[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 105 (Wednesday, July 16, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H6992]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             INVESTIGATE IRAQ'S WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, my constituents in Marin and Sonoma 
counties in California are as deeply concerned as the gentlewoman from 
Illinois' (Ms. Schakowsky) constituents are about their sons and their 
daughters dying in Iraq and the rationale the Republican administration 
has used to put them there.
  Americans are willing to sacrifice, Mr. Speaker, but only when those 
sacrifices are clearly justified. The lack of confidence my 
constituents show in our current White House results in the American 
people being unsure that their sacrifice in Iraq is justified.
  One of my constituents, Nina, from Sausalito writes, ``I believe the 
majority of Americans are good-hearted people who would not have 
supported the war on Iraq had they understood the true motivations for 
it. I believe that the administration knew this, and actively distorted 
information it gave the people in order to gain public support. We are 
supposed to live in a democracy, but how can we truly be a nation run 
by the people and for the people if our government is not open and 
honest in its communications with us?''
  Some people think that Nina's suspicions, Mr. Speaker, are 
ridiculous. They cannot imagine how anyone could mistrust their 
leadership.
  I understand that. After 9-11 we all wanted to trust our Nation's 
leaders completely, but now our complacency is being shaken. A Walter 
Pincus article in today's Washington Post reads: ``Between October 7, 
when President Bush made a speech laying out the case for military 
action against Hussein, and January 28, when he gave his State of the 
Union address, almost all the other evidence had either been undercut 
or disproved by U.N. inspectors.''
  The issue, Mr. Speaker, is that people like Nina believe that when 
you are talking about war, it is not morally acceptable to send 
soldiers to early graves unless the evidence is absolutely 
overwhelming.
  People who supported war in Iraq argue that the evidence was 
overwhelming, but that begs the question. If the evidence was so 
overwhelming, why was the indisputable evidence kept secret while 
citing disputed evidence over and over again?
  My constituents do not think that adds up.
  Paul from Mill Valley says it very simply: ``We, the people, deserve 
to know if the principal justification that was used to commit this 
country to war in Iraq was true or a fabrication to manipulate public 
opinion.''
  And James from Greenbrae writes that the disgust is bipartisan: ``As 
a registered Republican, I too have had it.'' That is a very serious 
statement, and that is why we need a thorough bipartisan investigation 
into Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
  Stephanie from Sonoma had some instructions for me also: ``Support an 
independent commission to investigate the Bush administration's 
distortion of evidence. The facts that have begun to come out are so 
alarming it would be a travesty to let this go without investigation.''
  Graham from Santa Rosa also had some advice about an investigation: 
``If there was no wrong doing, then the Bush administration should have 
nothing to worry about.''
  Mr. Speaker, it is time to get the facts. I urge all of my colleagues 
to support the Waxman bill, H.R. 2625, for an independent bipartisan 
commission to investigate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. We should 
not be afraid of the truth.

                          ____________________