[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 19, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H2118-H2123]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONGRESSIONAL DUTIES IN CONNECTION WITH CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING IRAQ
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) is
recognized for 60 minutes.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to come to the floor this
evening to continue a very important discussion that deals with our
duties and responsibilities in connection with the circumstances
surrounding Iraq.
I begin with a review of the duties that we have. First I pray for
our soldiers whose roles are pretty well defined, and I would like to
point out that we in the Congress have a duty as well, a constitutional
duty, that requires under the Constitution that we alone can decide
war. And why is that? Because of Article I, section 8. It is important
for us to note that this duty is nondelegable. We cannot pass it off.
We cannot turn it back. It can only be done by us. So the question of
who decides becomes very important.
On this past Monday, the President of the United States said he has
decided that he will begin this war, and that this is a matter that did
not require him to consult with Congress, that there was no debate in
the Congress, that it was a matter that he has been telling us in
innumerable ways on innumerable occasions precisely what he was going
to do, and that Saddam Hussein's time has run out, and there are no
more options, and that negotiations are futile, and that the United
Nations can do what they want, that everybody has to decide in the
family of nations, that they are either with us or against us, and that
it does not matter whether the inspection regime required by the United
Nations has been concluded or not.
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It does not matter whether the United Nations approves or
disapproves. He has decided what he will do, and he is going to do it.
Why war? And why now? A war could be justified only if our national
security is threatened. There has not been the case made that that is
the present circumstance, and it of course has to be weighed very
carefully against the death and the destruction not only that we put in
our own military's path but also the innocent people in another country
who will likely be killed in the course of this activity. And of course
none of this has been debated by the Congress. But what about the
tactics of the 43rd President of the United States? He has repeated on
more than one occasion that war is the last resort. ``My last resort,''
when everyone knows that it is his first objective. How can he be
declaring that war is the last resort, that he has exhausted
negotiation when actually he is short-circuiting the whole process?
And then we have the coalition, the fig leaf coalition of the
willing, which bears not that much analysis. Who they are and why they
are there speaks generally for itself. And then of course we have the
central issue here that there is no compelling evidence that Iraq is a
current threat to our national security. None. We waited for the grainy
photos of the Secretary of State when he was supposed to have
conclusively made the case. We have waited for the Secretary of Defense
when he was supposed to have conclusively made the case. We waited for
the President and the Vice President when they were supposed to have
made the case. It was the Vice President who first announced early on
that Iraq had nuclear
[[Page H2119]]
weapons. That turned out to be incorrect; and we have heard little of
it, nothing of it since.
Then we had the assertion again by the Vice President of the United
States that Iraq was linked to the tragedy of the attack on the United
States on September 11. That has never been proven, and little has been
made of that so far. Then of course it was asserted that our
intelligence linked Iraq to al Qaeda. Not so. That has not happened
either. So what we have here is a sorry compendium of
misunderstandings, inaccuracies, and public relations gambits that do
not do the most democratic government and the most powerful Nation on
the planet any credit.
So the President has determined to unleash the dogs of war. He has
set the clock ticking toward an unprecedented barrage of destruction
that will be dropped upon a nation of 20 million people, a city of 6
million people within that country; and all of us who hold human life
precious should watch this clock run down as we lurch toward an
unnecessary war that the President seems determined to start.
So for the brave young men and women of our armed services who will
be headed into harm's way, we offer them our support and our prayers
for their safe return. But we also must be faithful to our duty, a duty
entrusted exclusively to the Congress by our Founding Fathers, and that
is the solemn duty to decide after thorough consideration amongst us
whether or not this great Nation should go to war. So the
Constitution's framers emphatically entrusted the decision to the
Congress alone. This is not some recently determined statement of
constitutional theory. Our Founding Fathers, as we review the debates
that they had in writing the Constitution, were adamant that the
executive not play a role, although once war began, the executive is
the Commander in Chief to implement that decision. And those men who
came together over 215 years ago were so intent on excluding the
President that they rejected an offer to share the power to declare war
between the Congress and the executive. This was debated centuries ago.
