[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 11, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H1695-H1696]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ALLIED SUPPORT FOR WAR AGAINST IRAQ
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon) is
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I am confused today. I have
been in Congress 17 years and I have been a strong supporter of our
relations with our European friends, with parliamentarians from Russia,
Ukraine, China, and every other major nation in the world. I have
traveled to France and Germany several times, and have hosted scores of
members of parliaments.
But what I saw occur last week and what I am hearing coming out of
the President's mouth disturbs and confuses me. President Chirac of
France and his counterpart, Chancellor Schroeder of Germany, have said
that they will not support the U.S. effort to remove Saddam Hussein
from Iraq. They have further said there is no justification for war
unless it is approved by the U.N. Security Council.
{time} 1300
But I look at each country and I wonder what they are referring to,
because it was France just 4 years ago when they wanted the U.S. to
come in and assist them militarily in removing Milosevic from power in
Belgrade. It was France who came to the U.S. and convinced our
President to put our sons and daughters in harm's way. But in doing so,
along with the French, in pushing America to fight this military
battle, they would not go to the U.N. Security Council because they
knew that Russia would veto any resolution.
So what did France and Germany do? Just a few short years ago, for
the first time and only time in NATO's history, along with our
President, at that time Bill Clinton, they used a NATO military force
to invade a non-NATO sovereign nation to remove the head of state, and
that head of state was Slobodan Milosevic. Now, Milosevic was a bad
guy, a war criminal, he has done bad things, but everyone, including
the special rapporteur for human rights at the U.N., Max van der Stoel,
including Bill Clinton's own Ambassador to the U.N., Ambassador
Holbrooke, have all said publicly that, in fact, Saddam Hussein is far
worse than Milosevic ever was. In fact, a U.N. special rapporteur said
there has been no leader since Adolf Hitler who has done the kinds of
human rights abuses that Saddam Hussein has done.
How, then, can France and Germany when just a few short years ago for
their own benefit, because a neighbor was threatening in their case,
they felt, their security, enticed the U.S. to come in and use our
troops to remove Milosevic from power militarily and today say, in a
situation far, far worse in Saddam Hussein, that force is not
justified?
I am also reminded of just a year ago, President Jacques Chirac,
saying it again, the U.N. Security Council is the final group that
should decide the change of regimes, sent French troops to the Ivory
Coast because of a coup attempt, sent French troops there, without
going to the U.N. Security Council, without asking for a vote, without
employing the very tactics that he is standing up now and demanding
around the world.
Mr. Speaker, I am troubled. The French and Germans have been our
longtime friends, and hopefully they will be once this is over; but the
words coming out of the mouths of Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroder
and their foreign ministers leave me confused and bewildered. I really
wonder what France stands for. I really wonder what Germany stands for.
Are they really against human rights abuses as defined by Amnesty
International and every other major human rights group? Are they really
convinced that people who are bad actors like Milosevic should be
removed from office, as we did with their pushing and support just a
few years ago militarily? And if so, why the change with Saddam
Hussein? I hope it is not because of the ties to oil that France has
with Iraq. I would hope that is not the case with the French. But, Mr.
Speaker, I do not know what the proper response is.
Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record two letters which were sent by
me to President Jacques Chirac last Friday and Chancellor Gerhard
Schroder, also last Friday, which basically lay out the facts and then
asks the question of the French and Germans, Do you have a double
standard? Is it okay to entice America to come in and fight a battle in
front of you in your backyard to remove a leader that you have said
publicly is a human rights abuser, even though you do not want to go to
the U.N. and did not go to the U.N. to achieve the U.N.'s support? Is
it okay to do that and then a few years later, after 12 years of seeing
Saddam Hussein kill tens of thousands of innocent people, use chemical
weapons against the Kurds, commit war crimes against our own American
POWs, 21 of them, in fact, and, in fact, commit the most horrendous
crimes against the Kuwaitis and all the other minority groups inside
Iraq, and then to come forward and say, ``Well, in this case it's
different''?
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC, March 7, 2003
President Jacques Chirac,
Republic of France, c/o Embassy of France, Washington, DC.
Dear President Chirac: As a long time friend of the French
people and a steadfast facilitator of inter-parliamentary
cooperation between our nations, I am compelled to contact
you to express my disappointment with your government's
actions. Throughout my tenure in Congress, I have hosted
dozens of French parliamentarians, traveled to your country
to speak to government officials and industry leaders, and
endeavored to strengthen the relations between our great
nations. However, I was outraged today by your Foreign
Minister's statements before the United Nations opposing the
use of force to uphold the United Nations Charter and the
sixteen multilateral resolutions written after the Gulf War
cease-fire in 1991. Your government's words and actions have
done serious, if not permanent, damage to the once unshakable
foundations of the great transatlantic alliance that has
served our mutual interests for so long.
