[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 15 (Tuesday, January 28, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H174-H175]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   REJECTING THE APOSTLES OF INACTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, in recent days we have heard a loud and 
relentless chorus of critics who are attempting to hamstring President 
Bush and restrict his ability to defend this country. These foreign and 
domestic apologists for inaction would subordinate U.S. national 
security decisions to an international litmus test.
  They are subverting the real issue beneath the false allure of 
avoidance and a smokescreen of diplomatic double-dealings and evasions. 
Under their specious logic, the burden of proof shifts from Saddam 
Hussein's evil regime to the free and democratic nations insisting that 
he disarm.
  It is a known fact that Saddam developed, deployed and destroyed 
thousands of lives with weapons of mass terror. It is not a question of 
whether or not he has terror weapons.
  American soldiers found and destroyed chemical weapons depots 12 
years ago. Saddam later confirmed our fears with the thousands of 
corpses that littered the Iraqi countryside.
  Here is the real question: Where and when will he choose to use the 
countless terror weapons he still has? Will it be here in the United 
States? Will Saddam's agents launch the attack, or will Saddam quietly 
transfer his chemical or biological weapons to al Qaeda or any other 
terrorist organization? Will they be leveraged to blackmail freedom-
loving nations into inaction in the face of future aggression?
  The answer is that we cannot know what this dictator will do, and for 
that reason the only acceptable outcome to the United States is that 
either Saddam Hussein voluntarily destroys all the materials related to 
his nuclear, chemical and biological weapons development programs or a 
coalition of free nations will do the job, and this brings up a 
widespread misperception.
  The purpose of the U.N. inspectors in Iraq, a purpose that is either 
misunderstood or it is being manipulated by the left, is simply to 
verify that Saddam is declaring and destroying his known but hidden 
weapons of mass destruction programs and weapons caches.
  It is not the inspectors' mission to fruitlessly scour the Iraqi 
countryside in a feckless search for Saddam's terror weapons. In a 
country larger than the State of California, that would be an empty 
objective doomed to fail. Outside observers cannot hope to uncover the 
truth within an uncooperative and hostile regime. It is an impossible 
task to discover weapons of mass destruction within a ruthlessly wicked 
and oppressive dictatorship that refuses to cooperate. Iraq is not 
destroying its weapons.
  Let us just be clear about it. Saddam is an evil tyrant. He 
illegitimately holds power by controlling the thoughts and the behavior 
of the Iraqi people with a climate of state-administered terror. His 
secret police coerce the Iraqi people into a terror-driven code of 
silence.
  Time and time again over the 20th century the West learned that the 
scale of crimes committed by totalitarian regimes was far worse than we 
even knew. It was not until those brutal regimes fell and their victims 
documented the full extent of the monstrous abuse that we learned the 
truth. We saw it in Hitler's Germany. We saw it in the Soviet Union. We 
saw it in Cambodia, and eventually we will see it in Cuba, and once 
Saddam fails and falls, the Iraqi people will shock and disgust the 
world by revealing the full ghastly scope of Saddam's oppression.
  This much is obvious today. We will never get to the truth about 
Saddam's weapons so long as his regime holds power. We need to 
recognize that it will be extremely difficult for Saddam's past and 
future victims to tell inspectors what they know.

                              {time}  1045

  When they, their friends and their families are subject to brutal and 
wicked reprisals, including rape, torture and murder at the hands of 
Saddam's secret police, U.N. inspectors cannot approach the truth in 
Iraq. And it is not their job to discover Saddam's weapons. No, the 
onus is squarely on Saddam Hussein to prove to the world that he has 
disarmed.
  Unfortunately, many observers continue claiming that the United 
States has to round out the indictment of Saddam Hussein's regime with 
additional evidence. No such evidence is needed. No more facts need 
emerge before America can rightfully take action against this regime. 
We have all the evidence that we need. The pages of history. There has 
never been a threat confronting the United States that was overcome or 
improved through inaction or the counsels of contrived evasions and 
equivocations. The American people expect us to face our threats 
squarely and directly.
  Many observers would have us pin the security of the United States to 
a fading fallacy, the discredited notion that a U.N. inspections team, 
operating within a hostile regime, can adequately secure our security. 
They cannot.

[[Page H175]]

There is great danger in so elevating the trappings of international 
consultation and the rituals of multilateralism that they become a 
surrogate for our true purpose: we have to protect ourselves and the 
world by disarming Saddam Hussein.
  Some observers refuse to acknowledge the grave consequences of 
allowing Saddam Hussein to remain in power. In the hierarchy of 
aggressive and military regimes, Saddam's dictatorship is a clear and 
present danger to the United States. And by providing Saddam added 
time, added time to supply, train and support terrorist groups, these 
endless pleas for patience convert a virtue into a vice. Any nation 
which naively denies the clear threat from Saddam Hussein's regime is 
placing the free world at jeopardy by ignoring this dictator's infamous 
past and evil aspirations.
  Regardless of what others may say, the final authority governing 
American action is not the United Nations. It is the Constitution of 
the United States and the decisions of our own elected government. If 
and when President Bush decides America must confront Saddam Hussein's 
regime, he will be exercising his authority as commander in chief and 
expressing the broad support already demonstrated by Congress through 
the Iraq Resolution passed months ago.
  The Left is attempting to turn us from our purpose with another bit 
of sophistry. They claim our imperative to confront Saddam Hussein's 
dictatorship is a diversion from the war against terrorism. Well, far 
from a diversion, confronting Saddam Hussein is a central and defining 
measure of our commitment to win the war on terrorism.
  If President Bush determines that America must act, he can be 
confident that the unified support of the American people will be with 
him until the danger is defeated. The President should know that we 
stand beside him and that the United States will not shrink from our 
obligation to defend freedom.
  While we seek the broadest possible coalition of freedom-loving 
countries in this effort, we cannot let a hunt for international 
consensus divide us and deter us from our purpose. We will not be 
dissuaded from taking action to defend America.

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