I know that some believe that the Congress properly authorized a war
against Iraq and a resolution in October, but that is not the case. We
have not yet performed our duty. We did enact a resolution that
generally authorized the President to fight terrorism and to seek
enforcement of previous United Nations resolutions on Iraq, but in
reality that resolution bucked the constitutionality conferred on the
Congress to the President. It let the President decide to choose when
and where and against whom to start a war. It dodged the decision and
sought to delegate an authority that is exclusively our own, an
authority that cannot be delegated.
The administration argues that legal precedence allowed the Congress
to provide an authorization of war that is functionally equivalent to
the now rarely used formal declaration of war, which entirely misses
the point. It is not the format which is at issue. It is who really
decides, and it was clear at that time in the beginning from the
congressional debate, from the executive branch statements and from the
resolution itself that the diplomatic route would be pursued first by
going through the U.N., subsequently in response to a broad national
consensus the United States spearheaded with the passage of resolution
1441 that imposed a new inspection regime. The United Nations Security
Council went along with the United States, and it was clear last fall
that the decision of whether to declare war was being put off at that
time unmistakably, and in the months since then it has become
increasingly clear that the decision to go to war would turn on two
crucial assessments. First, there would be an assessment of the results
of the inspection team that was there checking to find out if there
were weapons that could be destructive weapons or chemical or
biological materials that would be in violation of the terms that had
been imposed upon Iraq.
But the second assessment and the ultimate judgment would require
weighing the implications of the inspection results and other
information about what threat Iraq poses to the United States against
the full costs of casualties, of the economic costs, the diplomatic
fallout, and the increased terrorism in this country that could result
from going to war. Clearly these are not exclusive military judgments
reserved for a Commander in Chief. They are precisely the kind of
complex national policy judgments that the Founding Fathers conferred
very deliberately on the Congress in matters of war and peace. Yet in
the present circumstances, the Congress has abdicated any role in that
all-important decision. Rather, the entire world has been riveted on
whether the American President would decide to declare war. The
President has boldly told journalists and Members of Congress alike
that it is his decision and his decision alone. This is a perversion of
the Constitution of the United States. Even if one argues that the
Congress properly exercises constitutional duties and that the
President thereby has all the necessary authority to start a war, a
fundamental question yet remains: Why war now? The Bush war would have
disastrous far-ranging consequences for many years for every American
citizen. War is about devastation, destruction, and death.
The American people are not blood thirsty. We want war only if our
country is in imminent danger. Otherwise, a war is human and economic
costs and moral costs are too great. It robs us of resources urgently
needed by America's working families and those less fortunate. Even in
terms of national security, an all out war would rob Americans of
hundreds of billions of dollars needed for the first line of defense,
which is homeland security on which we have made far too little
progress since the tragedy of September 11.
As the President repeats his unverified mantra of threats to national
security, cities across this land are laying off police officers,
firemen, emergency medical service teams, and the so-called first
responders to any new terrorist because this administration's ``first
response'' to empty city treasuries have been, briefly, too bad, tough.
This is not a partisan spat nor a Washington insiders policy dispute.
The citizens' crusade to stop an immoral war in Iraq has been nothing
less than a noble struggle for our Nation's soul, and that struggle has
not been particularly successful nor has it been a failure, because all
across the Nation, there have been demonstrations, marches, protests,
rallies; and I can tell you in the great State of Michigan there have
only in the last few days been demonstrations in Detroit and Lansing
and Grand Rapids and Traverse City and many other places throughout our
state.
So we must commit ourselves to this cause with the same dedication
and urgency in which many of us, most of us, strove to stop segregation
and to end the Vietnam War, another conflict which finally brought our
government to its senses. For the President to repeatedly insist that
for him war is a last resort is contradicted by his actions which
reveal that war is really his first choice and has been all along. His
attempts to make it palatable by badgering, bullying, coercing, bribing
countries into a so-called coalition of the willing has been a mere fig
leaf transparent to the entire world.
The President has failed to present compelling evidence that Iraq
currently is a threat to our national security. One rationale after
another has been disproved. The President, the Vice President, the
Secretary of Defense have presented a kaleidoscope of ever-changing
rationale as they tried to nimbly stay one jump ahead of various truth
squads at the United Nations, among skeptical Members of Congress, and
among the media and even of its own intelligence agencies, particularly
the Central Intelligence Agency.
