[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 25314]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                       A VERY SAD DAY FOR AMERICA

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, this is a sad day for this country. 
Santayana said, ``Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to 
repeat it.'' Yesterday, we saw what was, in my view, a very important 
event. The United States Senate said, we do not care who tests or how 
much testing there is done in the world. It is the same group that 
sanctimoniously came out here and said, we will put sanctions on 
anybody who blows off a bomb. So when India and Pakistan got into that 
last year, we said, oh, this is awful, this is terrible. But when the 
time comes to say, let us stop it, they say no.
  Now, it is a sad day, in my view, when the United States steps back 
from leadership in the world. The last time we voted down a treaty was 
the Treaty of Versailles. We did not join the League of Nations. And 
what happened? We had the Second World War.
  When we in this country refuse to take our leadership role and say, 
we will not test and no one else should test, we abrogate our 
leadership in the world. It is a very bad day for America.

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