Mark Kennedy: “we are hearing two sides of a story here. On one side we are hearing doom and gloom. On the other side from folks like…”

“we are hearing two sides of a story here. On one side we are hearing doom and gloom. On the other side from folks like myself who have had a chance to go over to Iraq, we are hearing a story that there is much more progress there than the press is reporting. There are much greater prospects there if we just take the time to finish the job and invest in this country. And what I would like to do today to try to shed some more light on that is quote from an article that was e-mailed to me by a constituent, a Major Cepleche who is serving in Iraq. I am just going to quote an excerpt from the article, but I will include the whole article in the Record. What it says is: ``Over 3 months after a formal declaration of an end to hostilities, the occupation is bogged down. Fanatical elements of the former . . . regime who, in their zeal to liberate their nation from the foreign occupiers . . . continue to commit almost-daily acts of sabotage against an already-ravaged infrastructure, and attack American troops.'' It also says that many complain of a lack of security, that in the wake of the budding disaster, some have called for more international participation in peacekeeping. It goes on to say: ``. . . It's time to ask whether the people are better off now than they were a few months ago.…”