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Americans have borne the burden of war when attacked or actually
threatened with great resilience, but America cannot in good conscience
start a war so costly in blood and life and treasure on the basis of
circumstantial evidence and speculation that sometime in the
unspecified future, Iraq may present an actual threat to the United
States, because this war against Iraq is a war that will devastate a
country of 20 million or 26 million and cause damages that will take
decades to undo; a war that will see many American casualties and that
could fracture our fragile
[[Page H2120]]
economy; a war that will destabilize the Middle East and likely beyond;
a war that will swell the ranks of terrorist recruits all over the
world; a war that will weaken our fight against terrorism at home and
abroad, and that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars desperately
needed for programs in all of our cities; a war that will set a
terrible precedent in a world of growing numbers of nuclear states,
where atomic energy supplies can be bought at bazaars, on street
corners, in a number of places in the world already, in a world where
nations are anxious to get their hands on these ingredients and will do
anything to get them, and some, I regret to report, are succeeding.
For any country to launch a preventive war against opponents that are
deemed a possible future threat is an improper exercise of the power of
war in this country, a war not really wanted by the American people and
not desired by many of our military commanders on a personal level, and
certainly not among our allies.
Worst of all, it is a war that, as the Central Intelligence Agency
admits, will only make it more likely that Saddam Hussein will unleash
whatever unconventional weapons he does have against our troops,
against Israel and our other allies.
There is no evidence that Saddam seeks to commit suicide. We deterred
him from using weapons of mass destruction during Desert Storm. If he
faces destruction, however, he may well seek to play the role of
Sampson.
Last weekend, several of the Nation's leading papers seemed to
suddenly discover all of these grave costs of war in Iraq, in which
article after article noted with an air of sudden reportorial discovery
that the war would drastically increase the likelihood of Saddam
Hussein's use of weapons of mass destruction, and that it would almost
certainly escalate dramatically the number of terrorist attacks that
could happen in the United States; that many U.S. military commanders
fear that it would undermine the real war against terrorism; that there
could be extensive casualties among innocent Iraqi civilians who have a
great deal of reason to be opposed to Saddam Hussein; and that even
following a quick military victory against Saddam Hussein, if there is
to be one, we would be mired in an Iraqi quicksand of tribal feuds and
guerrilla warfare for decades.
It would have been far more useful to their readers if the media had
discovered the costly side of this war ledger months earlier. Instead,
like the administration, most of the media focused overwhelmingly over
the question of whether it would be preferable to prevent Saddam's use
of armaments and remove his regime, as if there were no competing costs
on the other side of this ledger that had to be carefully balanced and
weighed in deciding whether this would be an action that would result
in a net plus for America.
Now, there may be still time for the President to avoid starting the
wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is still time,
admittedly precious little, for the American people to speak out
against the war that so few of them seem to support.
We should remember the warning of General Anthony Zinni, the Marine
Commandant and head of the U.S. Central Command which guards the Middle
East, who reminded us that military commanders know the full horrors of
war and hesitate to plunge ahead until the national interest is clearly
at stake.
On the other hand, the Marine Commandant warned, those who have never
worn a uniform or have never seen combat are often the quickest to beat
the drums of war.
So the administration will condemn whoever utters them as unpatriotic
and partisan, just as the Johnson White House condemned Martin Luther
King, Jr.'s questioning of Vietnam. The Bush team has already spread
that slander in order to stop the erosion of support for the war as the
public learns the truth. Are the military veterans and retired generals
opposed to this war unpatriotic? Are the families of those who were
killed on September 11 in New York and Pennsylvania who oppose this war
partisan? That is outrageous.
I know many of my colleagues in good faith have been convinced that
Iraq is a threat to us now, and they are entitled to their opinion, but
they have been the target of a Niagara of propaganda, especially with
the Vice President of the United States' early insistence that Saddam
was involved in the September 11 attacks on the United States, and that
he had nuclear weapons, both of these assertions which have long been
disavowed by our Intelligence Community, our spy organizations. There
have been many other assertions and premises used by the administration
to market their product, in the revealing phrase of the White House
Chief of Staff, which have crumbled under close scrutiny in the White
House Chief of Staff's revealing terms.
