[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 35 (Thursday, March 18, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E407]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E407]]
RELATING TO THE LIBERATION OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE AND THE VALIANT SERVICE 
         OF THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES AND COALITION FORCES

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. JAMES L. OBERSTAR

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 17, 2004

  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, today, the House is considering a divisive 
and flawed resolution that proclaims that the world has been made safer 
with the removal of Saddam Hussein and his regime from power in Iraq. I 
have great difficulty accepting that proposition, and am deeply 
troubled that the House Republican leadership is embarking on this 
transparent, partisan exercise to score political points with their 
right wing.
  Without question, the Saddam Hussein dictatorship brutalized the 
Iraqi people, and there is universal approval that he has been removed 
from power. Iraq is moving towards becoming more safe for the Iraqi 
people, but it is a great exaggeration to claim, as this resolution 
does, that the world is safer. As we examine the facts on the one-year 
commemoration of the war in Iraq, there is no direct evidence that Iraq 
represented a clear and present danger to the United States. President 
Bush initiated this war which has diverted attention and resources from 
what should be our primary international objective: discerning, 
disrupting and uprooting the source of terrorism.
  Just as the Bush Administration distorted and manipulated 
intelligence concerning weapons of mass destruction to initiate this 
preemptive and unilateral war against Iraq, the House Republican 
leadership has added to the Administration's credibility problem by 
advancing this resolution. The Republican majority are deceiving 
themselves and the American people with this assertion that we are 
safer as a nation and we live in a safer world. We are not and do not.
  We continue to live in a very dangerous world, and we are far from 
winning the war against terrorism. That is why I am very troubled that 
the President's proposed budget fails to seek the necessary funds for 
homeland security. We must provide more, not lower resources, for port 
security; our firefighters and first responders need additional 
funding, but the President's budget request falls far short of what is 
needed to make our hometowns safer.
  I am also very disappointed with the manner in which this legislation 
was drafted and brought to the House Floor. If the Republican majority 
truly wanted a strong expression of support for our troops and the 
Iraqi people, they could have done so without inflammatory language in 
this resolution, and by including the Democrats in drafting a 
responsible statement of bipartisan national purpose and unity. This 
intentional failure to bring bipartisanship to bear on this critical 
national security policy leaves no other conclusion to draw than the 
Republican leadership places a higher priority on partisan gamesmanship 
than on statesmanship.
  This ``Do Nothing Congress'' has failed to address the significant 
challenges at home and abroad, while spending the first three months of 
this year considering low-priority, feel-good House resolutions. On the 
one-year anniversary of our military action against Iraq, the House 
Republicans have squandered an opportunity to demonstrate unblemished, 
patriotic support for our courageous troops and the Iraqi people. The 
American people and especially our troops deserve better from this 
Congress than the misguided resolution.

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