[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 18866-18867]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               IRAQ WATCH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Harris). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Hoeffel) is recognized for the remainder of the 60 minutes, 
approximately 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOEFFEL. Madam Speaker, let me, in our final 5 minutes here, see 
who among us might like to make additional comments or perhaps quickly 
raise a new issue, and I think the gentleman from Hawaii (Mr. 
Abercrombie) has something to say.
  Mr. ABERCROMBIE. I do not want to raise a new issue, Madam Speaker, 
but I do want to reiterate the idea of inquiry and how important that 
is. Because what we are doing can easily be dismissed by those who want 
to color it with a brush that has politics all over it, and that is not 
what this is about. It is not about politics in the sense that we are 
trying to make some particularly partisan point.
  I notice in the photographs coming from the rehabilitation wards 
right here in Washington, DC that the young men and women who have been 
grievously wounded are not identified as Republicans and Democrats or 
supporters of a particular policy or not. These are the people that 
have had to pay the price for other people's arrogance. These are the 
people that have had to pay the real price. We are not paying any price 
here.
  We all know that someone else will occupy these slots one day. I 
learned that the first time I was elected when I went to the office to 
which I was assigned and I realized they slid the names off the door.

                              {time}  2310

  They were not screwed on, painted on; they came right off the door. 
We occupy those offices only so long as we have the faith and trust of 
the people of this country. That is what is at stake here. That is what 
this inquiry is all about. Is our faith and trust being played fast and 
loose with? That is the issue that is involved. That is why I want to 
say that as far as I am concerned, we are going to continue these 
inquiries. This Iraq Watch I hope perhaps can come out into the 
country, maybe off the floor of the Congress and perhaps go elsewhere. 
I would be very pleased to take this inquiry perhaps into a town 
meeting kind of context anywhere in the Nation so that we can break out 
of the stranglehold on opinion that is taking place right now. We 
cannot trust the national media to do it. They are in the grip of the 
people who own the networks. We cannot trust them. We have to trust the 
people out there. And so I hope that perhaps with Iraq Watch, we can go 
elsewhere and go directly to the people, and we can get streaming on 
the Internet and follow through and let people judge for themselves on 
the people's network that is out there.
  Mr. HOEFFEL. I think that is a wonderful suggestion.
  Mr. INSLEE. A brief comment. I went and visited with two Marines who 
had some pretty significant wounds at Bethesda a while back serving in 
Iraq. One was crushed by a tank and one was shot. I just think that 
those gentlemen understood the value of democracy and what we are here 
today to say is the Congress needs to understand the value of 
democracy, and democracy does not work where the executive branch of 
the United States Government does not level with its own people. I have 
one question for our next week that I hope we would have answered. Why 
did the White House in the run-up to the war in Iraq not seek CIA 
approval before the President of the United States went to the Rose 
Garden and charged that Saddam Hussein could launch a biological or 
chemical attack within 45 minutes as administration officials now say? 
That is a question every American deserves an answer to, and the best 
way to do it is through Republicans and Democrats working together; and 
I hope this commission does that. I thank the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania for his leadership.
  Mr. DELAHUNT. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for his 
leadership. Let me echo the sentiments expressed by the gentleman from 
Washington. Unfortunately, this past week India stated that they would 
not provide a division of troops to help us win the peace. It is 
becoming clear that we are going alone, and maybe this is the problem 
of a particular brand of foreign policy. I know that we all are working 
together; we are in the process of drafting a letter to the President 
requesting that he go to the United Nations and seek a resolution 
internationalizing the security and reconstruction efforts in Iraq. I 
would hope

[[Page 18867]]

all Americans would call our offices, would call the offices of our 
colleagues.
  I would close with the words and the admonition of Tony Blair that 
was so eloquent in his speech this past week. He was speaking about the 
tensions between Europe and the United States. He said: ``Don't give up 
on Europe. Work with it. Europe must take on the anti-Americanism that 
sometimes passes for political discourse. And what America must do is 
show that partnerships must be based on mutual respect and persuasion, 
not on command. America must listen as well as lead. And then the U.N. 
can become what it should be, an instrument of action as well as 
debate.''
  Mr. HOEFFEL. The Iraq Watch is alive and well. I thank the colleagues 
for being here this evening. We will be back next week.

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