So, I would ask this administration to reconsider their view and to
ask themselves, almost the entire world is against this war. Every
major city in the United States has gone on record in opposition to
this war. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Pope,
almost every major Protestant denomination, the American labor
movement, the AFL-CIO, 13 million people, the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People have all gone on record against this
war.
Leading retired U.S. military commanders, such as General Zinni,
General Schwarzkopf in his original views, have voiced opposition to
this war. Numerous Active Duty generals have told reporters off the
record of their serious concerns about a war at this time against Iraq.
General Scowcroft, an adviser to President George Herbert Walker Bush's
administration, is against the war. And all of this opposition has
arisen before the war has started, before a war has started, an
unprecedented phenomenon in our history.
In view of these facts then, it is perhaps just possible that there
is something amiss with the President's premises, something unconnected
in his logic and his rejection of further efforts to resolve these
issues peacefully.
I urge my colleagues to reflect upon these circumstances and join me
in continuing to press and urge and pray for our President to find
another way to follow the path of peace, for blessed are the
peacemakers.
I now yield to the distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis),
my friend and colleague for many years, even before he became a Member
of Congress.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman very much.
I want to thank the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) for his
steadfastness and his many years of understanding, that sometimes you
might have to give out, but you never give up, and even though it
appears to be the last minute, right down to the wire, here the
gentleman is continuing to speak to the American people, trying to help
all of us see the light and see the way. So I thank the gentleman for
this opportunity to join with him.
On October 10, 2002, this Congress voted to give the President of the
United States broad powers, which he has taken as the right to engage
in a unilateral first strike war against Iraq without a clearly
demonstrated and imminent threat of attack on the United States.
Our oath of office as Members of Congress, our constitutional charge,
the mandate laid upon us by the people does not permit us to delegate
the responsibility of engaging the awesome military power of the United
States. Our oath of office does not permit us to delegate our
responsibilities in placing our fighting men and women on the field of
battle.
The Constitution places the power to declare war squarely and solely
in the Congress. This issue arises far above partisan politics.
President Abraham Lincoln put our Congressional responsibility this
way: ``We cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this
administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal
significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The
fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or
dishonor to the last generation.''
I opposed that resolution, and I remain opposed, because after all of
the information I have seen, and after all I have heard, neither I nor
a majority of the residents of my district, the Seventh Congressional
District of Illinois, are convinced that the war is our only, our best
and our most immediate option. We are not convinced that every
diplomatic action has been exhausted.
[[Page H2121]]
In fact, diplomacy and inspections have not exhausted their ultimate
potential.
I was not convinced, and I am still not convinced, that the
resolution would properly guide us to act cooperatively and legally,
through the United Nations, with the agreement and the involvement of
the international community.
{time} 2030
In fact, it has led us to pursue risky unilateral actions in defiance
of international law and the United Nations charter.
As the American people are attempting to make sense of this complex
situation, it is the duty of the Congress to ask some hard questions.
One, is there an immediate threat to the United States? In my judgment,
the answer is no. We have not received evidence of immediate danger. We
have not received evidence that Iraq has the means to attack the United
States, and we have not received evidence that the danger is greater
today than it was last year.
Will the use of military force against Iraq reduce or prevent the
spread or use of weapons of mass destruction? All evidence is that Iraq
does not possess nuclear weapons today. The use of chemical or
biological weapons or the passage of such weapons to terrorist groups
would be nothing less than suicide for the current Iraqi leadership.
So I join with the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) in hoping
that some way there is some resolve, that there is some sliver of
chance, some reaction that might lead us out of this chaos and
confusion into a peaceful existence, with the United States of America
leading the way.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his
thoughtfulness, and I am deeply grateful for him joining me tonight.
It is a pleasure to recognize the gentleman from New York (Mr.
Owens), who has worked in civil rights activity, and is a man of great
thoughtfulness and perseverance.
Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for presiding over this
Special Order on Iraq. We cannot say too much at this point about
America's preemptive strike on Iraq. We are the greatest Nation that
ever existed in the history of the world. We are the richest; we are
the most powerful. We are also the most democratic. Never have so many
people enjoyed democracy and never have so many people had an
opportunity to help make decisions. We should not throw away our
opportunity to help make this decision. We should not assume that it is
all over, that decisions have been made and we cannot stop the war at
this point. Or if the war should occur in the next few hours or the
next few days, we should not assume that we cannot shorten it, we
cannot do the best for our soldiers. The best thing to do for our
soldiers is to bring them home safely, to get them out of conflict's
way.
War is hell. War is hell. The question is, Do we have to plunge into
hell in order to accomplish what we are seeking to accomplish?
I want to go back to where I was last fall when we considered the
President's resolution, the resolution authorizing the President to go
to war. At that time I said that I still believe that every step we
take toward a war with Iraq makes us less safe, not more safe. If we
get involved and obsessed with Iraq, it is a bottomless pit that makes
us very much more unsafe than we were before. I said at that time that
there are other situations existing in the world which we should spend
more time on and take care of before we plunge into any kind of long-
range involvement with Iraq, and I still say the same is true.
Most people have not bothered to observe the situation closely in
Pakistan. Pakistan seems to be off the radar completely, off the
agenda. Nobody talks about it. Pakistan is a nation of 180 million
people. Most of them are Muslims. Officially they are a Muslim nation.
They see themselves as a Muslim nation. Pakistan already has the
nuclear bomb. They have nuclear weapons because we trained the
Pakistani scientists in this country, and they now have nuclear
weapons. They have nuclear weapons. A Muslim nation has nuclear
weapons.
Pakistan has always had a positive relationship with the United
States, but it has always been a strained relationship. Pakistan has
always supported us throughout the entire Cold War. Pakistan supported
us against the Russians in Afghanistan. There is a long history of
Pakistan's loyalty to the United States.
Yet Pakistan has always been treated like a second-class partner.
Pakistan has never been rewarded for its loyalty. When the Cold War was
over, we just pulled out. The Afghanistan war, they were very much
involved with, and after it was over, we just picked up and left. We
have never given them the kind of aid economically that we should have
provided. We have never offered them a Marshall Plan. We, at this point
in history, even after al Qaeda, and Pakistan has now played a major
role in al Qaeda, in the pursuit of al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, they
played a major role. But after all the negotiations of how we are going
to go about doing this and what the alliance means, we have ended up
giving Pakistan only $300 million in aid. Mr. Speaker, $300 million in
aid to Pakistan, already fighting with us against Osama bin Laden, on
the border of Afghanistan. On the border of Afghanistan, in great harm,
harm's way, $300 million.
Now we are discussing packages with Turkey for $6 billion, just to
let our troops pass through to go to Iraq. What do we think the
Pakistanis think when they look at that?
Here is why I ask the question: What do you think the Pakistanis
think? Because the other element in this is that this Pakistani
Government, who has always been our friend, also teeters on the edge of
dissolution. The Pakistani situation is very, very tenuous. They have a
President who took over as a result of a military coup, but this same
President was part of the military that helped us in Afghanistan. This
same President presides over a Pakistani secret service intelligence
agency. They are the ones who created the Taliban. They created the
Taliban as a way of conquering Afghanistan. They are very close to the
Taliban.
So when we had the invasion of Afghanistan, there are elements of
Pakistan's military and Pakistan's intelligence services who are very
unhappy about it, and as Muslims also do not like the idea of Muslims
fighting Muslims.
The present government is very anxious. The President and the top
officials go nowhere except with top security. They are very aware of
the fact that they are in jeopardy. In other words, a coup could take
place at any moment in Pakistan, and if a coup takes place and the
right wing there, the people who are pro-Osama bin Laden, win, they
have the nuclear bomb. Osama will have the nuclear bomb. It is just
that dangerous.
Why do I talk about a coup on the eve of attacking Iraq? Because
there is a fanatical element involved here which will be triggered at
the invasion of Iraq all over the Muslim world. There is a fanatical
element which the Pakistani Government may just not be able to contend
with. We are in danger of having a coup take place and the nuclear bomb
is the worst thing that could happen, nuclear bombs put in position
where Osama bin Laden could get them.
