[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 11, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H1716]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      AMERICA IS LOSING ITS ALLIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise in dismay at the self-inflicted 
isolation of our country and wonder if it is too late to recover from 
the most catastrophic failure in diplomacy in American history. We are 
left with no alternative to war, gradually each day even, though we 
have not been attacked and even though there is no claim of imminent 
attack.
  War is the most serious effect of this failure but it is not all we 
have lost. Enough of the finger pointing and ally bashing. Us against 
the world is a completely unnecessary result when we have been dealing 
with a totalitarian tyrant like Saddam. We have been seized by the 
hubris of our own power, losing everything that matters to us in 
foreign affairs, especially at a time of global terrorism when we need 
each and every ally we can get. We are losing each and every one of our 
major allies. You can cite the small countries all you want to, but 
when you lose the permanent members of the Security Council, you cannot 
blink that, no matter who you are.
  We have endangered our closest allies, beginning with England. Poor 
Tony Blair. He is permanently politically damaged now. He will be 
weakened in all he does. Pervez Musharraf, the most critical in our 
anti-terrorism allies, faces wholesale opposition at home. What in the 
world are we going to do if he falls?
  We have thrown to the wind the spontaneous coalition that gathered 
around us after 9/11, and yet it seems that we believe it is all the 
administration's fault.
  Actually, the President's approach sowed the seeds of its own 
destruction because he began by announcing an invasion strategy. Had he 
started with meetings and consultation with our allies, of putting 
proposals on the table, beginning with inspections, graduating with 
tougher and tougher action, he would have his coalition by now. In 
fact, he had to be convinced to consult at all. I remember his making 
fun of the notion of going to the United Nations until members of his 
own party, former officials of former administrations, advised that it 
was important to seek a coalition.
  Mr. Speaker, the lesson of this wholesale failure of the greatest 
power left, with everybody running from it, amounts to you cannot be a 
world leader if you cannot convince others to follow. And the second 
lesson is that if you have the power, you do not have to flaunt it. 
Used skillfully, you can bring people to you simply because you are the 
greatest power in the world. God bless our country. May we still be 
saved from this catastrophe.

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