country like France. It is kind of a luxury society. They get the benefits. They get the benefits of a lot of security that is provided by their neighbors. They get the benefits of a capitalist economic society. But they get the luxury of never having to come out of the foxhole. But I have got to tell you, last week I did become aggressive in one area dealing with French products. I found out, and for the sake of open disclosure, my district is in the mountains of Colorado. We have a community in Colorado named Marble, Colorado, for obvious reasons, there is a marble quarry up there in that community. That quarry has provided marble for many things, including some of the steps here at the Capitol, many of the monuments, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is a very fine marble. In discussing a call instituted by them, in discussions with some of the people in this company, which, by the way, is owned by the Swiss, and the other marble company in this country, there is one owned by the Italians, they said, ``Geez, do you know who supplies the tombstone for the Department of Defense to put over the graves of our fallen soldiers?'' Of course we did not. The French. When I heard that, I took it personally. I think it is wrong. I think it is inappropriate, considering what the French Government has done to this country, how they have kicked sand in the face of their friend; how in a time of adversity, they put their ship safe in the harbor and threatened our ship out there and our willing coalition. We can handle it without them, but they left us. They left us when it was the most important time for them to be with us, that is when they left us. Now I find out that our Department of Defense is purchasing the tombstones that we place over the graves of our fallen soldiers from a French company. I have asked the Department of Defense, as the contract comes up for renewal in July, at least the Swiss were neutral, and the Italians are part of the willing coalition. The Italians have been a great country. They understood the evil we are dealing with. These are the kinds of countries that should be rewarded, not the French. It is the same thing when we go and rebuild Iraq. The French should not be rewarded for their belligerent attitude, for the fact they hid as far down in the foxhole as they could get from the tough fight taking place outside the foxhole. So I wanted to explain to some of my colleagues, this is not just trying to take a cheap shot or for some other reason to bring out this issue. The fact is, American soldiers should not be buried under tombstones purchased from a French company. I want to visit for just a few moments, and then probably the most exciting part of my comments tonight are some of the letters that I want to read to you from some of our soldiers, some of the thoughts about this conflict, this war we are engaged in. First of all, I think the protests in this country, the anti-American troop attitude, the expressions by Presidential aspirants that we need a regime change, and some of our colleagues on this House floor way over on the left side, objecting to what is happening here, that is not representative of the majority of the people of America. I do not take away, to an extent, I do not take away the right for debate. I think it is so fundamentally important for the checks and balances of our country. I do not take away, even if I disagree, I do not take away the right, if somebody disagrees with me, to debate on this floor or to walk in a protest. But as my colleagues know, there comes a point in time where we as a team must act together. There is a saying around here: politics ends at our country's borders. In other words, in Congress, we have always said, look, when we go to battle outside, like a family, like a family dispute, when we step outside the family home, when we step outside the borders of this Nation, we must act as a Nation. We must act as a family. We must speak as a family. Let the politics and the debate stay within our borders. Unfortunately, a small number of people, especially when we consider it in proportion to the population of this Nation, or if we consider even a more accurate number, if we consider the number of protests in proportion to the percentage of this country that supports our forces and supports the difference between right and wrong and the just cause of which we are engaged, it is minuscule. These protestors are really not representative of the majority of America. I want to tell my colleagues, where they cross, in my opinion, where they cross the line of patriotic and unpatriotic. I do not think that one can say somebody is unpatriotic, for gosh sakes, because they protest. I do not think that is unpatriotic. As I have said earlier, there is freedom of speech. But there is at some point where one carries that protest to that line or one crosses that line where it does cross the line between being patriotic and unpatriotic. And let me come back to my remarks that I made at the beginning, and that is those protesters, disgraceful, what they have done. Those protesters, and I have pictures of it right here, those protesters that carry signs out there that say, we support our troops, we support our troops, as long as they shoot their officers. Those are the kinds of people that my bumper sticker applies to. If you do not love America, get out of it. Leave America. And I am not ashamed, I am not concerned about standing up here and saying to my colleagues, in my judgment, and I think in the judgment of many people of this country, it is unpatriotic for one to stand out there when our forces, when our young men and women throughout this country and overseas, overseas actually taking bullets or being scared to death or being asked to carry out a mission so that we have the freedom to protest, that one would dare have the audacity, the unpatriotism to carry a sign that says, ``I support our troops as long as they shoot their officers.'' Those people, in my opinion, have no place in our society. They do not, thank goodness, carry behind them much support. It is very limited. But it is so disgraceful in its public display, so disgraceful in its public display that I come to the House floor this evening to condemn as unpatriotic that particular sign and those people who do not support the troops of America. In fact, every protester out there, many people, by the way, who I would describe as luxury, the life of luxury. They are not taking bullets. They are not worried about their security. We all go to sleep tonight not worried about our security. We all go to the grocery store tomorrow not worried about whether there is food there. We have less worry about medical conditions than other people in the world because we have such a fine medical establishment. We do not worry about whether our kids have a school to go to in the morning. We really have a life of luxury. But that life of luxury in large part is given to us by the dedication of the American forces, by the dedication of the American forces that are willing to risk everything they have, including their own lives, so that we have that life of luxury. It is my humble opinion that when those forces hit the field in combat, that the signs of protest ought to go down and those signs that ought to go up is ``God bless the American forces.'' God bless our men and women who are willing to go out there, not for their own self interests, but for the interests of the country that they love, for the interests of America. For the interests of America's interests. For the interests of America's allies. For the humanity, for the interests of humanity; in the interest of freedom, of freedom and the export of freedom. They are willing to go out there and put their lives on the line. We know, we know, many lives, many lives have now been lost in the last couple of weeks as a result of carrying that torch, the torch of America's gift to its people, and the gift of its people to America, and that is freedom and democracy. Yet we have people, people in our own circle, people in our own camp that not only do not help gather firewood for the fire, but have the audacity to carry a sign, carry lots of signs that say, we support our troops when they shoot our officers. That is going too far. That is going over the line. I know when I get back to my office this evening I am going to have lots of phone calls, primarily from these kinds of people, yelling at me that I am an unpatriotic American. How dare they, as if I have no freedom of speech, but how dare I question their motives when they carry a sign that says ``We support our troops as long as they shoot our officers.'' Well, I say to them, save your time. It is a waste of a phone call. Instead, think of that bumper sticker that I have on the back of my pickup: ``America, love it or leave it.'' The intensity that I feel is not just with me. We see that throughout this country. People are so proud today to be Americans and our military people are so proud of their Nation and so proud of being in uniform for this country. I was at a high school not too long ago and at the high school one of the students asked me, he said, are they going to bring back the draft? I said, the draft, now that we have a little time out of the draft, we now realize it was probably the worst mistake we ever made in this country. Why? Because in the draft, keep in mind, we did not offer any choice. We would go to young men and women who had just gotten out of high school, maybe had started a career, say, being a mechanic, something that they really wanted to be, or going to college or doing something they really wanted to do, and all of a sudden their government was knocking on their door saying, whether you want to or not, you are being drafted, you have to leave your home, we are going to send you out in the military forces and we may have you painting ships or doing something they despise. Do you think our military is happy? Do you think morale in the military is good when we have a draft? It is not. What we have today is a different concept; and if you go back and look at the history in the articles about getting rid of the draft and so on, nobody estimated just what a tremendous success it would be, getting rid of the draft and having an all-volunteer force, men and women who want to serve this country, men and women who want to put that uniform on. Men and women who wanted to be where they were going to be sent by our Commander in Chief. I think we are going to see that reflected by any number of letters that I have right here, and I want to take a few minutes to read some of them. Our military, the morale in our military is as high as it has ever been, in part because of their deep, deep dedication to this country that has been so good to them and so good to all of us, in part because of the leadership of our Commander in Chief, and in smaller part because of the leadership of the United States Congress and elected officials and leaders throughout this country. We have come together as a family. We have spoken with a very strong voice, a voice that is recognized wherever those Stars and Stripes fly. Now, granted, we should not be distracted for very long by a few small groups of protesters that have, in an unpatriotic way, in a belligerent fashion, carried signs that say, ``We support our troops, as long as they shoot their officers.'' I have really been moved by some of the letters that we have seen. I wanted to read a couple of them. I think they are so neat. As I have said before, I do not like to read from written text, but these are not my letters. These are letters that I am passing on to my colleagues. Let me start: ``We are the proud parents of two United States Marines.'' By the way, at one of my events this weekend, I met the mother of two proud, I am not sure if they were Marines or Army officers or a mixture. Boy, was that mother proud. She stood up in front of this group, and she said, please, the best message I can take back to my sons, a son and a daughter, the best message I can take back to my children is that we in this country understand why they are fighting, that we in this country support what they are doing for us. She said, that is all that is necessary. You do