I need not talk about the other critical situation in the world:
North Korea. That is on the radar screen. People talk about that. We
have in North Korea a dictator less known than Saddam Hussein. We do
not even understand the machinations of this man's mind and the whole
regime that he has managed to perpetuate all of these years. But people
who have been there say that the population is fanatically behind him.
This is a population extremely intelligent; they have mastered modern
technology. They have some of the best rockets in the world, and they
are going on to fashion their own nuclear industry. They already have,
they say, a couple of bombs and they are going to start making more. At
the same time, they cannot grow enough food to feed their people. What
kinds of monsters are these, and what kind of situation do we have when
they have the technological confidence that great, but they are not
able to feed the people? The people in charge do not even care enough
to feed the people, obviously. That is another problem.
So we have those dangers in the world; and as we get obsessed with
Iraq
[[Page H2122]]
and involved with Iraq, which is a problem, Saddam Hussein is a
monster. Saddam Hussein is a threat to world order. But Saddam Hussein
is not an immediate threat to the United States and probably not an
immediate threat to any country because he knows if he attacks anyone
in surrounding Arab countries, he will have the whole world come down
on him again.
Saddam Hussein, I have no case to make for. The man finances suicide
bombers in Palestine. The big question is why? Why did we let him
continue to sell oil all over the world so that he could finance
suicide bombers in Palestine and continue building his arms industry?
Where does he get the money from to continue to build up his arms
industry? We talk about weapons of mass destruction. He has a big army.
He has a big army with conventional weapons. The money to buy those
weapons and to keep that army going has continued to flow, despite the
fact that we have sanctions imposed on Iraq. Why did we not enforce the
sanctions? What oil barons did we bow to to let them make a profit by
not enforcing the sanctions? Why did we not, if France was trafficking
in oil and Russia was trafficking, why did we not come down on our
partners and really make the sanctions stick? They have never stuck. He
has continued to get money, as much as he wants, to do what he wants to
do.
People say, well, we are responsible for a lot of deaths of children
in Iraq. No. That is ridiculous. He has the money. He does not spend it
for the nutrition of children; he does not spend it for medicine. He
spends it on building up his weapons and his power, and we let him do
it. Why do we have to go all the way to a war, mobilizing 300,000
American troops, when we did not bother to do what we could have done
on the seas? We control the sea lanes. We could have stopped the oil
from being sold and transmitted all over the world, but we did not.
So there are other solutions, is what I am saying. Why do we have to
go into hell? War is hell. If we did not know it was hell, if our
imaginations did not tell us that, reading the ``Iliad'' did not tell
us, when I read the ``Iliad,'' I wondered why Homer went to such great
lengths to talk about how the spear was plunged in mightily and the
blood flowed like rivers, and he had four great descriptions of the
horror of war. Well, in those days they did not have any movies. He did
not have Spielberg to show him in ``Saving Private Ryan.'' If he did
not read the ``Iliad,'' if he did not read any books and could not have
his imagination telling him why war is hell, if he did not believe in
Nikita Kruschev and the defense of Stalingrad, the facts of history,
then we can see Steven Spielberg. It is right there on the screen in
``Saving Private Ryan.''
Our boys landed at Normandy under those conditions. It is not an
exaggeration. War is hell. War was hell in a lot of other places too.
War was hell at Gettysburg. The greatest number of American lives lost
was lost in the Civil War; 600,000, at Gettysburg, thousands died, the
largest number came from New York. But they died; they died for a noble
cause at Gettysburg. They died for a noble cause at Normandy. They died
for a noble cause in Korea. The North Koreans came brutally down on the
South Koreans, and within days they wiped out the city of Seoul, a
brutal onslaught. Millions of people died in the Korean War before the
United States forces got involved.
Our armed services and our military might can be put to good use. I
like to think of myself as a follower of Martin Luther King. But I am
not a pacifist in the sense that I think military force is necessary.
There are times that military force is necessary. Thank God we have
force. Our professional soldiers are the best in the world. My brother
was a sergeant major in the Army for 20, 26 years. We have a very
professional group of people now that run the military, and they are
determined to do a good job for our Nation. We cannot fault them for
the decisions that were made.
The problem is at the top; and the White House and the decision-
making here in Washington, it is all wrong and dangerously off course.