Your continued opposition to the use of force to disarm
Iraq without the full support of the United Nations is
steeped in hypocrisy of such epic proportions, that your
sudden reverence for the inviolability of the United Nations
is laughable. When the dictator Milosevic threatened western
Europe's back door, France was entirely content to bypass the
United Nations Security Council and take military action.
History will forever judge your use of NATO--championing the
organization's first offensive action against a non-menber--
without any attempt to employ the global diplomacy of the
United Nations. The actions of your Foreign Minister opposing
the dedication of the United States stands in stark
contradiction to the practices and motivations of your
government in Yugoslavia. During negotiations within the
Security Council amidst the NATO engagement, Alain Dejammet
justified France's actions through the enforcement of three
resolutions under Chapter VII on Kosovo and Yugoslavia's
refusal to fulfill its obligations under those agreements.
Your opposition and veto threat sends a disturbing message to
future generations that international interference is no
longer desired to end genocide, obstruct terrorism or aid a
suffering people under a demonic regime. Even more
disturbing, is that the efforts to remove the cancer of
Slobodon Milosevic could not have been accomplished without
the vast majority of coalition troops, air strikes and
logistical support provided by the United States. In fact,
France went to great lengths to have America commit our sons
and daughters for this moral purpose, and we dutifully
obliged.
I am quite sure that the foreign ministers of France and
Germany slept soundly while the bombs fell on Kosovo without
United Nations approval. However, the historically peaceful
people of France are now roused to defend the sacred honor of
the Security Council, the very same Security Council whose
honor they flouted just five years ago. Convenience, not
principle, seems to be France's guiding compass. Your
constant opposition to America's effort to remove a regime
that has continually violated several, if not all of the
human rights provisions within the United Nations charter and
presents an increasing threat to democracies all over the
world is nothing short of appalling. The dictatorship in Iraq
far surpasses the practice of
[[Page H1696]]
murder and oppression that ever existed in Yugoslavia.
Nevertheless, your country insists on turning a blind eye to
the atrocities and breeding ground for terrorism that fail to
occur near the borders of old Europe.
France's continued indifference to the plight of the Iraqi
people, its neighbors and those who fall subject to Saddam
Hussein's evil rule defies explanation. The atrocities
perpetrated under Hussein's regime are well documented by
organizations such as Human Rights Watch, the International
Federation for Human Rights, Amnesty International, the
Coalition for International Justice and even the United
Nations. In fact, the former United Nations Special
Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iraq, Max Van der Stoel,
stated that ``the brutality of the Iraqi regime was of an
exceptionally grave character, so grave that it has few
parallels in the years that have passed sine the Second World
War. . . . It is to comparisons with the obscenity of the
Holocaust and Stalin's mass murders that observers are
inevitably drawn when confronted with the horrors of Saddam's
Iraq. . . This is a state that employs arbitrary execution,
imprisonment and torture on a comprehensive and routine
basis.''
The vile methods of torture inflicted upon Coalition
prisoners of the Gulf War, Kuwaitis, Kurds, Sh'iit muslims,
Iranians, Turkomans, and anyone else who dares to live a life
contrary to the wishes of Saddam Hussein are well documented.
Primitive executions, dismemberment, castration, hangings by
barbed wire, the raping of women in front of family members
and children, burning flesh with acid, finger and toenail
extraction, boring holes into bodies with drills and the
ignition of gasoline pumped into various orifices of the
human body are routine measures employed by Hussein and his
henchmen.
Yet France continues to make every effort to block
Hussein's removal and protect a despot whose country has the
highest number of disappearances and displaced persons in the
World. You callously refuse to acknowledge the documented
destruction of life and repeated offensive military actions
against surrounding countries since the 1970's. Your actions
condone the blatant disregard of United Nations resolutions
since 1991, and repeatedly make it clear that international
law should not be honored. The statements made today and your
acquiescence may forever undermine the peaceful objectives
that are the foundation of international law and serve to
entice future evils.
America will not follow France's lead and remain content to
concern ourselves solely with problems that border our
country. We will not allow economic investments and resource
dependency to impede our future judgments to alleviate the
suffering of others. The American people and my colleagues in
Congress will not soon forget the rank hypocrisy and blatant
disloyalty displayed by your country today, and I am
confident that the free people of the world will also refuse
to follow your misguided lead.
Sincerely,
Curt Weldon,
Member of Congress.
____
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC, March 7, 2003.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroder,
Federal Republic of Germany, c/o Embassy of Germany,
Washington, DC.