not need to send a care package. She did say prayers, but she said prayer, and let them know that we understand why they are there and that we too have the deep faith in them and the love for this country that they have. It is pretty moving. ``We are the proud parents of two U.S. Marines. We will not bother discussing our political views, one party versus another. What we will say is we do not want our sons nor any of our sons and daughters, husbands, wives and grandchildren in our extended military family to die in vain. Like most, we pray for peace, but we are sick, literally sick. Why? Because we lived through the Vietnam era and saw firsthand how our vets were treated. We are so afraid it is beginning to happen again, and we are not alone. Nor are we the only ones who believe with all of our heart that the key to winning any war on terrorism will depend on how we here at home emotionally support our troops, regardless of politics. Vietnam proved how we defeated ourselves by the way we divided our own Nation and treated our troops. We never lost the battle in Vietnam, we lost the battle on the political front. We are beginning to lose again and the bullets have yet to fly.'' Now, I should note that this letter was written prior to the engagement of the conflict, about 3 weeks ago. I would also note that the mother who wrote this letter is today, I am sure, so, so proud of the overwhelming patriotism and support that is being shown by the American people for her two proud Marines and all of those who have chosen to serve in our military. ``Our sons did not choose to become a United States Marine to kill people. They had dreams of a career, of travel, and of protecting us from the terror of things like 9-11 so that it would never happen again. Both our sons are the best sons a parent could pray for. The thought of having someone throwing animal feces on our military when they finally return home, hearing nothing but negative media about how Americans hate them and the war, and the thought of what we would do to the servicemen and women's spirit scares military families to the point of sleepless nights. The media, stronger than the White House itself, can help change that fear, can help it from becoming a reality. Everyone is quick to show the protesters out marching. What has been done to show those who support our troops? We are not marching on the streets, we are not screaming clever chants, we are not holding up signs or throwing blame or calling names. No, we military families, we are at home. We are boxing care packages to our service people. We put yellow ribbons on our doors, on our trees, on our car antennas, Blue Star flags in our windows. We pray 100 times a day and light a candle. We are sending birthday cards, thank you notes of cheer to the members of the service whom we have never met, nor may ever, because they are our extended family in that military force. ``They need to know amidst some of this bad publicity, there are those of us who are grateful for their choice and sacrifice for us to live in the land of the free, and it is because of the brave that we have the land of the free. You may never read that in the headlines. So what can be done?'' And she goes on to talk about how we can come together in our communities in their prayer and in their showing of support for our soldiers. And keep in mind, it is not just the soldiers that are on the front. Think of all of the supplies, all of the logistics that have to happen from people across this Nation, soldiers and citizens, civilian military employees, the prayer from us. Look at all the supplies that have to be put together. Look at all our medical personnel. In Washington, D.C., we have servicemen, and when I say that, servicemen and servicewomen, we have service people who are now recuperating in our hospitals here in Washington, D.C., at our military hospitals. There are a lot of heroes out there. I get the deep sense in this country that this country has responded totally opposite of the response that we saw in the Vietnam-era war. This country has come to its feet. This country will recognize and has recognized, and will greet with great cheer and great love and great pride our American soldiers when they come home. This lady's concern about the Vietnam era and the way those service people were treated should be of no more concern. We have a few pockets of poorly educated, unpatriotic people who carry signs that the best way to support troops is to shoot their officers, but such a small fraction. We have a massive, massive amount of people that will stand in respect to these military people for the job that they have done and for the job that they will do not only today, but in the future. Let me move on to another letter. This one is from Petty Officer Lance Herdon of Brandon, Mississippi. I am just taking out a part of the letter. Frankly, some of the letters have some pretty emotional, private stuff for the family, but with this, I do not think they have objection to it being read. From the petty officer: ``As far as questions about the protesters, yes, I am angered about the protesters. But, that is why we are here. We are the very ones that give them the rights to speak freely. I still don't understand how the very people who speak so badly about us and what we are out here trying to preserve are the ones who use it the most. ``To answer your previous questions, I did watch the President's speech. There was about 20 of us glued to the television screen on the bridge. I don't understand what is left to show people. What I mean by that is the fact they have mass weapons of destruction and they refuse to destroy them. So that means that they could inflict serious harm on surrounding countries. Why should we not help the surrounding countries? I completely believe in liberating the people of Iraq. Give them one thing that we most often take for granted . . . freedom.'' This 19-year-old petty officer says, ``Give them the one thing that we most often take for granted . . . freedom.'' It is something that is overlooked, a major right we hold as Americans. ``For everyone in Mississippi--keep on keeping on. Everyone's support has been monumental so far. There are a lot of people that think that this is not necessary, but I think of it as a responsibility to mankind.'' This is coming from a 19-year-old petty officer. ``I think of it as a responsibility to mankind.'' The key word is freedom. ``I think that it is ironic that Abraham Lincoln was famous for freeing the slaves 200 years ago. I am on the USS Abraham Lincoln trying to free the people of Iraq. I am surprised no one else has said anything to that effect.'' It has been said, petty officer. ``I don't see how anyone cannot want to free the people of Iraq.'' Another one here from a desert battlefield far from home, a U.S. military officer sent his wife a love letter describing how his wedding ring has soothed him. It reminded him of her, although they are many miles apart. ``Every day I find myself fidgeting with my ring. The smoothness of its surface calms me,'' Captain Scott Smith wrote to his wife, Kelly. ``I can't fully describe what I'm feeling. I'm no poet, but its lightness, its beauty remind me of you. Its hardness is a sign of your strength. Love, you are my rock. You are what I live for.'' Think of the sacrifice, not only of these military men, but the military families, these young wives or husbands whose spouse is out there fighting for us. Think of the emotions. Do Members remember the songs from World War II? ``I'll see you in all the old familiar places,'' or ``Kiss me once and kiss me twice,'' that kind of stuff, it is all there. The love for these troops is so deep and so intense, as reflected by letters like this. Here is another letter: ``Army Pfc. Favio Melendez, Jr., with the Patriot unit from the 108th in Fort Bliss, Texas. He wrote to his wife: ``Dear Babe, my journey back home is about to begin. The war would've been halfway over by the time you get this letter. I love you and miss you. If anything happens to me, remember I'll always love you. I'll always be with you. Tell everybody back home thank you for the letters and for the prayers. I'll see them soon. ``Tell my parents they have raised a proud American son. Tell my sister to achieve her goals, for I have fought for them. Pray for those soldiers who have lost their lives for our freedom and pray for those who continue to fight to make the world a better place. ``I made a promise to you before I left, that I shall return . . . it's rough and tough out here, but I'll keep that promise. ``Take care of our son, and let him know who his daddy is. I'll see you soon. P.F.C. Melendez.'' Here is another one, Brian Waninger to his wife Melena. ``Today has been eventful, as you can imagine. We are all fine. Have a prayer chain started. I know that it works. Pray for the President. He is a brave man to have made these decisions and I am sure that he will face adversity. He will need a lot of support to stay strong. I say, get the wives together and protest the protesters. The men of Charlie Company are in good spirits and proud to be here. Pass it on. I love you and you are on my mind constantly. Love, Brian.'' I want to mention another one. This is an obituary. There is one line in the obituary that really stuck out. ``George A. Fernandez, 36, a member of the Army's Special Operation Command, died Wednesday after being shot in northern Iraq, the Defense Department said.'' Think of this statement. This statement comes from his family. Think of the strength of a family to stand up and say something like this. They said he was the third generation of his family to serve as a senior noncommissioned officer. ``He served not only out of a sense of family obligation, but out of a sense of patriotic duty. He loved America and he was proud to be part of the Special Operations community.'' Fernandez was a native of El Paso, and he gave his life for the greatest country in the history of the world. I want to mention another group of people out there, and then start to conclude this. There is another group of people out there that are not even American citizens. They are called foreign nationals. Now, I know that it is real easy to bash illegal immigrants, and lately there has been a lot of that. A lot of it is deserved, I understand the debate. I am not trying to take sides in a debate, here. But I am saying that there are people who are not even citizens of this country who believe so strongly, who believe so strongly in the American dream that they have enlisted in our forces. Now, somewhere around the range of 10 have given their lives, have been killed in the line of duty fighting for the United States of America, even though not citizens of the United States of America, because they believe in the principles and the values and the freedom and the fairness and the justice for all. They believe in what our great country has done for its people, and more importantly, more importantly, these people believe in what our country has done for the world and has done for others, our neighbors. A Guatemala native put off college to join the Marines. Lance Corporal Jose Gutierrez, 22 years old, rifleman with the Marines, born in Guatemala, held permanent U.S. resident status which he obtained in 1991. Those people, those foreign nationals who signed up to serve in our military, those foreign nationals who have made the ultimate sacrifice, we need to know that the respect of this country goes well beyond our borders; that there are people throughout this world that would do anything to become American citizens, to help further the dream that our forefathers had when they first put this country together. Lance Corporal Jose Gutierrez was one of those. By the way, I should tell the Members that the United States now, in recognition of his sacrifice, made him in citizen of the United States. I want to put up one other poster. This is called ``Freedom''. I want Members to know I did not author this, but Fred Thompson, a U.S. Senator, former United States Senator, has a TV commercial, or has put this on the TV. I am not sure who the author is, but I did not do it. I think the words are so explicit and say so much. In conclusion of my remarks, I