We are at a pivotal moment in American history, and instead of going
one way with our military might and our wealth and our power, and our
influence, most people in the world love us. I do not believe Americans
are hated by ordinary people anywhere in large numbers.
{time} 2045
They think we are as close to heaven as we are ever going to get here
on Earth in terms of our way of life, including the political
institutions, as well as the supermarkets and the joys of life and so
forth.
I would like to conclude with a little piece of poetry here. We have
faced difficulties for a long time, since the beginning of the country,
of various kinds. We have always overcome those difficulties. Thank God
we had Thomas Jefferson to help us get off to a good start. Thank God
we had Abraham Lincoln at a critical moment when our Nation was about
to fall apart. There is no reason to believe that we will not overcome
this time.
All of the Members of Congress and all of our constituents should not
throw up our hands in despair and give up. Let us keep talking. Let us
keep trying to arouse the public to understand that this is a war we do
not need. By going into preemptive war, using our wealth and military
power in the wrong way, we are going to set history against us. Instead
of guiding history and being the force and civilization which carries
mankind to wonders never dreamed of before, we will become the enemy,
with a lot of people sniping at our heels, and finally they will put
together coalitions and bring down the great American empire. Rome fell
because it was arrogant and thought that it could go on and on throwing
its power around.
We have at various times in history been delivered from this kind of
arrogance and these kinds of mistakes. There was a man who wrote to
Thomas Jefferson early in the history of the country who saw what
happened when the Constitution was generated. It was always a miracle
to him how these savage men, these people in the wilderness, could come
together and put together a magnificent government.
His neighbor wrote and said that there was an angel over America.
There is an angel in the whirlwind taking care of us. I think we ought
to remember that as we go into this difficult, very bloody war. War is
bloody, it is not what Good Morning America has been showing us. War is
hell. We would like the angels in the whirlwind to come out and deliver
us.
Some time ago, I think it was February 28, I do not remember what the
occasion was, I wrote Angel in the Whirlwind, actually as a result of a
quote that President Bush had made in his inaugural address.
Angel in the Whirlwind,
Tell us where you've been;
Come steer us through the storm,
Halt all this public sin.
Angel in the Whirlwind
Blow forth great truths;
All men are born equal,
Some men die great;
Profiles in courage
Never come too late.
Lincoln in the whirlwind
Blew powerful justice down;
Emancipation Proclamation,
Magnificent declaration,
Plain ordinary sensation,
Transformed to noble creation.
Sailors in the whirlwind
Forsake all ease,
Typhoons still lurk near,
Patriots must not fear.
Angel in the whirlwind,
Jefferson at your side,
Ships ashore at Normandy,
In every boat you ride,
Protect our future fate,
Martin King's posterity
Is waiting at the gate.
Angel in the whirlwind
Wrestle with the terror;
Tornado twisted greed;
Volcanoes belching
Ashes of indifference;
Human kind's highest hope
Strangling on a golden rope;
Merciful empire
That might've been,
Critically infected now
By the virus of public sin;
Giant graves reserved for midget men.
Merciful empire that might have been, or we could still be
the merciful empire that saves civilization.
Angel in the whirlwind
Stay to save the brave and free,
Bring back judicial integrity,
Point us toward eternity,
Come steer us through new storms
Angel in the whirlwind.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York (Mr.
[[Page H2123]]
Owens) for his powerful, intellectual, and passionate discourse. It has
helped this discussion immeasurably.
I am pleased to yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-
Lee), my colleague on the Committee on the Judiciary in the House of
Representatives. From the time she entered the Congress, the
gentlewoman from Houston, Texas, has worked at my side on numerous
issues and causes, a dear friend of mine.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished
gentleman from Michigan, the distinguished gentleman, for having the
wisdom to be on the floor of the House in the absence of the acceptance
by the leadership of the charge that should be taken up; that is, to be
debating the question of war.
I think it should be noted, though everyone is aware of the
continuing leadership that the gentleman has given to a myriad of
issues fairly, evenhandedly, and seeking justice, that the gentleman
rose to the floor at the time that the clock ticked off or ticked out
for the threat or the admonishment or the instruction, direction, or
directive that was given to Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq and Baghdad in
48 hours; and, of course, the Nation knows that that ended tonight at 8
p.m.
