[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 80 (Tuesday, May 15, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H5043-H5044]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     VOTE BY HOUSE ON WHETHER TO GO TO WAR WITH IRAN IS NEEDED NOW

  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, we need a vote on whether this country is 
going to go to war with Iran. We have talked to the Speaker about it. 
She has promised it. But the time is getting short. Every day that we 
wait, we allow people down at the White House to continue to talk about 
this.
  The vote we gave in 2002 to allow the President to deal with the 
problems of 9/11 was not a blank check to attack any country in the 
world. This war on terror began with some sense in Afghanistan, and 
then moved to Iraq to the absolute chaos we have today. It is a 
quagmire from which we can't get ourselves. And, unfortunately, the 
President and his Vice President are leading us, it appears, toward a 
war with Iran.
  Ask why the urgency? Why do you want to come out here and talk about 
that tonight? Well, there was an article that appeared today in the Al-
Quds Al-Arabi, which is an Arabic paper published in London. It is a 
very respectable paper, and it is one that most people in this body, in 
fact most people in this country, never heard of, nor do they 
understand and will never know about it because our press won't pick it 
up.
  But I read the Middle Eastern press every day. I have some in my 
office who read Arabic, and they translate it for me, and I get a 
summary every day in my office of what is going on. This article I 
think deserves to be quoted a little bit, because people may not get 
the Congressional Quarterly or the Congressional Record and read it.
  The article says this: ``Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday ended 
his tour of the Arab world that started with Iraq and ended in the 
capitals of four other Arab countries, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and 
the United Arab Emirates. High ranking Arab diplomatic sources close to 
the talks with Cheney confirmed to the newspaper that the probability 
of war became more likely than peace in the region.''
  This is Arabs listening to the Vice President of the United States 
talk.
  ``The same sources indicated that Cheney was talking to Gulf leaders 
he met in a very confident and self-assured way, stressing that the 
involvement of this country in Iraq does not mean it is in a weak 
situation and cannot launch another war.''
  Think about that. The Vice President is telling the Arab leaders, 
because we are in this mess in Iraq, just ignore that. We still can go 
to Iran and have a war.
  Cheney went and talked to soldiers and sailors on one of the aircraft 
carriers, ``announcing to them,'' and this again is a quote, ``in a 
decisive manner that the U.S. will not allow Iran to possess nuclear 
weapons and that the option of a military attack is not excluded.''
  Now, he said, again quoting, ``Cheney expressed his conviction that 
striking Iran may be the best solution for the situation in Iraq.''
  Think about it. We are going to solve our problems in Iraq by 
attacking Iran. He says, ``because Tehran,'' the capital of Iran, ``has 
the biggest influence in the country and is the source of the arms of 
the militia.''
  Now, this is from a man who sent to Iraq a guy named Bremer who took 
down all the guards and all the barriers at the border between Iran and 
Iraq, and Iran, of course, has been coming into Iraq. This 
administration set it up, or else they were ignorant. You can take your 
choice on that.
  He said, ``They do not expect that there will be any retaliation by 
Iraq's Shiite militias. Quite the contrary, the Sunni groups and 
militias will take the opportunity to settle accounts with the ruling 
government in Baghdad under American support.''
  So what he is saying is that the United States is shifting its 
support from the Maliki government, which is Shiite, and they are now 
over there telling people, well, we are going to now be supporting the 
Sunni elements so that they can get--Mr. Speaker, I include the 
translation of the Al-Quds Al-Arabi article for the Record.

       Vice-President Dick Cheney yesterday ended his tour of the 
     Arab world that started with Iraq and included the capitals 
     of four other Arab countries, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, 
     and the United Arab Emirates, amidst a war of words with the 
     Iranian President Ahamdi Nijad, who launched a diplomatic 
     counter-attack in the form of two sudden visits to the 
     Emirates and to Oman.
       High-ranking Arab diplomatic sources close to the talks 
     with Cheney confirmed to Al-Quds Al-Arabi that the 
     probability of war became more likely than peace in the 
     region after the round of meetings of the vice-president, and 
     that the expected meetings between the Iranian and American 
     sides in Baghdad might be the last chance to avoid military 
     confrontation.
       The same sources indicated that Cheney was talking to Gulf 
     leaders he met in a very confident and self-assured tone, 
     stressing that the involvement of his country in Iraq does 
     not mean that it is in a weak situation and cannot launch 
     another war, against Iran. Cheney, who visited the troops of 
     his country in Iraq and the Gulf during his last round, made 
     sure that he met American soldiers on an airplane carrier 
     announcing to them in a decisive manner that the US will not 
     allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons, and that the option of 
     a military attack is not excluded. The Iranian President 
     replied against that with severe threats in a press 
     conference in Abu Dhabi, assuring that if they (Americans) 
     make that mistake, the reply of Iran will be very strong and 
     they will regret it. [Amedinejad said] ``All the world knows 
     that they cannot beat us and Iran is capable of defending 
     herself, and that the superpowers cannot stop us from 
     possessing nuclear energy.''
       It was observed that Gulf states have begun searching for 
     alternatives to the Gulf straits to export their oil abroad. 
     There were suggestions to build pipelines to the Red Sea

[[Page H5044]]

     or the Arab Sea across Yemen, due to fears of closing the 
     Strait of Hormuz through which 18 million barrels pass daily. 
     Western analysts expect that Iranian retaliation will include 
     closing the Strait of Hormuz, bombing American bases, and 
     burning down oil wells in the Gulf, in addition to bombing 
     Israel with rockets from Iran directly, through Hezbollah in 
     Lebanon or both.
       Cheney expressed his conviction that striking Iran may be 
     the best solution for the situation in Iraq, because Tehran 
     has the biggest influence in the country and is the source of 
     arms for militias. The source added that American estimates 
     do not expect Iraqi Shiite retaliation against American 
     troops in case war breaks out. Quite the contrary, the Sunni 
     groups and militias will take the opportunity to settle 
     accounts with the ruling government in Baghdad under 
     America's support and protection. The same source indicated 
     that Cheney asked his allies (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and 
     the United Arab Emirates) to reassure Sunni groups in Iraq 
     and win them to the American side, passing a message that the 
     U.S. has lost confidence completely in Al-Maliki government 
     because of its failure to control the security situation and 
     to achieve national reconciliation, including giving the 
     Sunnis a bigger role in the decision-making process.
       Cheney assured Gulf leaders that the Iranian nuclear 
     reactor of Bushahr that lies on the other side of the Gulf 
     will not be a target for strikes because it has no value and 
     due to the presence of Russian experts at the reactor, and 
     that even if it became a target of strikes, it would not 
     cause pollution to the Gulf waters because it does not have 
     depleted plutonium. Gulf states that obtain 90% of their 
     water from treatment stations on the Gulf shores expressed to 
     American officials their concerns and fears in the face of a 
     water crisis which would be caused if a nuclear leak pollutes 
     the Gulf waters in case of war with Iran.
       The same source also confirmed that Cheney's talks in the 
     four capitals focused on Iraq and Iran only and never dealt 
     with the Arab-Israeli conflict. This was explained by a 
     change of roles between Cheney and Rice, with the latter's 
     role confined to the Israeli-Palestinian issue.
       In Abu Dhabi, there are currently rumors about Mr. Nijad's 
     asking the Emirates for mediation with Washington in the 
     current nuclear crisis, and that he brought forth new ideas 
     that an Emirate delegation will present to Washington in the 
     next 2 days. The delegation is headed by crown-price and 
     commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Sheikh Muhammad bin 
     Zaid. The delegation left for Washington, D.C. already and 
     has among its members the foreign minister of the Emirates.

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