[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 9 (Thursday, January 15, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H327]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE HUMANITARIAN DISASTER IN GAZA

  (Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KUCINICH. The attack on the U.N. headquarters in Gaza is further 
proof that a post legal era in world affairs has taken shape where law 
and moral principles are irrelevant--where might makes right, where 
retribution and vengeance, even against innocent children, fails to 
shake us from moral lethargy or political paralysis. Collected 
punishment is a proportionate use of force. Using U.S. planes, 
helicopters and ammunitions to attack a wounded, starved and thirsty 
population of mostly children trapped in a box called ``Gaza'' has 
become acceptable, perhaps because we've already accepted the deaths of 
over 1 million innocent civilians in Iraq in a war based on lies.
  There is a way out. We must ask those who were given our armaments 
for defense to stop the aggression and the blockade and the occupation 
and reconnect with the high sentiments that rallied their own 
suffering, wounded people of a nation generations ago.
  When we recognize the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, when we come to 
grips with the reality of suffering on both sides, we may yet find a 
way to save ourselves.

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