[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 147 (Monday, October 20, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H9719]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       ILL-CONCEIVED WAR IN IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, last week in a marathon time 
frame of probably about 48 hours this House made one of the most 
important decisions that we will ever have to make and that is the 
expenditure of $87 billion based on the premise of a continuing war in 
Iraq.
  When I debated the question on the floor of the House, I reminded my 
colleagues that this was a war that was not declared under the 
Constitution, and it was a war that had moved from one so-called 
premise to the next. When the President presented it to us, he 
suggested that we were about to be under imminent attack, and we were 
about to be attacked by the existence of weapons of mass destruction.
  As time went on, we heard the words ``liberating Iraq,'' then we 
heard the ``war against terrorism,'' but we have never been able to 
determine the factuality or the truth of the issue of whether or not 
this Nation was about to be imminently attacked that would warrant a 
preemptive strike against another nation.
  But even so, our young men and women went on the frontlines of Iraq 
and offered themselves as the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. 
Therefore, none of us in our support for those troops, will waver away 
from standing shoulder to shoulder with their families and with their 
needs. I know that my colleagues will be discussing accusations by 
Members on the other side of the aisle with respect to a so-called 
litmus test. They have questioned Members' patriotism because they have 
had a vehement opposition to an ill-conceived war.
  My perspective of that is we live in a democracy and opposition is 
what the Federalist Papers were all about. I will continue my vehement 
opposition to this war, but my enthusiastic and unwavering support of 
the troops. I would raise the question to the majority leader as to why 
any such comment should even be appropriate in this democracy and in 
this body.
  Mr. Speaker, I bring to the attention of those who call themselves 
patriotic by sending troops into war the number of young men and women 
who have committed suicide in Iraq since May 11. We have had 11. That 
represents a number of 34. If we had an annualized rate, it would mean 
34 per 100,000 service people. What we have found is since the start of 
the war and after the war, after major combat operations have ended, 
since then, troops have had to cope with increasing paramilitary 
attacks with less opportunity to defend themselves.
  When I met with troops from Iraq, they indicated that they are 
constantly going over landmines or IEDs, I believe they are called, 
going over the same pathways and having their tankers blow up. They do 
not have the same jobs. They are using carpenters and painters and 
others to be part of the MPs and knock down doors. It is an unusual 
Army suicide rate, and when I brought this to the attention of my 
colleagues in the debate, no one seemed to be concerned. The usual Army 
rate of suicide is 10 to 13 per 100,000. What we have in Iraq is like 
34 out of a 100,000. I would think that Members would be concerned.
  In Iraq and Afghanistan, we have hand-to-hand combat going on. We 
have, basically, wars going on on two fronts, and we have our troops in 
hand-to-hand combat and they need additional resources.
  When I met with some of the leadership from the Arab region, they 
suggested they would welcome the opportunity for an Arab-U.S. summit to 
truly see how we could bring peace to the region in Iraq, and I would 
like to see the administration take them up on that offer to sit down 
and talk with our Arab leaders about how we can bring peace to Iraq, 
not with an aftermath, makeshift program that none of us understand, 
with a number of sniper shootings going on, and IEDs killing our young 
people.
  Mr. Speaker, I would finally say this idea of privatization should be 
studied because the random privatization of Arabic countries should not 
be willy-nilly, and gifts to those that would think that this would be 
a gift, but we need to expand the opportunity to small and minority and 
women-owned businesses.
  As I close, we are going to see a CR come to the floor of the House, 
and I do not know if we are going to see a tax cut for those with 
children or whether or not we are ever going to see a guaranteed 
prescription drug benefit, but we will have a continuing resolution 
that Republicans want to promote.

                          ____________________