[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 128 (Tuesday, September 17, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H10438]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   DOLE CAMPAIGN'S ACT OF POLITICAL DESPERATION: THE SENATOR WHO WAS 
        FOOLED IN BAGHDAD CRITICIZES THE PRESIDENT WHO BOMBED IT

  (Mr. BERMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, before a campaign led by Senator Bob Dole 
lashes out at President Clinton's policy on Iraq, humility should 
compel him to admit how deeply he misread Saddam Hussein before Desert 
Storm.
  When we were trying to pass sanctions on Iraq that would have stopped 
Iraqi imports of Kansas wheat, Dole tried to derail those sanctions.
  It was Dole who assured his colleagues that Saddam Hussein has 
chemical weapons but ``does not intend to use them'' although the 
entire world knew he had already used nerve gas against the Kurds
  Dole who said on TV shortly after the Iraqi invasion ``We're a 
foreign power. We don't belong in that part of the world * * * It ought 
to be settled by Arabs.''
  Dole who said in October 1990 ``we are in the Midwest for three 
letters, oil, O-I-L.''
  President Bush responded that day, charging, ``You know, some people 
never get the word. The fight isn't about oil. The fight is about naked 
aggression that will not stand.''
  In fact, conservative columnist William Safire called Dole's attitude 
cynical and labeled him ``a prime appeaser of Saddam Hussein.''
  The Senator who was fooled in Baghdad is on weak ground criticizing 
the President who bombed it.

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