[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13808]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   WHERE IS THE JUSTIFICATION FOR 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, it is very difficult to stand on 
the floor of the House to question whether those in power deliberately 
misled and deceived the American people and the community of nations. 
However, the events in Iraq leave me no other choice.
  Our President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and 
Undersecretary of Defense told the men, women and children of this 
Nation and of the world that we must go to war in Iraq because the 
country had weapons of mass destruction. Time and time again, they told 
us that Iraq posed a clear and present danger to the health, well-being 
and life of our people.
  Why? Because Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was prepared to 
use them or give them to terrorists who would use them.
  So where are the weapons that President Bush promised?
  Saddam is gone. For several weeks, American troops have been free to 
search Iraq. They have been free to search Iraq, virtually at will. 
Today we find no weapons of mass destruction. No chemical weapons, no 
biological weapons, no nuclear weapons. Nothing.
  Where are the weapons? Where is the threat?
  Mr. President, where is your justification for war? The credibility 
of this administration is at stake.
  Americans died in Iraq because President Bush told us that Iraq had 
weapons of mass destruction. Children lost their mothers and fathers. 
Parents lost their sons and daughters. Women lost their husbands, and 
husbands lost their wives.
  For what?
  Excuses and explanations cannot answer this question. We need, we 
deserve, we demand justification.
  What justified the loss of American lives? What justified taking $100 
billion out of the pockets of our children, our grandchildren and 
unborn generations?
  Three major American news organizations have cited leaks from Federal 
intelligence officials that the Bush administration manipulated 
intelligence about weapons of mass destruction, that the President and 
his advisers told the intelligence community to provide evidence to 
support the war in Iraq.
  In Britain, senior war correspondent Max Hastings, who supported the 
war against Iraq, wrote that ``the Prime Minister committed British 
troops and sacrificed British lives on the basis of a deceit, and that 
stinks.''
  These accusations cannot go unanswered. We are not just talking about 
the veracity of the Bush administration. We are talking about the 
credibility of the United States of America. Our Nation's reputation is 
at stake.
  The next time we go to our allies, the next time we go to the United 
Nations, they will doubt what we say. Our enemies will be safer, and 
our citizens will be less secure.
  The President and members of his administration have an obligation to 
come clean, to put their cards on the table and level with the American 
people. What did they really know and when did they know it?
  They are the ones who toured the country, beating the drums of war. 
They are the ones who told the American people that we needed to go to 
war. They are the ones who traveled the globe campaigning for a war to 
save us all from weapons of mass destruction.
  In the name of our fallen soldiers, in the name of the credibility of 
the United States of America, in the name of what is right and just and 
true.
  We need an answer, and we need it now.

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