[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H5684]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PLEASE OPPOSE THE IRAQ WAR SUPPLEMENTAL
(Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, the Iraq War supplemental on the floor
tomorrow will in no way pressure the President to end the war in Iraq,
despite the fact that voters gave our majority last November the
responsibility to do that, end the war.
The benchmarks in the war supplemental force the Iraqis to privatize,
or turn over to multinational oil interests, their oil industry by
demanding passage of the Iraqi Hydrocarbon Act. I spoke on the House
floor today for an hour documenting the evidence.
But if the Iraqis refuse to turn over the oil resources, the terms of
the bill are blackmail. The war supplemental demands passage of the
Iraqi bill by blocking over $1 billion in reconstruction funds if the
Iraqis refuse to comply.
We need to send a message to the voters that we do not support
privatizing Iraqi oil by force, nor do we support the continued funding
of this war.
It is not credible to maintain that one opposes the war and yet
continues to fund it. Continuing to fund the war is not a plan. It
would represent the continuation of a disaster. A better approach is
the 12-point plan established in H.R. 1234.
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