nia or Kosovo. I keep hearing that the U.S. should not go it alone. Well, the U.S. is not going it alone. There are at this moment 17 other nations in the Coalition Provisional Authority. Moreover, there are more than 32 countries with troops in Iraq today. These include Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Thailand, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, and one or two others that prefer not be mentioned. That is not going it alone. Portugal is at this moment preparing to deploy forces to Iraq as well. Of the 19 NATO nations, 11 have already committed troops to Iraq. We are currently in discussions with 14 other countries that have expressed a possible interest in sending forces. Now, do these equal the total number of U.S. forces? No. Do the contributions they are making financially equal ours? No, they do not. But they do represent a significant military commitment and a political commitment for those nations, and we are, as we should be, deeply grateful to them for their contributions, for their courage, both political and personal, and for their friendship. In Afghanistan, NATO has just taken over the command of ISAF, the Alliance's first mission outside of Europe in its history. Between Iraq and Afghanistan, there are 49 countries with forces on the ground, with many others making important contributions in other ways. So this business that America is going it alone is simply not factual. It is false. SPENDING FOR DEFENSE Let me conclude by recalling why we are requesting these funds. The Wall Street Journal recently tallied the cost to our country and economy the September 11 attacks. They concluded that the 9/11 attack alone cost the American people hundreds of billions of dollars, and that is not counting the price paid in lives and the immense suffering of their families and loved ones. Our Nation can afford whatever it needs to defend our people and our way of life. In the Eisenhower and Kennedy presidential years, we spent about 9 or 10 percent of Gross National Product on defense. The last time I was Secretary of Defense in the 1970s, we spent 4 or 5 percent of GDP on defense. Today we spend about 3.1 percent. It is a great deal of money, to be sure, let there be no doubt, but it is modest fraction of our Nation's wealth. A British author wrote that "If a Nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that as well." $87 billion is a lot of money, but it is necessary for the security of our country and the stability of the world. The price of sending terrorists a message that we are not willing to spend what it takes to do and that we value comfort or money more than freedom would be far greater. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. LEWIS. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. [The statement of Secretary Rumsfeld follows:] The President has requested the $20 billion investment in the future of Iraq. To put that in context, the Marshall Plan, after World War II, cost roughly $90 billion in today's dollars. Those investments helped transform a region that has been a source of violent war and instability for centuries and turn it into a place of peace, prosperity and mutually beneficial trade. PROGRESS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN I recently returned, as you did, from Iraq and also Afghanistan. If you saw what I saw, you saw that progress is being achieved in both countries. Afghanistan is on the road to democracy and selfgovernment. After 2 years of training, the Afghan National Army has been fighting side-by-side with coalition forces in our most recent anti-terrorist campaigns. The central government is working to extend authority to the provinces. Together with the Afghan Authority, the coalition has deployed Provisional Reconstruction Teams, or PRTS, to four provinces, with four more on the way. Afghanistan faces challenges, to be sure, but progress has been measurable. In Iraq, the coalition forces also face difficulties and dangers, let there be no doubt, including the threats from regime remnants, criminals and foreign fighters who come into the country to oppose the coalition. What is remarkable is that despite the dangers, the coalition civil and military staff in Iraq has, in less than 5 months, I guess it is 5 months tomorrow since the major combat operations ended, racked up a series of achievements in both the security and the civil sides that may be without precedent. Consider a few accomplishments. In less than 5 months, virtually all major Iraqi hospitals and universities have been reopened. Hundreds of secondary schools, until a few months ago, often used as weapons caches, they have been rebuilt and are ready to start the fall semester. 56,000 Iraqis have been armed and trained and they are contributing to the security and defense of their country. Another 14,000 have been recruited and are currently in training, for a total of 70,000, from zero on May 1 at the end of combat operations. Today, a new Iraqi Army is being trained and more than 40,000 Iraqi police are conducting joint patrols with coalition forces. By contrast, it took 14 months to establish a police force in post-war Germany and 10 years to begin training a new German army. The Independent Iraqi Central Bank was established and a new currency announced in just 2 months, accomplishments that took 3 years in post-war Germany. The Iraqi Governing Council has appointed an Iraqi Cabinet of Ministers, something that took 14 months in Germany. In all major cities and most towns and vil lages, Iraqi Municipal Councils have been formed, something that took 8 months in Germany. 100 percent of the Iraqi people today are living under representative councils, either at the village, town, city or provincial level. COALITION SUPPORT All this and more has taken place in just 5 months. It may be without parallel, whether compared to Japan, to Germany, to Bos nia or Kosovo. I keep hearing that the U.S. should not go it alone. Well, the U.S. is not going it alone. There are at this moment 17 other nations in the Coalition Provisional Authority. Moreover, there are more than 32 countries with troops in Iraq today. These include Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Thailand, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, and one or two others that prefer not be mentioned. That is not going it alone. Portugal is at this moment preparing to deploy forces to Iraq as well. Of the 19 NATO nations, 11 have already committed troops to Iraq. We are currently in discussions with 14 other countries that have expressed a possible interest in sending forces. Now, do these equal the total number of U.S. forces? No. Do the contributions they are making financially equal ours? No, they do not. But they do represent a significant