[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 132 (Wednesday, October 9, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H7306]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    REMARKS MADE DURING IRAQ DEBATE

  (Mr. WU asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WU. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hostettler) made 
remarks at 10:30 last night which I think are deserving of being 
brought back to this House in the light of day. He said, Today a novel 
case is being made that the best defense is a good offense, but is this 
a power that the Framers of the Constitution meant to pass down to 
their posterity when they sought to secure for us the blessings of 
liberty? I think not.
  Then he went on to quote from the founding of our country, the very 
beginning, the Minutemen facing the British and the Commander John 
Parker, Do not fire lest fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, 
let it begin here.
  It is a notion that is as least as old as Saint Augustus' war thesis, 
and it finds agreement with the Minutemen and the Framers of the 
Constitution. We should not turn our back today on the millennia of 
wisdom by proposing to send America's beautiful sons and daughters into 
harm's way for what might be.
  These words spoken late last night deserve consideration by this body 
and this Nation.

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