John Drake: “I came today to talk about the great privilege I had just 2 weeks ago to lead a congressional delegation to Iraq. It was…”

“I came today to talk about the great privilege I had just 2 weeks ago to lead a congressional delegation to Iraq. It was my very first trip. I did not know what to expect. But as we approached the airport and you could look down, all you saw was very brown, very barren, very flat land. I realized as we were coming into Kuwait City that we had done a very, very poor job as elected leaders to tell the American people what our military men and women are doing in Iraq, why they are doing it, the incredible progress that they are making and the consequences not only to Iraq and to the Middle East, to the U.S. but to the entire world if they were to fail. Since this was an armed services trip, our mission was to meet with the troops, to meet with their commanders, to learn more about their mission, to see some of the technology that they are able to use to help them, to hear of their successes and to hear of the problems or things that we as Members of Congress could help them with. The very first person that I met was a young man on that airstrip in Kuwait City as we were waiting to board a C-130. As I was talking to him, he looked up to me and he said, ``Ma'am, don't worry about me. I know what I'm doing and I know why I'm doing it, and I can tell you that there will never be another attack on our nation if I have anything to do with it. So don't worry. Just pray for me.'' And he walked away.…”