military commitment and a political commitment for those nations, and we are, as we should be, deeply grateful to them for their contributions, for their courage, both political and personal, and for their friendship. In Afghanistan, NATO has just taken over the command of ISAF, the Alliance's first mission outside of Europe in its history. Between Iraq and Afghanistan, there are 49 countries with forces on the ground, with many others making important contributions in other ways. So this business that America is going it alone is simply not factual. It is false. SPENDING FOR DEFENSE Let me conclude by recalling why we are requesting these funds. The Wall Street Journal recently tallied the cost to our country and economy the September 11 attacks. They concluded that the 9/11 attack alone cost the American people hundreds of billions of dollars, and that is not counting the price paid in lives and the immense suffering of their families and loved ones. Our Nation can afford whatever it needs to defend our people and our way of life. In the Eisenhower and Kennedy presidential years, we spent about 9 or 10 percent of Gross National Product on defense. The last time I was Secretary of Defense in the 1970s, we spent 4 or 5 percent of GDP on defense. Today we spend about 3.1 percent. It is a great deal of money, to be sure, let there be no doubt, but it is modest fraction of our Nation's wealth. A British author wrote that "If a Nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that as well." $87 billion is a lot of money, but it is necessary for the security of our country and the stability of the world. The price of sending terrorists a message that we are not willing to spend what it takes to do and that we value comfort or money more than freedom would be far greater. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. LEWIS. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. [The statement of Secretary Rumsfeld follows:] PREPARED TESTIMONY BY U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE - DEFENSE SUBCOMMITTEE WASHINGTON, DC SEPTEMBER 30, 2003 Mr. Chairman, thank you for this opportunity to testify on the President's emergency supplemental request. Earlier this month, the American people marked the anniversary of the September 11th attacks - and took stock of all that had been accomplished in the two years since this war on terror was visited upon us two years ago. Thanks to the courage of our men and women in uniform, two brutal regimes have been removed from power, two nations rescued from tyranny. Thanks to those who fight the battles, seen and unseen, in the war on terror, thousands of terrorists have been captured or killed-including nearly two-thirds of known senior al-Qaeda operatives, and most of those responsible for the 9/11 attacks. With the support of dozens of nations, a number of planned attacks have been stopped, terrorist assets seized, and thousands of lives saved. We have much to be grateful for. But perhaps our greatest blessing is the fine men and women who wear our nation's uniform. Each of them volunteered for service - and in the course of this war, many have given their lives. They are heroes -- they will not be forgotten. Still others have suffered serious wounds. I've visited with many of them, at Bethesda and Walter Reed, and Brooke Army Medical Center to thank them for their service and sacrifice. Our hearts go out to the families of all those who have been injured and killed in this war U.S. and Coalition forces alike. And we are grateful also for the brave soldiers and fine civilian staffs from Coalition countries now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Together, we have accomplished a great deal. But much work still remains. Notwithstanding our successes, dangers persist. Many terrorists are behind bars - but those that remain at large are planning future attacks. Standing between our people and the gathering dangers is the courage of our men and women in uniform and the determination of our country to see this war through. As a sign of his conviction that we must prosecute this war, and defeat those who threaten us, the President has requested $87 billion in emergency funds to fight the war on terror. The vast majority of the funds the President has requested will go to the troops who are risking their lives in this struggle. Of the $87 billion in the President's request, $66 billion is to support ongoing military operations -- money for military pay, fuel, transportation, maintenance, weapons, equipment, life-saving body armor, ammunition and other critical The President has requested: · $51 billion for military operations in Iraq, $11 billion for military operations in Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa and other $2.2 billion for defending the U.S. homeland, and $1.4 billion to support coalition partners, many of whom are stepping forward with troops willing to risk their lives in this effort but whose governments lack the resources to support those deployments. The remaining $21 billion is to help the people of Afghanistan and Iraq secure their nations for freedom - so that they can get on a path to stability, self-government and self-reliance. For Afghanistan, the President will reallocate nearly $400 million in funds from existing accounts, and has requested an additional $800 million to accelerate reconstruction efforts now underway. This includes: · $300 million for roads, schools, clinics; $400 million to train and support the Afghan National Army and the national police, border patrol and highway patrol; $120 million to train demobilized militia and help them find jobs, and to support other private sector initiatives; and Nearly $300 million to support rule of law, elections and other critical support for the Afghan government. This support is in addition to the $1.8 billion previously appropriated, and the $5 billion that has been pledged thus far by the international community. The President has also requested $20 billion for the U.S. contribution to support the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq- including $15 billion to speed repairs to Iraq's starved and dilapidated infrastructure, and $5 billion to help Iraqis assume increasing responsibility for the security of their country-including training of Iraqi police, border guards, facilities protection services, a new Iraqi Army and a new Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, and for the Iraqi justice system. The $20 billion the President has requested does not cover all of Iraq's needs, which are vastly greater than this- nor is it intended to. We expect that the international community to step up with additional contributions as well. Already, some 60 nations have made pledges or contributions of $1.5 billion- and there are |