wanted to read a letter, but I wanted to go through this. Just go through with me. ``Freedom ``It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. ``It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of press. ``It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech. ``It is the soldier who serves under the flag who defends the protester's right to burn the flag. ``Isn't it time now to demonstrate that we support our troops? Were it not for the brave, there will be no land of the free.'' Finally, I want to conclude with a letter. This letter was written to ``Mom''. The young man is from the State of Nevada. This letter was actually published in a newspaper. ``Dear Mom, it's really your decision to march if you want to or not. You are the one who has to decide if what we are doing out here is right or wrong. My opinion is not yours. ``I do, however, have things I would like for you and Grandma and everyone else at home to know. ``I am a United States soldier. I was sworn to defend my country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. People may not agree with the things we are ordered to do. I would like to address those people by telling them that terrorism is not a threat to us as Americans but to many other innocent people in the world. ``What type of country would we be if we didn't defend the rights and freedoms of others, not because they're Americans, but how about just because they're human? ``We live in a country where people feel secure with their daily lives. They do business like usual and don't worry about the thought of terrorism actually happening to them. ``The people of 9/11 thought the same thing. We now know that it can happen to anyone at any time. ``Yet as Americans we're afraid of losing our soldiers to defend our security. I can only speak for myself when I say that my life is an easy expense to ensure that my family and my friends can live in peace. ``I strongly believe in what we are doing and wish you were here to see for yourselves the honor and privilege that American soldiers aboard this ship are feeling, knowing that we are going to be a part of something so strong and so meaningful to the safety of our loved ones. Then you would know what this potential war is about. ``We will stand tall in front of terrorism and defeat it. We as soldiers are not afraid of what may happen. We are only afraid of Americans not being able to understand why we are here. ``I ask for your courage as Americans to be strong for us; I ask for your understanding in what we believe is right. I ask for your support in what we are sworn to do: defend our country and the life of all. ``We will succeed in our task and we will end the threat of terrorism in our backyard. We will also end the threat of terrorism in our neighbors'. ``We have to remind ourselves of what this country stands for: life, liberty, and justice for all. In order to maintain those rights, we have to stop this threat. I am proud to be here. I will be coming home, but not until I know that it is safe for all Americans and for everyone that I love. ``My family is first. My country is where they live. I will defend it.'' This is a 20-year-old Navy corpsman, 20 years old and writes like that. It is with a great deal of pride that I have that bumper sticker on the back of my pickup, ``This is America: Love it or leave it.'' I want all of my colleagues, when they go back, to know that the belief and support of the American people is behind the military forces of America; that by far the greatest majority of Americans feel good to be Americans. They feel proud of this Nation, and they not only feel honored by our troops, they feel that our troops are acting for a noble purpose. And they see these troops as real heroes, not sports celebrities, not famous people, not Hollywood actresses but as real true heroes. And there frankly are a lot of people who have put down their signs in protest and have picked up signs supporting our force. Those people who are carrying the disgraceful sign that they support our troops as long as they shoot their officers are a disgraceful bunch. I guess you get some bad apples in every bushel. But the fact is we live in the greatest country in the history of the world. And I, for my own small part, feel very, very privileged, very privileged to have been born or to be a citizen or to have as fellow citizens people who have come into this country in the United States of America. Just take a look at the last words we have got: ``Were it not for the brave, there would be no land of the free.''

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I stand before you today to honor a young man tragically taken from us while in the service of his country. Last Monday, Marine Corporal Randal Rosacker, a native of Alamosa, Colorado, was killed while serving in the conflict in Iraq. I am truly humbled to honor him before this body of Congress and this Nation. The sacrifice of Randy and his fellow Marines will be long remembered by our grateful Nation. Randy was the oldest of three children and was known as a born leader. In High School, his teammates voted him captain of the baseball team. Randy had always wanted to become a marine and joined when he turned 18, despite scholarship offers to play college football. By doing so, Randy was upholding the finest military traditions of both his family and this Nation and I know Randy's family and friends take pride in the uniform he wore and the ideals for which he fought. Our Nation will long endure due to the strength and character of men and women like Randy who serve our country. Each generation must renew its commitment to defend our liberties. Today in Iraq, a new generation of young Americans is fighting bravely for freedom's cause. I know that those who seek the true meaning of duty, honor, and sacrifice will find it in dedicated servants like Marine Corporal Randal Rosacker. Mr. Speaker, I cannot fully express my deep sense of gratitude for the sacrifice of this young Marine and his family. Throughout our history, men and women in uniform have fought our battles with distinction and courage. At the dawn of this new century, the United States military has once again been called to defend our freedom against a new and emerging threat. Marines like Randy embody America's determination to lead the world in confronting that threat, and Marine Corporal Rosacker's devotion to that cause will not be forgotten. Randy has done all Americans proud and I know he has the respect and admiration of all of my colleagues here today.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Ben Berlinger of La Junta, Colorado. Ben has worked with the Natural Resource Conservation Service for over 25 years, and I would like to recognize his accomplishments before this body of Congress and this nation. Ben started his job with Natural Resource Conservation Service in 1975, becoming an area rangeland management specialist in 1981 when he moved to Eastern Colorado. He has served in La Junta for 14 years, working with his agency and local ranchers and agricultural producers to ensure good rangeland management and to develop and implement sound technology on grazing land resources. This year NRCS named Ben its rangeland Conservationist of the Year, one of two national awards presented by the agency. Ben was nominated for the award by co-workers and still attributes much of his success to them and to the ranchers with whom he works. Mr. Speaker, rangeland management is a significant challenge facing the West and Ben Berlinger has tackled that challenge head-on. He has done much to promote awareness of conservation issues and to promote good stewardship of Southeastern Colorado's grazing land. His dedication is an inspiration to others and an immense benefit to his community. I thank him for his efforts.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I rise today to honor the memory of Joe Coors--a man of unmatched dedication to his family, his community, and his beliefs. Joe died recently at the age of 85, and as his family mourns this loss, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge his life before this body of Congress and this nation. Joe is a legend in my home state of Colorado and indeed across America. His grandfather, Adolph Coors, founded the Coors brewery in 1873. Joe began his career as a chemical engineer when his grandfather's company in Golden, Colorado was a small operation producing 300,000 barrels a year. He returned to Golden to begin working at the brewery in 1946, helping to develop the signature Coors cold-filtration process and eventually pioneering use of the aluminum can and the nation's first large-scale recycling program. When Joe retired from his job as chief operating officer in 1988 after 41 years of service, Coors had grown into the nation's third-largest brewer. In addition to his role as a business leader, Joe was an active American citizen. In the 1970s he helped to found the Heritage Foundation, an influential think-tank and actively worked for other conservative groups and causes. Among the organizations he supported were the Independence Institute in Golden, Colorado and the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm. In the late 1960s, Joe served for 6 years on the Board of Regents for the University of Colorado. Throughout his life, Joe boldly fought for what he believed in; never for recognition but simply because he thought it was right. Mr. Speaker, we are all terribly saddened by the loss of Joe Coors though we take comfort in the knowledge that our grief is overshadowed by his legacy of success and accomplishment. His life is the very embodiment of the American dream, and I am deeply honored to be able to stand before this body of Congress and this nation to recognize Joe's life and many accomplishments.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Robert Ogburn and thank him for his extraordinary contributions to both the 12th Judicial District of Colorado and the greater San Luis Valley. Judge Ogburn officially retired from his job as a District Judge in January after more than twenty-six years on the bench. Today I would like to honor Judge Ogburn's long and distinguished career of service to his community before this body of Congress and this nation. Judge Ogburn began his legal career in the Army's Judge Advocate General's office. In 1966 he entered private practice and later served as a District Attorney. Judge Ogburn was appointed to the bench in 1976, at the same time taking over duties as District 3 Water Judge. The longest tenured judge on the 12th Judicial District bench, Judge Ogburn presided over many of the major San Luis Valley water cases in the past quarter century, as well as the area's high-profile criminal cases. In addition to his career on the bench, Judge Ogburn has offered his time and talent as a teacher at the National College of Court Trial Judges in Reno, Nevada and at Adams State College. He was one of only about thirty judges from across the United States to attend an advanced seminar in Anglo-American Jurisprudence at England's Oxford University in 1988. An amateur historian, Judge Ogburn has authored numerous articles for historical journals and serves on the boards of both the San Luis Valley Historical Society and the state historical society. He and his wife, Ann, have been married over forty years and have three children and six grandchildren. Mr. Speaker, Robert Ogburn is an exemplary servant to his community and to the State of Colorado, and it is with great pride that I recognize his career before this body of Congress and this nation. Judge Ogburn's presence will be greatly missed in the courtrooms of the 12th Judicial District, and I would like to extend to him my congratulations on his retirement and wish him the best in his future endeavors.