[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 34 (Wednesday, March 17, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H1212-H1213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        AMERICA'S PREEMPTIVE WAR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, the House today debated America's first 
preemptive war. If this were about the courage and valor of our 
soldiers, I would ask that we act by unanimous consent to praise our 
troops, but this resolution is really about the Bush policy of global 
domination.
  A year ago America launched a preemptive war. Today we are 
considering the consequences of that war. Words of great Presidents and 
great Americans offer guidance. In 1848, Abraham Lincoln expressed the 
fear of President Polk's power when he wrote to oppose U.S. annexation 
of Mexican territory. ``If today, President Polk should choose to say 
he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from 
invading us, how could we stop him? You may say to him, `I see no 
probability of the British invading us' but he will say to you, `Be 
silent; I see it, if you do not.' ''
  Does that sound like George Bush to Members, with all of the 
misrepresentations we had?
  One of America's greatest soldiers was President Dwight David 
Eisenhower. In what many regard as his finest speech, President 
Eisenhower said this about war: ``Every gun that is made, every warship 
launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from 
those who are hungry and not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.''
  Eleanor Roosevelt, ``We have to face the fact that either all of us 
are going to die together or we are going to live together, and if we 
are going to live together we must talk.''
  Finally, Martin Luther King, ``Darkness cannot drive out darkness; 
only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do 
that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness 
multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. The chain 
reaction of evil, hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars, must 
be broken or we shall plunge into the dark abyss of annihilation.''
  Today, we are considering whether to endorse the Bush doctrine of 
domination. The world the President claims to be making safer finds our 
actions offensive. The nonpartisan Pew Research Center, as reported in 
today's Washington Post, conducted a survey in nine countries. The 
results are frightening. It found people in several Middle Eastern 
countries increasingly support suicide bombings and other violence 
against Americans.
  Majorities in Jordan and Morocco said attacks against Americans were 
justified. These same people now favor Osama bin Laden. These opinions 
are coming from ordinary people, not armed terrorists. In Europe, 
nations

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are so concerned over American foreign policy they want the European 
Union to take on a new issue: America.
  That is the world a year after the Bush doctrine of domination. Our 
best friends shudder at what we are doing. Those who hate us were 
convinced that terrorism is a legitimate defense. The world is not 
safer, America is not safe. This resolution will not help. It will only 
serve to deepen the mistrust of America and widen the great global 
divide created when President Bush invaded Iraq. We should all have 
voted ``no'' on this.

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