[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 35 (Wednesday, March 5, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H1609]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              BOMBS AND BULLETS WILL NOT WIN WAR ON TERROR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bishop of Utah). Under a previous order 
of the House, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I am here to share the opposition of my 
constituents to a war in Iraq. The folks I work for understand that the 
war on terror cannot be won with bombs and bullets, that we can fight 
with bombs and bullets, but that will not end terror, nor will this 
approach ensure the safety of Americans. Only a strategy of 
multilateralism, humanitarian aid and development can win the war on 
terror. Only a strategy that preempts new terror attacks without 
creating new terrorists can win the war on terror. Bombs, bullets, and 
war are not the solution to terrorism. My constituents understand this.
  The gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) has been coordinating with an 
organization called Poets Against the War. This organization has been 
collecting poems written by Americans around the country. Their poems 
reflect their concerns about current U.S. policy toward the war against 
terror and Iraq.
  Today it is my honor to share a poem that was written by one of my 
constituents, Elizabeth Barret, an 83-year-old woman from Mill Valley, 
California. She wrote a poem called ``Peace.''
  ``I will listen to my heart. I know that I need to open my heart to 
God. The prospect of war makes me cry out for peace. Where are all the 
mothers and children? Where are all the men whose hearts have been 
hurt? Do they not know that they were at one time children too?
  ``The world needs peace. We have become very small. We need to love 
each other more than ever. Who will help the world? The women and 
children will save the world.''
  Mrs. Barret eloquently makes the key point that we should measure 
every single decision this House makes by its affect on our Nation's 
children. She understands that an invasion of Iraq will inspire a new 
generation of terrorists to threaten our children.
  Instead of following this path of destruction, we can work to contain 
Iraq and concentrate on destroying al Qaeda. That is what is best for 
our children. One of those children, 15-year-old Carina from San 
Rafael, California, wrote this poem. It is called ``Lady Paz.''
  ``I imagine there are jungles inside her if not under her fertile 
skins, what hope? I know it is our vampire wishes that leech life from 
this stolen soil our scrawled, thoughtless messages that degrade such 
indelible bark.
  ``I can see her relief so clearly, the dark impressions of her liquid 
eye casting cacophonous shadows across our curve of hazy planet.
  ``Give us your real hand, the one where sap pulses warm and whose 
clasp is meaty and sharp through sun's dream-tricks whose brown fingers 
don't leave us abandoned and guessing.
  ``Will you take us, our legs streaked in ash, our misconceptions 
bending and bending, the fissures in earth's crust growing deeper, the 
molten rock bubbling up like blood? Oh, peace, you must be a tainted 
lady. A tainted lady to tame us screaming so.''
  Mr. Speaker, Carina understands that violence is not the way to 
peace. She understands that we can start a war in Iraq and destroy 
Baghdad from the air. And she understands that after sending our 
soldiers and their soldiers to the grave, we can win a war in Iraq, but 
that will not win the war on terrorism.
  The only way to win the one war that matters, the war on terrorism, 
is to bolster crumbling societies, support economic development and end 
support for undemocratic regimes. Let us do the right thing for 
ourselves and for our children. These children, 25 percent of our 
population, are 100 percent of the future of this Nation.

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