[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 30 (Tuesday, February 25, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H1278]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            GERMANY AND FRANCE MUST DECIDE WHERE THEY STAND

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, nearly a century ago, George Santayana 
wrote, ``Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat 
it.''
  This is a big world we live in, but if there are two countries in 
this world that should remember the consequences of coddling tyrants, 
they are France and Germany.
  But these two countries seem to have forgotten.
  The world is watching as Saddam Hussein amasses weapons so powerful 
they could wipe out whole armies, whole cities and, given time, perhaps 
even whole nations; and we know he will use them because he has done so 
before. But France and Germany seem to be doing everything in their 
power to foil our plans to stop him before it is too late.
  Is it because these two countries have seen so much blood that they 
just cannot stand the thought of another war? Or is it because so much 
of Saddam's technology has come from Germany? Perhaps it is because 
France is Saddam's third largest trading partner. France and Germany's 
recklessness has even risked the safety of an ally and threatened the 
cohesiveness of NATO itself, although I am glad to say they have come 
to their senses there.
  It is time for Germany and France to decide where they stand. Are 
they on the side of tyrants, or are they on the side of freedom? There 
is no other choice.

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