[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 34 (Wednesday, March 17, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H1204-H1205]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        IRAQ 1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) is recognized for 5 minutes
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, this Friday marks the 1-year 
anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Over 10,000 Iraqi soldiers are 
dead. Thousands of Iraqi civilians are dead. Nearly 600 Americans, 600 
of our sons and daughters, are dead. Thousands more have been wounded. 
Physically and emotionally, their lives changed forever.
  But the dead and the wounded are not the only casualties of President 
Bush's decision to invade Iraq. Something else has died in those desert 
sands. Something else has been lost. Truth, nothing but the truth, 
honesty.
  For over a year, the American people have been deceived by the words 
of the President and his administration. Officials at every level have 
misled the people that they were elected to serve. They have also 
misled the community of nations.
  We asked for truth, and President Bush told us that ``Iraq sought 
significant quantities of uranium from Africa.'' We asked for truth, 
and Vice President Cheney repeatedly warned us of close ties between al 
Qaeda and Iraq. We asked for truth, and Secretary of State Colin Powell 
told the United Nations that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. 
Where are those weapons, Mr. Speaker? We asked for truth, and President 
Bush warned us that Iraq had planes that could fly weapons of mass 
destruction to our shores. We asked for truth, and they told us that 
our troops would be greeted as liberators, that Iraqi oil would pay to 
rebuild Iraq.
  The falsehoods go on and on. I do not know whether this 
administration cannot stop or will not stop. I only know that they do 
not stop.

[[Page H1205]]

  Just last Sunday National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told the 
American people that ``Iraq was the most dangerous regime in the 
world.'' Where is the truth?
  Mr. Speaker, this administration would never be able to justify the 
war on Iraq because we cannot believe a word they say. They have never 
been honest about why we went to war. Just ask the former Treasury 
Secretary, Paul O'Neill. He told the Nation this administration was 
hell bent to go to war from day one, even before the President took 
oath of office.
  And it is not just Iraq. It is almost on every issue, every comment, 
every deed. We cannot believe a word they say.
  The Bush administration proposed a $550 billion Medicare prescription 
drug bill and told us it will only cost $400 billion. They cut down 
trees on public land and call it ``Healthy Forests.'' They let industry 
pollute our air and call it ``Clear Skies.''
  The President himself, President Bush, proudly told the American 
people that his budget would cut the deficit in 5 years, but his budget 
does not pay for Iraq. It does not pay for Afghanistan. It does not pay 
for his tax cuts for the rich.
  Mr. Speaker, instead of searching for weapons of mass destruction in 
Iraq, we should be searching for the truth right here at home. The 
Bible tells us, ``The truth will set you free.'' And we will not find 
it at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. The British novelist John 
Le Carre once said, ``I think the single greatest enemy is the misuse 
of information, the perversion of the truth in the hands of terribly 
skillful people.''
  On the eve of the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, we must 
reflect on these words. President Bush and his administration have 
misused information. They have perverted the truth, and now 600 
Americans are dead, 10,000 civilians are dead in Iraq, hundreds of 
thousands of our sons and daughters, brave men and women, young people, 
18, 19, 21, 23 years old, have been torn from their homes, from their 
families, and sent thousands of miles from home.

                              {time}  2015

  I would ask the President, what are they fighting for? I would ask 
him why so many of our young people are dead and wounded, but I do not 
want his answer. I do not want the answer from the Vice President or 
Secretary Powell or Secretary Rumsfeld. The American people do not want 
more of what we have been hearing for the past year. What we want, Mr. 
Speaker, and what we need more than anything else, is the truth.

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