Dear Chancellor Schroder: As a long time friend of the
German people and a steadfast facilitator of inter-
parliamentary cooperation between our nations, I am compelled
to contact you. Throughout my tenure in Congress, I have
hosted dozens of Bundestag members, served on the German
Caucus and U.S. Congress-German Bundestag Study Group, and
endeavored to strengthen the relations between our great
Nations. However, I was outraged today by your Foreign
Minister's statements before the United Nations opposing the
use of force to uphold the United Nations Charter and the
sixteen multilateral resolutions written after the Gulf War
cease-fire in 1991. Your government's words and actions have
done serious, if not permanent, damage to the once unshakable
foundations of the great transatlantic alliance that has
served our mutual interests for so long.
Your continued opposition to the use of force to disarm
Iraq without the full support of the United Nations is
steeped in hypocrisy of such epic proportions, that your
sudden reverence for the inviolability of the United Nations
is laughable. When the dictator Milosevic threatened western
Europe's back door, Germany was entirely content to bypass
the United Nations Security Council and take military action.
History will forever judge your use of NATO--championing the
organization's first offensive action against a non-member--
without any attempt to employ the global diplomacy of the
United Nations. The actions of your Foreign Minister opposing
the dedication of the United States stands in stark
contradiction to the practices and motivations of your
government in Yugoslavia. In fact, Minister Joschka Fischer
himself characterized the Serbian actions as a ``declaration
of war against the policy of European integration. It is not
only a question of morality or of human rights, it is a
question of security and stability in Europe.'' Your
opposition sends a disturbing message to future generations
that international interference is no longer desired to end
genocide, obstruct terrorism or aid a suffering people under
a demonic regime. Even more disturbing, is that the efforts
to remove the cancer of Slobodon Milosevic could not have
been accomplished without the vast majority of coalition
troops, air strikes and logistical support dedicated to your
effort by the United States. In fact, Germany went to great
lengths to have America commit our sons and daughters for
this moral purpose, and we dutifully obliged.
I am quite sure that the Foreign Ministers of France and
Germany slept soundly while the bombs fell on Kosovo without
United Nations approval. Now, the people of Germany are
roused to defend the sacred honor of the Security Council,
the very same Security Council whose honor they flouted just
five years ago. Convenience, not principle, seems to be
Germany's guiding compass. Your constant opposition to
America's efforts to remove a regime that has continually
violated several, if not all of the human rights provisions
within the United Nations charter and presents an increasing
threat to democracies all over the world is nothing short of
appalling. The dictatorship in Iraq far surpasses the
practice of murder and oppression that ever existed in
Yugoslavia. Nevertheless, your country insists on turning a
blind eye to the atrocities and breeding ground for terrorism
that fail to occur near the borders of old Europe.
Germany's continued indifference to the plight of the Iraqi
people, its neighbors and those who fall subject to Saddam
Hussein's evil rule defies explanation. The atrocities
perpetrated under Hussein's regime are well documented by
organizations such as Human Rights Watch, the International
Federation for Human Rights, Amnesty International, the
Coalition for International Justice and even the United
Nations. In fact, the former United Nations Special
Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iraq, Max Van der Stoel,
stated that ``the brutality of the Iraqi regime was of an
exceptionally grave character, so grave that it has few
parallels in the years that have passed since the Second
World War. . . . It is to comparisons with the obscenity of
the Holocaust and Stalin's mass murders that observers are
inevitably drawn when confronted with the horrors of Saddam's
Iraq. . . . This is a state that employs arbitrary execution,
imprisonment and torture on a comprehensive and routine
basis.''
The vile methods of torture inflicted upon Coalition
prisoners of the Gulf War, Kuwaitis, Kurds, Sh'iit muslims,
Iranians, Turkomans, and anyone else who dares to live a life
contrary to the wishes of Saddam Hussein are well documented.
Primitive executions, dismemberment, castration, hangings by
barbed wire, the raping of women in front of family members
and children, burning flesh with acid, finger and toenail
extraction, boring holes into bodies with drills and the
ignition of gasoline pumped into various orifices of the
human body are routine measures employed by Hussein and his
henchmen.
Yet your country continues to make every effort to block
Hussein's removal and protect a despot whose country has the
highest number of disappearances and displaced persons in the
World. You callously refuse to acknowledge the documented
destruction of life and repeated offensive military actions
against surrounding countries since the 1970's. Your actions
condone the blatant disregard of United Nations resolutions
since 1991, and repeatedly make it clear that international
law should not be honored. The statements made today and your
acquiescence may forever undermine the peaceful objectives
that are the foundation of international law and serve to
entice future evils.
America will not follow Germany's lead and remain content
to concern ourselves solely with problems that border our
country. We will not allow economic investments and resource
dependency to impede our future judgments to alleviate the
suffering of others. The American people and my colleagues in
Congress will not soon forget the rank hypocrisy and blatant
disloyalty displayed by your country today, and I am
confident that the free people of the world will also refuse
to follow your misguided lead.
Sincerely,
Curt Weldon,
Member of Congress.
____________________