[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 125 (Thursday, September 12, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H10350-H10351]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           SITUATION IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of theHouse, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Weldon] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to continue the 
dialog that we started before theHouse went into special orders 
regarding the current situation in Iraq.
  As a senior member of Committee on National Security and chairman of 
Subcommittee on Military Research and Development, I take great pride 
in supporting our troops in all possible ways. I supported the 
President when he initially went in to take action in Iraq because I 
had an idea of what was occurring. In fact, I sat through a briefing a 
week ago that, I might add, was attended by less than 100 of my 
colleagues, where we were briefed by the State Department and the 
military on what was happening. Unfortunately, the briefing, which was 
closed, did not tell me much more than that as reported by CNN and the 
national news media.
  My concern is right now, Mr. Speaker, that we are reading reports 
that the President, in his position as Commander in Chief, is now 
escalating that. First, we have seen additional shots of cruise 
missiles. Now we are hearing that F-117's are being transferred to the 
theater. We are hearing that those F-117's may be based in Kuwait, 
partly because the Saudis are saying they do not want to have them

[[Page H10351]]

based in their country. We are furthermore hearing that Saddam, in 
fact, has considered Kuwait's action, in allowing the basing to take 
place there, an act of aggression against Iraq.
  Mr. Speaker, we may want to, in fact, support all of this. But the 
point is that the President is doing this unilaterally. There, in fact, 
has been no consultation with this body.
  My colleagues on the other side raised the issue of how they 
supported President Bush during Desert Storm. In fact, I went back and 
checked the Congressional Record. Two of the three speakers who stood 
up just a few short moments ago actually voted against President Bush's 
involvement of our troops. That is OK, because they should have that 
right to speak their mind. But we are not being given the opportunity 
to even understand what is going on, let alone vote to put our troops 
into harm's way.
  Right now we are sending young troops and 117's over to the Middle 
East and no one has been briefed. The chairman of the Committee on 
International Relations, the chairman of the Committee on National 
Security, the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, even the 
majority leader has told me he has not been given a briefing as to what 
is going on. This, Mr. Speaker, is unacceptable. We need to know what 
is going on because we are putting our troops in a situation this 
weekend that could result in actions, hostile actions against our 
people.
  I, for one, as a representative of 600,000 constituents, I want to 
know what, in fact, my constituents are being subjected to in terms of 
this President's operations.

                              {time}  1245

  Mr. Speaker, that has not been done.
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. CHAMBLISS. I know the gentleman was a Member of this body back 
with events leading, where at the time events leading up to Desert 
Storm occurred. Can you tell us that President Bush did at that time as 
far as informing the Members of this body what was going on?
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. The gentleman raises an excellent point 
and one that we need to keep in mind. President Bush went to the United 
Nations six or seven consecutive times and had the United Nations pass 
very specific resolutions, and then he came to this body and allowed us 
to have a vote, and I might add, by the way, just for the record, that 
I checked the Record. The Speaker at the time, Mr. Foley, voted ``no'' 
against President Bush; the majority leader at the time, Mr. Gephardt, 
voted ``no''; Mr. Bonior voted ``no''; all against the deployment and 
the support of our troops in the Middle East as requested by President 
Bush. But that is OK. They are allowed to do that.
  My point is that we are not being given that opportunity. Who knows 
what this President is getting us into? We have no idea. We do not 
know. All we know is our allies are not supporting us except for Great 
Britain, and all we know is now even some of the Arab countries are 
having second thoughts about what unilateral actions we are taking. 
That to me, Mr. Speaker, is outrageous and should allow this body to 
have a vote.
  Mr. Speaker, I am preparing right now today, and I would hope that 
our colleagues who are sitting in their offices, or their staff 
members, would call my office to support not only a letter asking what 
is going on but a resolution asking for the legal justification under 
the United Nations resolution that is very specific for us to take 
unilateral action, and also asking for the compliance with the War 
Powers Act. Why have not the leader of the Committee on National 
Security, why have not the bipartisan leaders of the Committee on 
International Affairs been consulted in the current plans for this 
weekend? Perhaps it is that we do not have any plans, or perhaps those 
plans have not been totally thought out.
  We, in this body, whether a member of those appropriate committees or 
not, have the right and the responsibility to know what situations our 
troops are being placed into, and in my opinion based upon what I am 
seeing and hearing that, in fact, is not occurring.
  This is an issue, Mr. Speaker, that is going to be on the minds of 
the American people this weekend because right now our kids who fly 
those F-117's are gassing them up and fueling them up for a 2-day 
flight to the Middle East. There is not one Member in this body who has 
any idea of what they are doing there. Are we going to be attacking 
specific targets? Do we know if there is backup support being provided? 
What is our exit plan? Is our goal to go in and get Saddam Hussein or 
to go in after chemical weapons facilities? What we are going after? No 
one knows.
  Mr. Speaker, we demand some answers.

                          ____________________