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's comments. I had said in my earlier comments that preceded those comments about the French and the Germans, I wanted to move from that and talk a little about some of the people out of Hollywood, for example, some of the protesters who in my opinion are spending more time supporting Saddam Hussein than they are the President of our own country. I want to talk about casualties, and I want to just read some letters that I have gotten in the last few days from parents of some of our brave men and women that are over there. Keep in mind that when we talk about the military forces, we should remember that the military forces that are making this happen, that are protecting this country, that are providing the United States of America with the security and frankly with our liberty and as the former Senator Thompson said today, it is the brave soldier who has allowed us, it is the brave who have allowed us to be a country of the free. What I want to point out is throughout this country, today, in the United States there are lots of military people involved in planning, lots of people involved in logistics. In fact, last night just visiting with one of my colleagues, I said, look, somewhere out there in the logistical divisions of our armed services, somebody has got to figure out how to transport 350,000 tubes of toothpaste every 2 weeks, acquire them, package them, ship them and distribute them so all of our service people have toothpaste to use when they want to brush their teeth. There is lots that has to go into the supply line. That leads me into my next comment. Remember, we have only been engaged in this conflict for 7 days. One week. I know there were some people that thought that Iraq was just going to willy-nilly lay down and that Saddam Hussein was going to walk off the scene and that our tanks were going to drive in as fast as they could to the city hall in downtown Baghdad and have coffee. Those people were so optimistic they were unrealistic. We are 7 days into this now, and all of a sudden I note that some of the national media is looking at the most wild, optimistic reports and since obviously we are not driving into downtown Baghdad to the city hall down there, they are saying, what is happening to the United States? Are we faltering? Is the war plan not working? You talk about a misconception. You talk about a diversion to what is really occurring over there. The other thing that we have got to be very careful about are the casualties. Good God, we all know how horrible a casualty is; and we have a lot of people, primarily young men and women serving for our country, and they are on the front line and they are engaged in combat. This war and every war is nasty. As Tony Blair said this morning in his press conference, it is a nasty and bloody business. And that is exactly what it is. But we have become conditioned almost in our society that we can engage in a conflict with minimal or zero casualties. I believe in Kosovo, it was all taken from the air at many, many tens of thousands of feet; and I think the only casualties we had were accidents. Somehow some parts of the American population are believing that you can engage like this, for the right reasons, by the way, but engage in something like this without casualties. I pulled this article out of The New York Times Today by Todd Purdum. Todd put out of some of the statistics. He talks about the calculus of casualties. The Battle of the Bulge in World War II, 19,000 Americans, 19,000 casualties in the Battle of the Bulge. On one single day, September 17, 1862, at least 3,650 Confederate and Union soldiers died on the field. 3,650 in one day. At the height of the Vietnam War, roughly 200 Americans a week were killed. He says: ``Modest as the latest losses are by historical standards of combat,'' speaking of the first Persian Gulf war, the battle with Kosovo and where we are engaged right now, ``modest as the latest losses are by historical standards of combat, they have already prompted sharp shifts in public perceptions about how well the campaign against Saddam Hussein is going, though they have not, according to polls so far, reduced overall support for the war. ``But as coalition forces face unexpected complexities on their march to Baghdad, the administration faces the political challenge of preparing a public lulled by the relatively low losses in Afghanistan and the first Persian Gulf war for a conflict that could be costlier than some optimists predicted.'' That is the point. We cannot assume a self-defeatist attitude because we take some casualties. Imagine if we did not take those casualties today, what kind of casualties we would be passing on to the next generation, because this generation shirked its responsibility, walked away from its responsibility and did not stand up with our allies, which as I mentioned earlier are larger in number than the allies we had in the first Persian Gulf war. Imagine what the casualties would be 10 years from now if we just pass this problem on to the next generation. Iraq would have been, and we are not going to let it happen obviously, but it would have been if we had not taken this action, in 3 years, in my opinion, and I know quite a bit on both countries, in 3 years in my opinion, Iraq would have been another North Korea. How are you going to deal with North Korea? If you think we have a problem dealing with one North Korea, you ought to try dealing with two North Koreas. Thank goodness we have got the gumption, thank goodness we have the persistence, thank goodness we have the resources and the military might and, frankly, the moral belief that this is just and we know it is just, thank goodness we have the ability to go in there and do this and stop this evil thing. It truly is a difference between good and evil. Some people say, you sound like you are preaching from a pulpit. If they knew me very well, they know they would never let me on the pulpit. But first of all let me say to you that it is truly evil we are trying to overcome and there will be casualties. I do not speak lightly of these casualties. I just read about a family whose daughter is missing. She was ambushed. She was a cook, a clerical, the convoy took the wrong turn and drove right into enemy hands. She is missing and that family is going through hell. Every family that suffers a casualty until they find out, one, that their son or daughter is going to make it; or, two, the death of a child, the horror of being in your house and looking out your picture window and seeing a military officer with a chaplain standing there waiting for you to answer your door. This is heavy, heavy stuff. Our President knows it is heavy stuff. The administration knows it. Look at what we have got. We have got Colin Powell. He has been on that battlefield. He knows what we are talking about when we talk about heavy weight and casualties. Dick Cheney, a former Secretary of Defense during the first Persian Gulf war. Condoleezza Rice. Take a look at these people. We know the heavy weight, but we must be prepared as a Nation not to let ourselves when we have 27 casualties, we may have 27 or 29 casualties to this point, that all of a sudden we say, My gosh, things aren't going well. We are not going to be able to accomplish this without casualties. But I can tell you the casualties we take as a result of getting rid of this regime will be a fraction of the casualties we as a Nation, we as the United States and our allies would take if we allowed Saddam Hussein down the route he was traveling for the development of his weapons of mass destruction and his propensity to pass those weapons on to terrorists and so on. I want to just take a couple of moments and read some letters. First I want to read one of my favorite letters. I have noted that many of our international experts whose primary way of making a living are Hollywood actors have all of a sudden rediscovered their expertise in foreign affairs. It is very interesting to put a comparison. For example, Martin Sheen, whom I think got out of high school, to the best of my knowledge has never taken 1 hour of credit in foreign affairs, to the best of my knowledge outside of a good place to make a film has no knowledge of international politics or geopolitical politics is making all the comments that he is commenting. Take his resume and compare it next to Colin Powell. Tell me who knows more about foreign affairs. Yet Martin Sheen and some of his cohorts out there in Hollywood, in Tinseltown out there, are making these opinions. I saw a letter, very interesting, from Charlie Daniels. I thought I would read the letter. It is serious. It is an open letter to the Hollywood bunch. I am quoting Charlie Daniels: ``Okay, let's say just for a moment you bunch of pampered, overpaid, unrealistic children had your way and the USA did not go into Iraq. ``Let's say that you really get your way and we destroy all of our nuclear weapons, stick daisies in our gun barrels and sit around with some white wine and cheese and pat ourselves on the back, so proud of what we have done for world peace. ``Let's say that we cut the military budget to just enough to keep the National Guard on hand to help out with floods and fires. ``Let's say that we close down our military bases all over the world and bring our troops home, increase foreign aid, and drop all trade sanctions against everybody. ``I suppose that in your fantasy world, this would create a utopian world where everybody would live in peace. After all, the great monster, the United States of America, the cause of all of the world's trouble, would have disbanded its horrible military and certainly all of the other countries of the world would follow suit. ``After all, they only arm themselves to defend their country from the mean USA. ``Why, you bunch of pitiful, hypocritical, idiotic spoiled mugwumps. Get your head out of the sand and smell the Trade Towers burning. ``Do you think that a trip to Iraq by Sean Penn did anything but encourage a wanton murderer to think that the people of the USA didn't have the nerve or guts to fight him? ``Barbara Streisand's fanatical and hateful rantings about George Bush makes about as much sense as Michael Jackson hanging a baby over a railing. ``You people need to get out of Hollywood once in a while and get into the real world. You'd be surprised at the hostility you would find out here. ``Stop in at a truck stop and tell an overworked long-distance trucker that you don't think Saddam Hussein is doing anything wrong. ``Tell a farmer with a couple of sons in the United States military that you think the United States has no right to defend itself. ``Go down to Baxley, Georgia, and hold an antiwar rally and see what the folks down there think about you. ``You people are some of the most disgusting examples of a waste of protoplasm I've ever had the displeasure to hear about. ``Sean Penn, you are a traitor to the United States of America. You gave aid and comfort to the enemy. How many American lives will your little fact-finding trip to Iraq cost? You encourage Saddam Hussein to think that we didn't have the stomach for war. ``You people protect one of the most evil men on the face of this Earth, and won't lift a finger to save the life of an unborn baby. Freedom of choice, you say? ``Well, I'm going to exercise some freedom of choice of my own. If I see any of your names on a marquee, I'm going to boycott the movie. I will completely stop going to the movies if I have to. In most cases it certainly wouldn't be much of a loss. ``You scoff at our military whose boots you're not even worthy to shine. They go to battle and risk their lives so ingrates like you can live in luxury. The day of reckoning is coming when you will be faced with the undeniable truth,'' the undeniable truth, ``that the war against Saddam Hussein is the war on terrorism. ``America is in imminent danger. You're either for her or against her. There is no middle ground. I think we all know where you stand. What do you think? God bless America, Charlie Daniels.'' I know that is a strongly-worded letter, but there are a lot of people in America who believe in the price that Americans generation after generation have paid so that many of our friends throughout the world can exercise freedom and can enjoy security away from the type of people like Adolph Hitler who were, by the way, as a result of the last century where our Nation went on to European soils, at least twice on to European soils and have thousands and thousands of American men, primarily men by then, although we may have had some women in the nurse corps, but today it would be thousands and