[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18294]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                ISSUES REGARDING OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM

  (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, tomorrow the issue that faces this 
Congress will be brought to a point when Mr. Blair comes and explains 
to us what it was that he told our President that led the President to 
think that he should come in here in the State of the Union message and 
say things which are of questionable value.
  We are continuing to have people die in Iraq. Last night another 
soldier died, and many were injured. These people signed up to protect 
the United States, not to make things better for Iraq or anything else. 
They signed up to protect their country, and they are dying.
  There should be an investigation of what the reasons are that we were 
there. Did the threat rise to the level of a national security threat? 
Or was there a gathering of evidence? Certainly the uranium issue is 
bogus on the face of it, and it never should have been used by anyone 
in a defense of why we went to Iraq.
  We have lost 200 people, and 1,000 have been injured. It seems like 
small numbers when you know about Vietnam, but that is where we are 
today, and we need an answer from the President.

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