Authorizing The Use of Force Against Iraq
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Iraq: A Decade of Defiance and Deception
Mr. Speaker, as we begin this most important of debates here in the People’s House, I rise today in strong support of the resolution authorizing the President to take action to address the very troubling question of Iraq. No member of this body should ever be too eager to send our military into harm’s way. Nor should we ever consider taking such an action without a strong and vigorous debate. At the end of the day, however, I am pleased that we have come up with a bi-partisan resolution to prove once again that partisanship stops at the water’s edge.
I am a strong supporter of international cooperation, working with our friends and allies, and the United Nations. However, in matters of national security, multinational cooperation and coalition building are tools that help us to achieve our most precious national interests. We cannot be beholden to any institution whose interests may not coincide with our own.
Obviously, we would all be gratified to have the full and unconditional support of the U.N. Security Council. Secretary of State Powell has been working tirelessly for months to garner that support in New York. But, as the government of the United States, it is our primary responsibility to provide for the safety and security of our citizens, both at home and abroad. And that is why I support this resolution, which will in fact strengthen our hand at the U.N. and demonstrate that this government is united in its determination to address the threat that Saddam Hussein poses.
Saddam Hussein oppresses his people, flaunts the will of the international community, has committed genocide, and pursues weapons that will dramatically alter the status of his country in the international system.
For 12 years, he has blatantly ignored the Security Council resolutions he previously agreed to. When the inspectors were conducting their inspections within Iraq, they were constantly impeded. The time for ineffective inspections, with conditions set by this Stalinist dictator, has passed. Iraq has received chance after chance only to continue to obstruct and deny. The time for chances is over. Only unconditional and unfettered inspections, with total disarmament of Iraq’s cache of weapons of mass destruction, are acceptable. So far, the United Nations has proved unwilling to back its words with actions. As Saddam’s primary enemy, it falls to the President and this Congress to protect the American people from this mass murderer.
Saddam Hussein presents a clear and immediate threat to the safety of American citizens and our interests overseas. We know he has produced such deadly gases as VX and Sarin, along with anthrax. We know he has over 30,000 delivery vehicles for such biological and chemical agents. And we know that he has Scuds that are capable of reaching our forces stationed in the Gulf and our NATO allies in Turkey.
Perhaps more frightening, we know that Iraq is actively seeking to re-establish its nuclear weapons program, and has reportedly been seeking uranium to achieve that goal, and the track record shows that his ability to inflict harm has always been underestimated. Given the level of technical expertise that Iraq developed prior to the Gulf War, it would take them months, not years, to develop a nuclear device once they obtain the proper materials.
There are those who argue that Saddam Hussein, a man who has started two wars in two decades, can be contained and managed. Let me remind the nation of Saddam’s record in power. He sponsors terrorist groups that have killed American citizens. He routinely pays the families of suicide bombers, while he lets his own citizens starve. He has executed thousands of Iraqis a year, and combats dissent by publicly removing the tongues of his critics. He has engaged in ethnic cleansing utilizing chemical weapons that have killed over 5,000 Kurds and he has completely destroyed entire towns he felt were disloyal. He has committed genocide and other crimes against humanity and deserves to be held accountable. The United States held the moral high ground in ending Slobodan Milosevic’s reign of terror – and Saddam has reigned too long.
Further, I disagree with those who argue that we should not undertake this action because it is pre-emptive. Authorizing the President to effectively address this situation is not pre-emptive; this is a response to these heinous acts. With every U.N. resolution Iraq ignores, it threatens international peace. Unless and until Iraq complies fully with the inspections – a standard it has never met – there remains ample justification for taking action to defend the security of our nation. Iraq is a nation that publicly states that it has every intention of cooperating with the international community, but continues to try to shoot down our brave pilots enforcing the no-fly zones.
History has not been kind to governments that have acceded to the wishes of brutal dictators, in the hopes of staving off conflict. The security of the future depends on the resolve we show here today. As we learned on September 11th, delaying our response to security threats can have devastating consequences. It is incumbent upon all of us to demonstrate to the world’s dictators that they cannot hide behind false cooperation, and that our nation will not be cowed from protecting our citizens for fear of political or military difficulty. Our security must come first.
I cannot help but think of Abraham Lincoln’s words 137 years ago when he said ' the struggle of today is not altogether for today. It is for a vast future also.'