thousands of young men and women. Thousands of men back there in that time period, their bodies are buried on European soils, not because United States had a dog in the fight, but because the United States had a friend in the fight. The United States had a principle in the fight. The United States believes that countries have a right, have a right, to be liberated with freedom, have a right for liberty, have a right to justice. It is the United States of America that has led this world, generation after generation after generation, in striving for equal rights, for rights of people, for the common person, for the American dream, for the ability to travel as we wish, for the ability to go to schools as we wish. It is the United States of America which exports the largest product, the most desired product in the world; and it is the United States of America which is the leading exporter of that product. And what is that product? That product is freedom. It is freedom. And that is what this country is about. The force we have today, we are not in a draft. Some young man asked me the other day in the office, he said, Sir, are we going to get a draft? I said, A draft would be a huge mistake for this country. The reason why we have a force where everybody in our military now is there because they wanted to be there. Our morale is sky high in the military. It does not help to hear Sean Penn or Martin Sheen out there yapping away. It does not help to see the banner in San Francisco that I saw on TV, the banner in San Francisco last week that said ``Be loyal to our troops, have them shoot their officers.'' That does not help the morale of our forces, but fortunately our young men and women who are amazingly mature at their age see beyond that. They want to be there. They want to fight for this country. In that light I just want to read a couple of letters. I am going to read them verbatim. I usually do not like to read, but I do not have this letter in memory. But listen to it: ``Dear Mom, it's really your decision to march if you want to or not. You are the one who has to decide if what we are doing here is right or not. My opinion is not yours. ``I do, however, have things I would like for you and Grandma and everybody else at home to know. I am a United States soldier. I was sworn to defend my country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. People may not agree with the things we are ordered to do. I would like to address those people by telling them that terrorism is not only a threat to us as Americans but to many other innocent people in the world. ``What type of country would we be if we didn't defend the rights and the freedoms of others, not because they're Americans but how about just because they're human? ``We live in a country where people feel secure with their daily lives. They do business like usual and don't worry about the thought of terrorism actually happening to them. The people of 9-11 thought the same thing. We now know that it can happen to anyone at any time. Yet as Americans we're afraid of losing our soldiers to defend our security. I can only speak for myself when I say that my life is an easy expense to ensure that my family and friends can live in peace. ``I strongly believe in what we are doing and wish you were here to see for yourselves the honor and privilege that American soldiers aboard this ship are feeling, knowing that we are going to be a part of something so strong and so meaningful to the safety of our loved ones. Then you would know what this potential war is about. ``We will stand tall in front of terrorism and we will defeat it. We as soldiers are not afraid of what may happen. We are only afraid of Americans not being able to understand why we are here.'' And let me repeat that. This is from a soldier, and, by the way, this soldier, I would guess, is somewhere between 18 and 22 years old. Let me repeat this: ``We are only afraid of Americans not being able to understand why we are here. I ask for your courage as Americans to be strong for us.'' This is a message from the battlefield coming back to us. ``I ask for your courage as Americans to be strong for us. I ask for your understanding in what we believe is right. I ask for your support in all that we are sworn to do: defend our country and the life of all.'' ``We will succeed in our task and will end the threat of terrorism in our backyard. We will also end the threat of terrorism in our neighbor's backyard. We have to remind ourselves of what this country stands for: life, liberty, and justice for all. In order to maintain those rights, we have to stop the threat of terrorism.'' ``I am proud to be here. I will be coming home but not until I know that it's going to be safe for all Americans and for everyone I love. My family is first. My country is where they live. I will defend it.'' Signed by a soldier, 18 to 22. And, by the way, when he says ``potential war,'' he is now engaged in combat on the front line in Iraq. I want to read another letter. Some people would say this is a war against the Muslims or the religion of Islam, this is a war against the Arabs. Keep in mind that there are several Arab countries who hate Saddam Hussein. There are several Arab countries who are assisting our efforts. Take a look at Saudi Arabia. Take a look at Turkey. Turkey, by the way, the only democracy. They are not giving us the help we had hoped, but the fact is they are still in there helping us. It is the only democracy in the Arab world. This is not a conflict about religion. This is not a conflict about America's like or dislike or approval or disapproval of Islam, not at all. And I want to read a letter from some American Muslims: ``Dear Scott, Malik and I want you to know we support the President in our war on Iraq. As American Muslims, we feel strongly that we cannot allow dictators around the world to risk our freedom. If there is anything we can do, please let us know. We hope and pray for the safety and return home of all our soldiers. May they all return home soon. Sincerely, Simi.'' I have another letter, and I do not want to bog us down with these letters, but the message I am trying to relay here is the United States of America is on a mission which is just. The United States of America is on a mission that is not going to be finished in 2 or 3 days. It is not going to be finished in day 7. We are 1 week into this. This is going to be a tough battle. Saddam Hussein has got people in his regime. We did not say we are going to come in and take territory and let his regime continue to rule that country. We have said to that regime, We will replace you. You are out of town. You are out of Dodge. You are done. No more of your regime. They have got nothing to lose but to fight for all the corruption, all the weapons that they have, to fight to the very last person that receives the fruits of that regime. But the people receiving the fruits of that regime are small when we compare it to the people of Iraq that have received the wrath of that regime. The women that have been raped at such young ages, the starvation, the lack of health care, the gassing of their own citizens. Keep in mind years ago in the United States of America at Kent State University, remember that, the protest of the Vietnam War, our National Guard shot four American citizens. I think we killed four American citizens in a riot. This country went crazy, and I will bet if we look back at Martin Sheen, who was probably a little younger there, but I will bet Martin Sheen was leading the protest. How could a country kill its own citizens? How could this possibly happen? And yet today many of these very people, Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, those kinds of people, turn a blind eye towards Saddam Hussein, who in one incident alone gassed 60,000 people; and if any of the Members want to question that, I would be happy to supply them with the picture of the mother and the daughter and I want them to take a look at their faces. They are not the face of a deceased person. They are the face of a person that died a horrible death, and this man is responsible for it. This man has killed more Muslims than any other man in the history of the world. And we have our friends, the French and the Germans, who continually through denial after denial after denial through resolution after resolution after resolution just turn a blind eye. It is like ignoring cancer. If I ignore it long enough, it will go away. It will not get worse. I want to pretend it is not there. I do not want to hear the news they have to tell me. I do not want to go through what it is going to take to fight it. I just want it to go away. Cancer is not going to let us; neither will Saddam Hussein. Thank goodness there are people like the United States and the United Kingdom and the Spanish and the Italians and the Polish and the Hungarians and the Netherlands and the Australians and the Turks and that list goes on to about 45. Thank goodness there are 45 nations in this country willing to stand up to tyranny. Thank goodness those young soldiers right now being shot at, right now while we are talking, right now worrying about whether or not they will be alive in 5 minutes, thank goodness they have the confidence to know that this administration and the majority of the people in this country, 75 percent of the people in this country, are saying to those brave young men and women we are doing what is just, keep up the good fight, we are praying for them and we want them to come home as soon as they can come home and as soon as that mission is completed. And I will tell the Members something. Our resilience will be tested every day of this war. There is a reason that the Arab television network broadcast those American and yesterday those two British soldiers, their dead bodies. There is a reason they broadcast that, because they think they can psych out the American population and the British population by showing a few body bags. They think they can weaken our stomach, and I will say nobody can look at those pictures without a weakening of the stomach. It does weaken our stomach. It is horrifying. But if they think for one moment that that is going to weaken our resolve, do not let it happen. In fact, I can tell the Members for the young military men and women over there, it did not weaken their resolve, it strengthened their resolve. It has strengthened that resolve, and that is why having a volunteer force, by the way, I mean those people want to be there, and watch what happens when these people come home. They are not going to be ashamed of the United States of America and the country that they have fought for and been wounded for and the families who lose their loved ones over there. They are not going to be ashamed of this country. They are going to be proud, and they are going to be proud of our President. Think of the pressure that this President is under. What other President in recent history has gone through what this President has: 9-11, the war on Afghanistan. On some Saturday morning when he is getting up like the rest of us, they call him on the phone and say guess what, the shuttle is missing. We do not know where the shuttle is. They lose the shuttle. Or by the way, Mr. President, we had better take a look at what is happening in Jerusalem. We just had another suicide bomber. By the way, Mr. President, take a look at the economy. For two quarters before you took office, this thing was going bad. It is really in tough shape right now. Oh, by the way, Mr. President, our good friends, the French, of whom we have time after time after time gone to their assistance, you know, the French have a way of starting a fight and then they back out of it and we are the ones that have to go in there. And the Germans, Mr. President, they not only are not going to help us, they actively hired lobbyists. They hired lobbyists and got the equivalent of our State Department to travel around the world to lobby other countries to oppose the United States of America. I will tell you, this President has stood up well. He is a strong leader, and he has got the confidence of the United States Congress, he has the competence of the American people, and he will succeed in his leadership of this