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“WE MUST NOT ABANDON THE KURDS” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H2234-H2235 on April 21, 2004.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
WE MUST NOT ABANDON THE KURDS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, the casualties in Iraq are a bitter reminder of the truth and consequences of war whether you oppose it, as I do, or wage it, as the President has.
As America grieves over our losses, we should also grieve over the losses suffered by the Iraqi Kurds in a war that went largely unnoticed in this country. In fact, this is not the second Gulf War, but the third in our memory.
After the first Gulf War, America pulled out of Iraq, leaving Saddam to reorganize his henchmen. They did more than take names; they took hostages, and they look lives, thousands of lives. It can happen again.
After the first Gulf War, we established a no-fly zone, but we did not disarm Saddam's Republican Guard, and we did not destroy his lethal helicopter gunships, killing machines used not against Americans, but against Iraqis. The outcome was a blood-drenched record of atrocities. At least 8,000 Kurds were massacred by Saddam and his henchmen after the United States withdrew from Iraq, having urged them to rise up. The Kurds cried out for help, but no one listened, and no one saw.
The war was over, then-President Bush number one declared. Victory was at hand. We marvelled at the stories told, many untrue, of how U.S. technology had spared lives, reduced casualties, and proved America's warmaking superiority. The satellite images showed everything except the coming slaughter of these peace-loving people.
The Kurds represent about 20 percent of the Iraqi population. They have their own language and culture. Although Muslim, they are not Arab. Historically they have lived in the mountainous regions of northern Iraq in an area around Kirkuk. This region holds about 7 percent of the world's known oil reserves. The vast oil wealth represented around Kirkuk has always been a motive for Saddam and other ethnic Iraq groups to act. Remove the oil by removing the Kurds. Saddam used every opportunity to hunt them down and eliminate them. But America is barely aware of the suffering Saddam inflicted on these people.
While the President never found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Kurds would tell you that the President would have found evidence of mass murder. Kurds fear, and we should, too, that it could happen again. Kurds fear, and we should, too, that if the U.S. pulls out on the 30th of June, it will not take long before the killing begins again.
We should never have left the Kurds alone after the first Gulf War, and we must not leave them alone after June 30. The date is meaningful only for the President's political ambitions. We know what happened the last time we pulled out of Iraq. We cannot do it again and silently sanction a new outbreak of unspeakable crimes again the Kurds.
The Kurds deserve liberation. The Kurds deserve protection. The bloodshed we see daily in Iraq reminds us of the country's instability. It should be a warning of the bloodshed that will come if America forsakes its responsibility to Iraq and all the Iraqi people, all the Iraqi people.
We must stay the course. Stay past June 30. Stay until the Kurds are safe, until Iraq itself is a safe place. We owe Iraq and the world nothing less. By declaring war we took responsibility for the future of Iraq. We cannot walk away and throw it open to the chaos that we have created.
It was our warning to the President when we started, winning the war, the military part, that will be pretty easy because we have a tremendous fighting force. But as for establishing the peace, that is where the trouble is. The President never planned for it.
He ignored the State Department's efforts to do that. He ignored everybody's warnings. General Shinseki said it will take 300,000 troops. They said, shut up, and they fired him because he told truth. Anybody who tried to tell him the truth coming into this was discarded or shuffled off or put somewhere else.
We are about to do it again because the President wants to have another sign that says ``Mission Accomplished, Democracy Delivered.'' You could have a little ceremony somewhere and hand some paper around, I guess. It reminds me of a scene in Vietnam when the United States declared victory and left off the roof of the embassy. We must not let that happen again.
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