SENATOR HUTCHISON DISCUSSES THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT

Mr. President, so have I. I, too, have written an op-ed piece that says let's look at a long-term solution. I think we saw from General Petraeus in the last couple of weeks that we should be so proud of our military and what we have done to give security to the Iraqi people. It is not perfect, and it is not finished, but it is so much better than it has been before. Violence is down.

Mr. President, everybody who has been to Iraq, including myself and most Members of the Senate, can see clearly that American forces securing Iraq is not a long-term solution. We must have an Iraq that has an economic and a political solution. I don't think you can have a political solution if you don't have an economy, if people don't have jobs, if they cannot start small businesses, if they cannot take their children to school. You are not going to be able to have a long-term solution without the building of an economy and a political base. That is why I support this amendment, why I am an original cosponsor with so many Republicans and Democrats coming together.

When I hear some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle talking about their view of the war, I differ with them about what we should do militarily. But I do think all of us are coming together to say we should have a long-term solution with fewer American troops in a support role, not a frontline role. The way to do that is to have an economy and political stability.

That is what I think the Biden amendment would suggest. We are not telling the Iraqi people what to do. They passed their own law to implement it. They have a much longer history there than we do. I think we should continue to promote this as a solution. I think we need to do a few other things in conjunction with this. I think we should work more closely with Iraq's neighbors. I think the Bush administration is doing that now. I think the Secretary of State is doing a great job of bringing the neighbors in and saying: You have a stake here, and certainly it is in everyone's interest in the region to have a stable Iraq that is not a terrorist breeding ground.

That should be pursued with the idea that they could also be helpful in regions that would work in a semiautonomous way. It is federalism with states that have their own self-governance.

Dr. Henry Kissinger, in an appearance before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said:

I am sympathetic to an outcome that permits large regional autonomy. In fact, I think it is very likely that this will emerge out of the conflict that we are now witnessing.

Secretary Kissenger went on to say, in a Washington Post op-ed last week:

It is possible that the present structure in Baghdad is incapable of national reconciliation because its elected constituents were elected on a sectarian basis. A wiser course would be to concentrate on the three principal regions and promote technocratic, efficient and humane administration in each. ..... More efficient regional government leading to substantial decrease in the level of violence, to progress towards the rule of law and to functioning markets could then, over a period of time, give the Iraqi people an opportunity for national reconciliation.

Mr. President, our efforts in the Balkans are instructive here. A little over 10 years ago, from 1992 to 1995, the war in the Balkans left 250,000 people dead and millions homeless. The Dayton Peace Accords ended that conflict. The agreement retained Bosnia and Herzegovina's international boundaries and created a joint multiethnic and democratic government charged with a very narrow power--to conduct foreign, diplomatic, and fiscal policy. That is the overarching national government of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

There is a second tier of government there now, comprised of two entities that are roughly equal in size. The Bosniak/Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bosnian Serb-led Republica Srpska. The Federation and the Srpska governments oversee most government functions. Since the Dayton Peace Accords was signed, the guns of Bosnia have been silent. More than a million people have returned to their prewar homes. The success in Bosnia has enabled the number of U.S. troops in the region to decline substantially.

At the end of 1995, there were 20,000 U.S. combat troops in the Bosnia region. I visited those troops seven times. The first time I went into Bosnia it was undercover. We had on flack jackets and helmets because the Serbs were shooting from the hills. In 2006, there were 600 American troops in Bosnia. Today, there are no combat troops in Bosnia.

Mr. President, I think this should be a model for Iraq. I think we could have a national government that divides the oil royalties, that has the diplomatic function that represents Iraq internationally, and the national government could be a mixture, as it is today. But then you would have semiautonomous regions. We talked about it. You have Kurdistan in the north, the Shia area in the south, and the middle doesn't have to be one region. I have heard the disagreements about the ability to put that middle into one region because there are Shia and Sunnis in neighborhood to neighborhood. It will be more difficult, but it is also the best opportunity for a long-term solution.

So why not have smaller units across the middle of Baghdad? Why not have some smaller government with an educational system, with the religious sect that is the majority in that sector?

Mr. President, it is so important that we produce more options. Many of the best scholars in this country, the best writers in newspapers in our country, and many of the best diplomats in our country have said this is a potential solution. Some people in this category have said this isn't our first choice. Our first choice is to be a national government that is mixed--that works. That is all of our first choice. But that isn't the choice we have.

We have to recognize that we could not mold a country so quickly after thousands of years of strife along ethnic grounds. So we have to step back, in my opinion, and ask what could work to stabilize this country so that an economic and a political solution will work. With all of the people who are now saying this is an option that should be on the table, I hear people saying, in the end, that is probably the way it is going to be. That is where I come in and say: In the end? Wait a minute. We have a chance to push for leadership now. We have a chance to bring the others in the region together now, so that the American troops who have done such a wonderful job will have two victories. One is that their mission will be accomplished in the right way; two, all of the sacrifices they have made will not be for naught. We cannot walk away from Iraq. We cannot say it is too tough, we are going to surrender. That would make all of the sacrifices that have been made irrelevant. We cannot do it that way. But we do have a potential solution that can save American lives in the future by cutting down the violence right now, by saying if we can step back into a support role because Iraq is emerging as an economic, political, and stable country, then we will have done right by our American troops. We will have done the right thing for future generations of Americans because we will have stood our ground against terrorists taking over Iraq, and we will do it expeditiously.

We don't need to talk about this anymore. The Iraqis have adopted it in their constitution. They have adopted the implementation of the legislation. With some leadership among all of its neighbors in the region, along with the United States and our allies who have given so much in this cause, we can protect future generations of Americans from attacks. We will have built a stable country, which is what we said we wanted to do when we went in to take out Saddam Hussein, who was abusing his people.

Mr. President, some may call for surrender, but that is not the answer. The answer is to promote a real solution that is a long-term solution; that is, allowing the Iraqis to draw their own regions, where they can grow an economy and a government that works along the Bosnian model, and we will be able to stay strong and do the right thing and listen to what people are saying. But that doesn't mean we have to wait and say, oh, that is what is going to happen in the end. Well, how many American lives are going to be lost between now and the end? Let's allow our American troops to take the support role instead of the frontline role, as General Petraeus has started so ably. Let's do what is right for the Iraqi people and the Middle East region as well because a terrorist haven is not in anyone's interest.

I urge my colleagues to support the Biden amendment of which I am a cosponsor, along with a solid Republican and Democratic list of Members who are willing to stand up and say we want this war to end honorably, we want to complete the mission honorably, and we can do it in the right way. And that is to allow them to create their government, which would have a national overlay. The time is now, Mr. President.

I yield the floor.
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