[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 131 (Tuesday, October 8, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H7176]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               EXPRESSING SUPPORT FOR RESOLUTION ON IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 23, 2002, the gentleman from New York (Mr. McNulty) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 2\1/2\ minutes.
  Mr. McNULTY. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to support the bipartisan 
resolution on Iraq which we will vote on later this week.
  Mr. Speaker, I have been a member of this body for the past 14 years, 
and I have heard Members throughout those years describe various votes 
as the most important votes that they will cast during their careers in 
Congress. I would submit to my colleagues that those votes--all of 
them--pale in comparison to any vote to send young American soldiers 
into harm's way.
  My family knows the pain of war. On August 9, 1970, my brother Bill 
was killed in Vietnam. He was a medical corpsman, out in the field 
patching up his buddies, when he stepped on a land mine and lost his 
life. I do not want any other American family to go through what the 
McNulty family went through back in 1970. That is why I only favor a 
military option as the last option.
  As a great New York Governor used to say when involved in debates, 
``let's look at the record.'' Let us look at the record with regard to 
Saddam Hussein. He has chemical and biological weapons. He has used 
them. He has killed tens of thousands of Kurds. He gassed to death 
5,000 Kurds in a single day--2,000 more than all of the people we lost 
on September 11, 2001. And, as the President pointed out last night, 
there have been 750 attacks on American pilots just in the past year.
  There are 135,000 American service personnel within the range of 
Saddam's missiles right now. And what is most disturbing of all, Mr. 
Speaker, is Saddam's efforts to obtain nuclear weapons. Most of the 
experts up until recently have been saying that he is 2 to 5 years away 
from a nuclear capability. Now several are saying it is less than a 
year.
  Mr. Speaker, how can we possibly contain a modern nuclear war? I 
remember the statement by then-President Lyndon Johnson when asked 
about the impact of a modern nuclear war. He responded to the question 
by saying simply, ``The survivors will envy the dead.''
  Mr. Speaker, this is the bottom line. Saddam Hussein can never be 
allowed to possess a nuclear capability. This bipartisan resolution 
emphasizes international cooperation, working with the United Nations, 
and exhausting all other options before we go to a military option. It 
ensures that military force will be used only as a last resort.
  This is a substantial reordering of priorities from the first draft, 
and for that I thank the bipartisan leadership. I support the 
resolution.

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