mission. I want to read another letter. This is from parents. They sent it out. They write: ``Please feel free to read this.'' This is a Mr. and Mrs. Corey. Land of the free because of the brave. Land of the free, because of the brave. Please support our troops. We are the proud parents of two United States Marines. We will not bother discussing our political views, one party versus another. What we will say is that we do not want our sons nor any of our sons and daughters and husbands and wives or grandchildren in our extended military family to die in vain. Like most, we pray for peace, but we are sick, literally sick. Why? Because we lived through the Vietnam era and we saw firsthand how our veterans were treated. We are so afraid that it is beginning to happen again. We are not alone. Nor are we the only ones who believe with all of our heart that the key to winning any war on terrorism will depend on how we are here at home and how emotionally we support our troops, regardless of our politics. Vietnam proved how we defeated ourselves by the way we divided our own Nation and treated our troops. We never lost a battle in Vietnam; we lost the battle on the political front. We are beginning to lose again, and the bullets have yet to fly. Our sons did not choose to become a United States Marine to kill people. They had dreams of a career, of travel and of protecting us from the terror of 9/11 from happening again. Both sons are the best sons a parent could ever hope for. The thought of someone throwing animal feces at our military when they finally return home, hearing nothing but negative media about how Americans hate them and the war, the thought of what it would do to our servicemen and women's spirit, scare the military families to the point of sleepless nights. The media, stronger than the White House itself, can change that fear, help keep it from being a reality. Everyone is quick to show the war protestors out marching. What has been done to show those who support our forces? We are not marching on the streets, we are not chanting and screaming clever chants. We are not holding up signs. We are not throwing blame or calling names. No, we are at home, boxing care packages to our service people. We put yellow ribbons on our doors, trees, car antennas, blue star flags on our windows. We pray 100 times a day, and we light a candle every day. We are sending birthday cards, thank you letters, notes of cheer, to the members in the service whom we have never met, nor may ever, because they are our extended family in the service. They need to know, amidst all the bad publicity, there are those of us who are grateful for their choice and sacrifice for us to live in the land of the free, because of the brave. You have never read about us in the headlines. So what can be done? What can a community do? The answer is simple. Our community, including our schools, could begin by starting patriotic projects such as write a letter, send a card of encouragement, a mere thank you. In our son's shop alone there are five lonely marines who have no family back home to encourage and send support. Regardless of how one feels politically, our service people need our support emotionally; not ticker tape parades, but support for the job they do. A San Diego columnist quoted a marine as saying, ``comes with a job description of taking a bullet for a mere $14,000 a year.'' Our service people do not make the policy, they follow orders. They chose to join for their own reasons. They all share one common belief, and I want to repeat this, they all share one common belief, and that is that you and I are worth dying for. Think of that. ``They all share one common belief, and that is that you and I are worth dying for.'' The American people need to be reminded of that. It is not a matter of free speech or our President or who is right or who is wrong. It is a matter of starting a better pattern for the future return of our loved ones when they come home, throwing flower petals versus stones, of saying ``thank you'' instead of ``go to hell.'' We hope we can count on you to take up the cause. If you would like to show your support to our troops by sending letters, cards and care packages, it would be most appreciated. May you know you have no need to worry, for our service members have your back covered. Sleep well. I want to repeat that. ``May you know,'' may you know, ``that you,'' you, ``have no need to worry, because our service members,'' our men in the military forces, ``have your back covered.'' These are the kind of letters that, in my opinion, express what is so, so fundamentally important about this country. This Nation truly is the lead country in the world, closely followed by many of our allies like the British, as a country that believes in freedom but understands that freedom requires sacrifice, freedom requires a price. Look at what that says for a Nation like ours, when we have young people, voluntarily, voluntarily join our armed forces to make sure that the people that are not on the front line but that are home will get to enjoy security, liberty, justice for all, freedom. Think about it. It is so important that the time has come for people to put down their signs of protest and raise their signs with simply two words: ``Thank you.'' Thank you. It would not be too much to ask of Martin Sheen to take the tape off his mouth that he had on there yesterday. It wouldn't take too much to ask those people in San Francisco carrying a big banner that says ``support our troops, shoot their officers,'' it would not be asking too much of those people to put down their sign and replace it with a sign that simply says ``thank you.'' It would go a long, long ways. Mr. Speaker, I ask that all of you, all of you, say a prayer to whatever supreme being you believe in, say a prayer for these men and women that are standing on the front line so the rest of us can be back here and feel secure. They are there for the right reason. They are there on a mission. They will accomplish their mission. It is not going to be done in 7 days. There will be casualties. In war, you have good days and you have bad days. You have good days and you have bad days. A weakening of our resilience, a weakening of our resilience, those of us not on the front line, those of us back in this country, that weakening will be sensed by these people. We cannot allow our resolve to weaken. We must stay strong, as we have, and we must send our prayers and our hopes to these young men and women over on that front line. So, Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, once again, I would be awful proud of Martin Sheen and Sean Penn and many of those other people, Julia Roberts, the Dixie Chicks, people like that, I would be awfully proud of them if, just for a change, they would carry that sign that said ``thank you.''

Mr. McINNIS. I yield to the gentleman from Georgia. Recognition of the 173rd Airborne Brigade

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I listened to the previous speaker, and I am curious if the gentleman's preference is tear gas or bullets. I think it is a fair request that it be disclosed, what kind of gas or what kind of chemical might be used, but I think it is somewhat of an exaggeration to say the United States is going to use chemicals like those which Iraq possesses, and those are chemicals like nerve gas, ricin, and anthrax. I can assure the gentleman that the United States has no intention of using ricin, nerve gas, anthrax or those types of weapons. I think it is entirely appropriate, if we enter into urban combat, which we have to expect is going to happen, if we have an opportunity, primarily because the civilian population is in a particular facility, if we can use tear gas instead of putting a mortar into the building, maybe we ought to use tear gas. But for people from foreign countries to stand up and say the United States is using gas, they will be disappointed to find out the type of gas, and I do not know whether it would be used or not, but I think it would make sense to use tear gas if we can disarm and minimize our casualties towards civilians. Keep in mind the United States has done an incredible job on minimizing casualties on civilians. It is interesting to note that the Iraqis care less about their people because they are willing to use their people as human shields than we care about their people. The United States cares enough about their people that on many occasions we will not return fire because of the Iraqi citizen that is being used as a human shield, but not on all occasions. They should not depend on that working every time. They think less of their citizens because they will use them as a shield. We think more of their citizens because we do not want citizen casualties. I listened today to some comments from some of my colleagues, and there are two things that I want to correct. One, this is the United States against Iraq; and two, Europe is opposed to this. In fact, if we look at Europe, Members will find that Jacques Chirac likes to pronounce that France is Europe. France is not Europe. France is a part of Europe. It is not Europe. Jacques Chirac likes to play like he is the king of the kingdom of Europe. Europe has many different countries, and most of those countries in Europe support the United States of America. The United States of America is not acting alone in this action. The United States of America, in fact, has more allies in this action than we had during the entire first Persian Gulf War, not less, more. And on the European continent, look at the countries that are supporting the United States. First, perhaps it is more appropriate to look at the countries that are opposing the United States. There are six, three of them being in Europe: France, Germany, and Belgium. Now look at the countries that are supporting the United States. The British, the strongest ally we have had in a long time, the Italians, the Spanish, the Polish, the Hungarians, the Dutch. I can give Members generally the countries, Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Colombia, the Czech Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Iceland, Japan, South Korea, Lithuania, Macedonia, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Romania. It is not just the United States. It is the United States and the British who are leading the cause, but they have lots of support throughout this world. And when Jacques Chirac speaks about Europe, he ought to be more careful. It is such a sad case in our history that a long-time alliance and friendship with our old friends in France and Germany has been so denigrated by political leaders in Germany and France who are seizing upon popular opinion to use the United States as a vehicle to bash to continue to increase their ratings in the popularity policy. This alliance and this relationship we have had over there has gone way too many years for it to be trashed by Chancellor Schmidt in Germany and Chirac over in France, but they have done a pretty successful job of doing it. I can tell Members in my opinion we would not be engaged in military combat today had the French and the Germans, or had the French and the Germans initially in 1992, in 1993, in 1994, in 1995, in 1996, in fact, after the Iraqis gassed 60,000 of their own people, and not with the type of gas like the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) was talking about, tear gas and so on, gassed them with ricin. They killed 60,000. But what did the French and the Germans do? Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. Let us have meeting, after meeting, after meeting; resolution, after resolution, after resolution. Had the French and the Germans and the country of Belgium, had they decided to get tough back in 1992 or any of those other years, we would not be where we are today. I note that my colleague says the United States started this war. This war was started back in 1991 when Iraq continually defied the world's demand that he disarm those weapons of mass destruction. There is not a country in the world, including the French, by the way, including Germany, there is not a nation in the world that denies that Saddam Hussein has these weapons or denies that he is a wicked guy. But there are a lot of them that want to do everything they can to get rid of Saddam Hussein except fight him. That is where the French fall in place. I think it is important for our population to understand, I think it is very important that there are lots of other reasons that Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Schmidt over in Germany are taking on this anti- U.S. attitude and feeding the frenzy to hate America. Once this gets resolved, take a look at how many contracts the French have with the Iraqis, business contracts. Mr. Speaker, do you know who approved the building of a nuclear plant in Iraq years ago, and the building of a nuclear plant that was justified because they needed it for energy in the country that has the second largest oil reserves in the world? Jacques Chirac approved it when he was prime minister. Take a look at the history that we have connected with this, and we will find out how inherent these conflicts are. How interesting that Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Schmidt are now saying we ought to be the ones that let our contractors go in and rebuild Iraq after this conflict is over. Their decision has a lot less to do with true disagreements of substance with the United States and a whole lot more to do with business agreements and business contracts and oil. Let me say something about the oil situation. Many people talk about this is all about oil. It is about oil, but it is not about oil for the United States of America. If it was about oil for the United States or the British, the easiest thing for us to do, and we could do it in 24 hours, is to lift the sanctions, take off the economic sanctions. I will tell what oil it is about. It is about oil for the French. The French have below-market, large contracts for oil resources from Iraq. That is what it is. If we want to talk about oil, we had better look at the French. I happen to think that once we are successful in taking out this regime and we are rebuilding Iraq, and the oil that is for the people of Iraq and owned by the people of Iraq, I think the first thing we ought to do is make sure that oil is being sold at the market price, and I think we ought to call up Jacques Chirac and say you have been getting a sweetheart deal for a long time. Guess what? You care about the Iraqi people, we care about the Iraqi people, no more sweetheart deals. The French are going to pay the true value for their oil so we are assured that the people of Iraq get the true value for their oil, and it is given to the people of Iraq. That is how we ought to approach this. The same thing with Germany, by the way.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Pastor Ned Amstutz of the First Baptist Church in Durango, Colorado for his extraordinary dedication to the community. After 8 years of service, Ned is retiring from the church, and today I would like to honor his accomplishments before this body of Congress and this nation. After first working as a lawyer and a schoolteacher, Ned found his calling in the ministry and attended seminary in Dallas, Texas. After years of dedicated service, Ned is known as a pastor with boundless energy whose outreach efforts extend to all sectors of the community and support programs such as the Durango Manna Soup Kitchen and a monthly lunch for local business people. Ned's outreach also covers the globe, supporting worldwide missionary programs including one in Belarus, where he once spent time as a guest teacher at a Bible college. Further demonstrating his dedication to Durango, Ned serves as the chaplain for the Durango Police Department, working with both victims and police officers in crisis situations. Mr. Speaker, the work of Ned Amstutz has clearly had a profound effect not only in Durango but throughout the world. Ned's tireless determination is an inspiration to his congregation and to his community as a whole. His energy will be greatly missed at First Baptist and I wish him the best in his future endeavors. Thank you Ned for your service.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Mike and Emily Benedick of Yampa, Colorado for the generosity and dedication to their community that they exhibited throughout their lives. Mike and Emily sadly passed away within a week of each other recently and I join their friends and family in mourning this tremendous loss. It is truly an honor to recognize their lives before this body of Congress and this nation. Mike and Emily were married on June 30, 1928 while Mike was a coal miner in Oak Creek. An avid card player, he spent a great deal of time at his brother-in-law's saloon, The Antlers. Five years later, Mike and Emily were both working at The Antlers, which the couple eventually purchased in 1937. Mike and Emily ran the Antlers Cafe and Bar in Yampa, Colorado for nearly sixty years and saw the Yampa community through the momentous changes of the twentieth century, always providing a comfortable meeting place for the miners and ranchers of the area. The Antlers changed with the times, too, becoming a pool hall during prohibition, and later adding food to the menu. The Antlers was always a place to visit, and any customer knew they would receive a friendly welcome from Mike and Emily. Despite many hardships after World War II in the 1950s and 1960s, Mike and Emily stayed open for business. In 1996, Mike and Emily closed the bar, and it was sold shortly thereafter. However, customers and community members alike recall Mike and Emily as welcoming and warm-hearted people, who were always stern in their ways. Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that we mourn the loss of Mike and Emily Benedick. Their genuine concern and care towards others have truly made a difference in the lives of their family, friends, and community, and they will be greatly missed.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I rise today to recognize Steve and Jeanne Beckley of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The Beckleys are dedicated members of the Glenwood Springs community, and it is my honor to pay tribute to their accomplishments before this body of Congress and this great nation. Steve and Jeanne are the owners of Glenwood Caverns, a landmark tourist attraction in the Glenwood Springs area. Recently, they have expanded the caves into a year-round attraction, beginning construction of an aerial tramway to be completed this spring, which will allow visitors to access the site from Iron Mountain. Their contributions to tourism in Glenwood Springs will help to bring even more visitors to the area. For their efforts, the Beckleys were recognized as Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association's Citizens of the Year for 2002. Mr. Speaker, it is with honor that I commend Steve and Jeanne Beckley before this body of Congress and this great nation for their efforts in the Glenwood Springs community. Their contributions have greatly benefited the people of Glenwood Springs and I am honored to have this opportunity to represent such fine Coloradans. I wish both Steve and Jeanne the best of luck with all of their future endeavors.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Marc and Joan Adler of Glenwood Springs, Colorado and thank them for their contributions to their community before this body of Congress and this nation. The couple is closing the Glenwood Springs pet store that they have owned for over thirty years, and, though their store will be dearly missed, I am happy to congratulate the Adlers on their retirement. Marc and Joan both worked at Valley View Hospital when they first moved to Glenwood Springs in 1971, and decided to open their own business in their living room. The result was the Glenwood Fishbowl, a pet store which built upon Marc's boyhood experience with aquariums. The business grew and moved to downtown Glenwood, where the pet store expanded to include toys. Eventually, the store moved to the Glenwood Springs Mall in 1982, under the name Marc's Toys and Pets. In addition to running their business, the Adlers have been active community leaders, with Marc serving on the City Council and for two years as Glenwood's mayor. Mr. Speaker, it is a great privilege to honor Marc and Joan Adler and wish them all the best in retirement. Their store was a shining example of local entrepreneurship and a cornerstone of the Glenwood Springs small business community for over thirty years. Their kind and dedicated service to their customers will be sorely missed in Glenwood Springs. I congratulate the Adlers on their well-deserved retirement.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I rise today to recognize Darrell Veach of Cortez, Colorado. Darrell is a dedicated citizen and leader of the Cortez community and it is my honor to pay tribute to his accomplishments before this body of Congress and this nation. Darrell is a third-generation stockman and a Korean War veteran who began his career raising sheep before becoming a cowboy. He is well known throughout the community as a good steward of his land and the environment. In addition to Darrell's ranching activities, his service to the local community goes back over thirty years with the Boy Scouts, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Montezuma County Planning Commission, and the Colorado Cattleman's Association. The Southwestern Colorado Livestock Association, of which Darrell is a board member and past president, honored him as its 2003 Stockman of the Year. A proud family man, Darrell shares his love for the outdoors with his children and grandchildren. Mr. Speaker, it is with honor that I commend Darrell Veach before this body of Congress and this great nation for his dedication and leadership within his community. His contributions have greatly benefited the people of Cortez and I am honored to have this opportunity to represent such a fine Coloradan. I wish Darrell the best of luck in all his future endeavors.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, it is with much pleasure that I rise today to honor the accomplishments of Robert Duncan of the San Juan Technical School located in Denver, Colorado. Robert has dedicated his life to passing on his extensive knowledge and experience, providing many students with otherwise unthinkable opportunities. I wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge Robert's dedication and commitment to education before this body of Congress and this Nation. Robert is known for his expertise in automotive technology and his dedication to his students. His recent award recognizes Robert's ability as a teacher, particularly emphasizing the dramatic increases in enrollment in Robert's courses and his success recruiting women into his automotive technology program. Furthermore, Robert has won acclaim for his unique talent for welcoming special education students and helping them excel in the program. Great teachers, like Robert, draw on their own practical experience in order to bring the real world into the classroom. Recently, the State Board of Community Colleges and Occupational Education named Robert faculty member of the year. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand today and recognize Robert Duncan before this Congress and this Nation. We should all express our deepest gratitude to teachers like Robert. They make an enormous difference one life at a time, providing countless students with opportunity and hope. Teaching truly is a noble calling, and Robert has answered that call.