[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 47 (Monday, March 19, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H2641-H2642]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           IRAQ IN CIVIL WAR

  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, I rise with deep concern that on 
this very day 4 years ago, our Nation inaugurated a conflict, an 
unnecessary war, a war of choice, not a necessity.

[[Page H2642]]

  The most comprehensive intelligence we have, the National 
Intelligence Estimate and the latest Pentagon report, tells us that 
Iraq had descended into a state of civil war. Over 3,000 Americans have 
died, and hundreds of thousands, some even say up to 1 million citizens 
of Iraq, have lost their lives in this unnecessary conflict.
  And while we are telling our veterans of this war, the elderly, the 
poor, and the sick that there is no room in the budget for them, the 
American people have spent over $400 billion on a failed policy. We 
cannot do more of the same. Mr. Speaker, violence begets violence. It 
does not lead to peace.
  President John F. Kennedy once said, ``Those who make peaceful 
revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.'' My 
greatest fear is that the young people of Iraq and of the Middle East 
will never forget this war. My greatest fear is they will grow up 
hating our children and our children's children for what we have done. 
Mr. Speaker, the Bible is right. Even a great nation can reap what it 
sows.
  Nothing troubles me more than to see the young faces of these 
soldiers who have been led to their death.

                              {time}  1945

  Some are only 18, 19, 21, 22, 23. It is painful; it is so painful to 
watch. Sometimes I feel like crying and crying out loud at what we are 
doing as a Nation and what this administration is doing in our name. 
Our children do not deserve to die as pawns in a civil war.
  They do not deserve to pay with their lives for the mistakes of this 
administration. They never had a chance.
  When I was their age, when I was 23 years old, I was leading the 
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, soon to speak in Washington 
on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, but then we were involved in a 
nonviolent revolution to transform the soul of America, to create a 
beloved community.
  Forty years ago, I was there in New York City in Riverside Church 
when Martin Luther King, Jr., gave one of the most powerful speeches he 
ever made against the war in Vietnam. If he could speak today, he would 
say this Nation needs a revolution of values that exposes the truth 
that war does not work. If he could speak today, he would say that war 
is obsolete as a tool of our foreign policy.
  He would say there is nothing keeping us from changing our national 
priority so that the pursuit of peace can take precedence over the 
pursuit of war.
  He would say we must remove the causes of chaos, injustice, poverty 
and insecurity that are breeding grounds for terrorism. This is the way 
towards peace.
  As a Nation, can we hear the words of Gandhi, so simple, so true, 
that it is either nonviolence or nonexistence? Can we hear the words of 
Martin Luther King, Jr., saying that we must learn to live together as 
brothers and sisters or perish as fools?
  Tonight I must make it plain and clear that as a human being, as a 
citizen of the world, as a citizen of America, as a Member of Congress, 
as an individual committed to a world at peace with itself, I will not 
and I cannot in good conscience vote for another dollar or another dime 
to support this war.

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