It is appropriate that we are on the floor, because we are filling in
the gap of really what the Congress should be doing at this moment;
that is, a somber, decided, and deliberative debate on the
constitutional question of whether or not this Congress will declare
war against Iraq.
Through the course of our interaction, we have pressed the issue of
not whether one is for or against this war, but whether or not this
Congress has the sole responsibility to declare war.
Frankly, Mr. Speaker, and, frankly, with respect to this debate, I do
not believe we should be silenced on this issue. I will tell the
gentleman why; because even as America is hovering and preparing for
the worst, the Constitution is being shredded. It is being ignored, and
it is being taken lightly, because it is clear that the Founding
Fathers wrote this document to respect the three branches of
government, to recognize that we are strong as a democracy if those
three branches are interrelated.
The Constitution does enunciate that the President, whoever that is,
is the Commander in Chief and can deploy troops. Many will suggest that
a resolution debated in October 2002, satisfied the question. It did
not, because it gave more power to the President than has ever been
given to any President in the United States, Democratic or Republican,
meaning that actions might be able to be perpetrated without coming
back to the United States Congress.
Clearly, it is well known that if the Congress does not use its
power, it does not give up its power. So going back to the
Constitution, whether or not it takes us 6 hours or 24 hours, it is
clear that this body could debate that question. It is not, as I said,
a question of winning or losing, it is a question of the sanctity of
process. A President cannot singly and should not singly take the
Nation into war.
I would just use as an example, we are not a parliamentary form of
government, but it is interesting that our strongest ally was quite
willing to appear before the British Parliament just yesterday and
engage in a very open debate on this question. Would it not appear that
we could do the same?
Let me just say this, and I will yield to the distinguished
gentleman. We have been characterized, those of us who have been
persistent in our opposition, and frankly I believe we should remain
here in these Chambers until someone recognizes the responsibilities
for this Congress to debate this question. But those of us who have
raised our voices have been categorized and pushed to the side.
I do not think the media understands democracy, because whenever they
present the largeness of this issue, it is a singular drumbeat: We are
on the way to war. I assume now after 8 p.m. they are announcing war.
It is a shame on them. As they say, it is a mockery on all of our
houses; because, frankly, the American people deserve better. They
deserve to know the facts, and that there are lucid and intelligent
perspectives on both sides of this question.
I am not asking the President to give up everything and to suggest
that Saddam Hussein should be given flowers, but I am saying that war
should be the last option. I believe there will be a third option. I am
appreciative of the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) joining me on
filing legislation that again restates the proposition that the
Congress has the authority to declare war, and we have filed that bill
today.
But we have options, and we will be discussing this in the context of
reaching out: One, convene an international tribunal, war crimes
tribunal, with the United Nations Security Council and indict Saddam
Hussein and his party leaders, and try him for war crimes; two, leave
50,000 troops on the border and bring home at least 200,000 of our
young men and women; a vigorous, strong 50,000-person coalition, troops
that are in a coalition, vigorously allowing the U.N. inspections to go
forward; humanitarian aid now. Reinvigorate the Mideast peace process,
fight the war against terrorism, and restore the coalition. These are
key elements that could be done.
I believe, Mr. Speaker, that we can do something more than stand in
silence. Frightening, deadening silence is appalling for this body that
had the likes of the great leaders that we have known that have gone on
before us.
I thank the distinguished gentleman for his leadership on this issue.
I am not sure if the distinguished gentleman wants to close, but I
think that more action is warranted than this Congress seems to have
decided to do or the courage to do.
I would think more of all of us that we want to have a debate,
whether we vote up or down on the question. I have no interest in
suggesting that the victory be mine, but only that the process be real
and that we do not give up the duty of this Congress to debate the
question of war.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague on the
Committee on the Judiciary, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-
Lee), for her critical analysis of what we can do other than what we
are about to do: that this person, Saddam Hussein, should be tried for
crimes against humanity in the Hague court, the international criminal
court, as Milosevic was and others; and that we could repair even at
this late hour from a course that we think is disastrous. I thank the
gentlewoman for joining me tonight.
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