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride that I rise today to recognize Casey Brown of Ignacio, Colorado. Mr. Brown has been a dedicated citizen and leader of the Southwest Colorado community and it is my honor to pay tribute to his accomplishments before this body of Congress and this nation. Casey graduated from New Mexico State University and the University of Wyoming with a focus on wool production. After college and a brief teaching stint at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California, Casey returned to the Four Corners area to help his father run their family ranch in New Mexico. Casey has continued to manage the ranch, which now includes a herd of 2,500 sheep and 200 cattle. Casey has always been active in agricultural and community activities, serving as a member of the San Juan County Fair Association, the New Mexico State University experimental station advisory board, the Pine River Irrigation District board, and as the founder of Citizens for Common Sense Government. Additionally, Casey is the past president of the Colorado Wool Growers Association, which recognized him as Wool Grower of the Year in 1993. Among other honors, Casey was the La Plata County Cattleman of the Year in 1992, DACRA Agriculturalist of the Year in 1999, and earned special recognition for service by the National Public Lands Council in 1994. For his significant contributions in the agricultural community, Casey was named the seventh recipient of the Southwestern Colorado Livestock Association's Distinguished Service Award, which honors members who have gone above and beyond in their contributions to the livestock industry. -Mr. Speaker, it is with honor that I commend Mr. Casey Brown before this body of Congress and this great nation for his dedication to his trade and his community. His contributions have greatly benefited the people of the Four Corners region and I am honored to have the opportunity to represent such a fine Coloradan. I wish Casey the best of luck with all of his future endeavors.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Susan Bowler of Craig, Colorado. Susan is the public health nurse manager at the Northwest Colorado Visiting Nurse Association, an organization that serves the health care needs of Routt and Moffat counties. Susan has done much to improve the lives of others in her community, and I would like to take this opportunity to recognize that service and the important role she fills in her community before this body of Congress and this Nation. Susan grew up in an Air Force family and got her first exposure to medicine in hospitals all over the world. She began working with infants in Thailand at local orphanages as a teenager and made infant care a career after receiving her nursing degree. Susan came to Craig in 1992 after 12 years working with newborns in California, ready to retire. Instead, a friend inspired her to join Visiting Nurses. Now Susan is facing the challenges of public health head-on, meeting the needs of the local community. VNA operates programs for child immunization, nursing services to jail inmates, nutrition, and even contributes to Moffat County's response to potential bioterror attacks. Susan and her staff play an invaluable role in maintaining the health of the citizens of northwest Colorado. Mr. Speaker, the role of a public health official is full of challenges and opportunities, and it is a great privilege to salute Susan Bowler before this body of Congress and this Nation for her willingness to take on those challenges. Her dedication to addressing the health care needs of Moffat and Routt counties is an inspiration to others and an immense benefit to her community.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Gary Osier of Rifle, Colorado for his contributions to the health of our Nation's forests as a ranger in the United States Forest Service. Gary has lived and worked in Colorado for over twenty years and, as he celebrates his retirement, I would like to rise before you today to thank Gary for his service before this body of Congress and this Nation. Gary studied forestry under the GI Bill and first accepted a U.S. Forest Service assignment in North Dakota. Spending thirty-two years in the Forest Service, he clearly made a home as Rifle's assistant district ranger. He became an official specialist in forest minerals and an unofficial historian in local Forest Service history. Throughout his career, Gary never shied away from difficult issues as a charter member of the Northwest Colorado Oil and Gas Forum. Though Gary may be retiring from the Forest Service, he will continue his involvement in issues vital to Colorado. Based out of Rifle, Gary and his wife Mary will supply potable water during fire season to active fire camps on national forest lands from Arizona to Wyoming. Filling a need that became evident last summer during the worst fire season in Colorado history, Gary's company, H2Osiers, will also supply water to municipalities and other entities on a case-by-case basis. Mr. Speaker, Gary Osier has served as a steward of this country's forests for over thirty years. The pride and enthusiasm of foresters like Gary are vital to the important role of the Forest Service. Today I stand before this body of Congress and this nation to recognize one of the Forest Service's best. Gary's dedication to serving the forests and communities of the West is a credit to himself and to Colorado. I thank him for his service.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Debbie Ulibarri of Trinidad, Colorado. A teacher at Trinidad State Junior College, Debbie is an inspiration to her students, and a reminder of the important opportunities our community colleges provide. She has done much to promote the importance of higher education in my district, and today I would like to highlight her accomplishments before this body of Congress and this nation. Debbie's story demonstrates the influential role of community colleges in our nation's communities. She arrived on the campus of Trinidad State Junior College in 1992, apprehensive about returning to school after twenty years in the workforce. Debbie found a welcoming attitude at TSJC that assuaged her fears and opened up worlds she had never dreamed of. Debbie earned her GED and two associates degrees at TSJC, and began teaching math in TSJC's Math Lab while still a student there. Debbie went on to earn a Bachelor's degree in mathematics from New Mexico Highlands University and a masters degree from Regis University. As one of the school's success stories, Debbie returned to TSJC as a full-time math instructor. She has been an innovative teacher of algebra, trigonometry and statistics, seamlessly incorporating technology into her classroom and creating on-line classes for students from all over the country. Debbie has also stepped into a leadership role at the college, serving as TSJC's accreditation coordinator as well as the math and science division chair. In recognition of her efforts, Debbie was selected at TSJC's Faculty of the Year. Mr. Speaker, our nation's community colleges are learning centers for a wide variety of both traditional and non-traditional students, helping them achieve their goals. Debbie Ulibarri is a perfect example of how these institutions can help enhance and change a life, and it is a great privilege to salute Debbie before this body of Congress and this nation for her achievements as both a student and teacher.

Mr. McINNIS

Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, at the dawn of this new century, we are engaged in an epic struggle, testing whether this nation, dedicated to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, can defend freedom throughout the world. Many of our nation's brave young men and women have answered the call of service and are currently advancing freedom's cause. Mr. Speaker, at this very moment, Matt Etheridge of Ridgway, Colorado is serving his nation honorably in the war to liberate Iraq. Recently, Matt sent his mother an email indicating his disappointment as a Navy Sailor in the shortsighted demonstrations of anti-war protestors. Below is the text of that letter: Dear America, I am a United States Navy Sailor. I am from Ridgway, Colorado. I have been in the Navy for almost two years. My job here is an Aviation Ordnanceman. My shipmates and I are part of a team that helps to create population control and our profession is landscaping technicians. I have been to 5 different countries, seen 3 different oceans, and have sailed three quarters of the way around the world with 5000 men. I have been away from the people that I love for at least 6 months. When I want to call home it costs a dollar a minute. Sounds great, huh. You should try the food. Could you handle it? Yet I am still proud that I am here doing this for my family and friends. The people that love to have rights, love to be educated and love to have freedom. Did I mention that I am only 20 years old? How many people in America can sit there and say that they have done anything like that and still serve and protect the country? How about only the people that signed on that little dotted line to risk their lives for the things that they truly believe in. Are they scared? What do you think? Of course they are. They have no idea what is going on and how the outcome will be. They have no idea what is going to happen to them or what is going on with their families at home. We are here to keep you safe and help protect all the things that you love so much. Do you (ANTI-WAR PROTESTERS) think that the military is a joke? Are we here just to look good? What are the people in America doing? We are the ones here so that you the people do not have to be. I am not talking about everyone. I am talking about the pussy people that have no idea what it is like to be in our shoes and have no respect for us. What if the war was there? What would you do? Would you pick up a gun and protect your families? If we were not the police of the globe we would be taken over by a man that rapes and de-virginizes little innocent 15 year olds. I really do not care what you are all protesting against. Where do you all get your freedom? The Constitution, but we are the ones that enforce it. I guess you do not like to be free. Do you people really understand what you have? You have no clue. You all have it so good. I think that you all should see some of what goes on in other places. Kids in other countries running around with guns, people burning our national emblem. What kind of barbaric B.S. is that? What would you do if you lost all of your rights? I bet you are glad that we would die for our country and you so that you do not have to live in fear. I would love to see someone go up to one of the men or women in the Marines sitting 5 miles off Iraq and tell him that he is doing wrong. If you all hate America and what is happening, leave, who would really care? That is your ``right.'' If our nation had a draft I bet all you all would tuck tail and run. We sign so that you do not have to. Do you even remember what happened to the people of 9-11? Do you even care? Is that just the past and a memory now? Innocent Americans died trying to make a living. What if you were one of them? I guess we should just stop and let go. Yeah right! Anti-war protesters are all followers. You should believe in life, liberty and justice for all. Not some rich fancy celebrity just because you like his/her show. I saw a 16 year old female on the news. She said that sixth period was not as important as protesting. How would she even know? Has she been to other countries? She should see what we have. Children all starving and buildings in ruins. Yes we have it in the U.S. but not nearly as bad. You are all lucky. We all are. At least you can go out and get a job if you need to. Hello, welcome to McDonalds, may I help you? So here I say: No one really wants to go to war. Sometimes it is the action that we must take. Should we just come home and let the world take us over? Uhhh, NO! Protestors, like yourselves, are the people that get mad if someone cuts a tree down or if we eat a cow. I bet a good number of you drive. STOP! You are polluting the air. I will still drive if I need to be someplace and I like my steak medium-well. Do I care? Yes I do. Our President will make the decision. What he says goes. I respect that and I am ready to do whatever he says and so are all the men and women in the Armed Forces. This is why we are here. When he says ``Go'' we are on our way. That is why we are getting a raise and we deserve it. Who cares if you do not like it? As an Army man said, ``We are the ones here fighting, so really you do not have a say so!'' I am with him. I would like to thank all the people that support us. I know that my Mom is very worried about me but I know she loves and misses me. I love you all so much and I miss you more than anything. To all those who oppose and protest, go ahead and do it, whatever! We know who the real men and women are in the