[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 119 (Thursday, September 19, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H6411-H6412]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   ESTABLISHING THE TRUTH ABOUT IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich) is recognized for 5 minutes.

[[Page H6412]]

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, the Congress of the United States has just 
received from the White House a proposed draft which would put this 
Congress on the path of approving a war with Iraq. The text of the 
resolution is very instructive, because the text of the resolution 
seems to ignore some basic facts, and facts are important. They are 
urgent at this moment in our Nation's history.
  The first fact we must keep in mind: Iraq had nothing to do with 9-
11, yet the text of the administration's resolution implies that Iraq 
is connected to 9-11.
  Second: Iraq has not been connected to al Qaeda, but the text of the 
administration's resolution implies that somehow Saddam Hussein has 
something to do with the al Qaeda terrorist network. Even the United 
States' own intelligence agencies, which have considerable resources, 
have not been able to establish that.
  We also know that Iraq was not connected to the anthrax attacks upon 
this Nation. Yet the resolution which the administration has presented 
to this Congress would ask this Congress to wage war against Iraq as a 
matter of self-defense.
  Now, what is self-defense? Self-defense is when someone attacks you, 
you have a right to defend yourself. On September 11, the year 2001, 
the United States was attacked. We have a right to defend ourselves. On 
the vote that came before this Congress on September 14, I joined other 
Members of Congress in voting for America to defend itself and in 
voting for America to pursue the terrorists and to bring them to 
justice; a task, I might add, which is unfinished. Yet that is ignored 
in this resolution.
  This resolution instead will urge the American people to finance to 
the tune of over $100 billion a war against a nation which has not 
waged war against us. For the first time in our country's history, we 
are going to be asked to approve a resolution to wage a war of 
aggression, not a war of defense.
  This is an important moment in the history of our Republic. All 
credible intelligence says that Iraq does not have usable weapons of 
mass destruction. They were destroyed in the Gulf War. Those weapons 
capabilities, which Iraq got from, guess who, the Bush administration, 
the first Bush administration, capabilities for biological, chemical 
and nuclear weapons of mass destruction, they were all destroyed in the 
Gulf War. Yet the administration would have the people of this country 
believe that Iraq still possesses those capabilities.
  They do not. We have the ability to tell if anyone in the world is 
making nuclear weapons. We have technology that can tell if gamma rays 
are being emitted, which are an essential tell-tale proof of this work 
of construction of nuclear weapons.
  There are 17 nations in the world which either possess, are trying to 
get, or actually have nuclear weapons capability. Are we going to begin 
waging war against some of those nations? Because this resolution 
brought by the administration to this Congress would somehow enable the 
administration to pursue war wherever they wanted to in the region.
  Think about this, America: Iraq does not have any usable weapons of 
mass destruction. They do not have the ability to deliver those weapons 
to the United States. No one can come before this House and say that 
Iraq can launch a missile, if they had one, from Baghdad and send it 
here.
  We have to establish the truth. ``Ye shall know the truth and the 
truth shall set you free,'' it says in the Scriptures. Let the truth 
guide America in this period. Let the truth create peace. Let the truth 
steer us away from war and find a path where America can protect the 
very soul of our Nation.

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