[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 22148]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                     DISTURBING NEWS REGARDING IRAQ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, each morning these recent months we are 
awakened with the disturbing news that one, two, perhaps three, young 
Americans have been killed in Iraq.

                              {time}  1945

  Our tours of duty for the National Guard and for the Reserves are 
being extended with great complications for many small American 
communities, and certainly for many American families.
  It was just back on March 16 that Vice President Cheney declared to 
the Nation that the most important rationale for war with Iraq was the 
fact Iraq had all of these weapons of mass destruction. And I think as 
the weeks go by and as the lives of young Americans are lost, that more 
and more of our American families are asking: Why is it that each 
morning we hear that the body of another young American has been found, 
but we hear nothing about the location of any weapons of mass 
destruction? In fact, that term has almost been banned now from 
administration speeches justifying the war in Iraq.
  So desperate is the administration to make the claim about weapons of 
mass destruction that incredibly, yesterday, Secretary of State Powell 
went to the scene of a horrific crime involving weapons of mass 
destruction in Iraq, but it was a crime that happened 15 years ago, in 
1988; and no evidence was provided suggesting any weapons of mass 
destruction had been located that would justify the loss of the lives 
of our sons and daughters in Iraq.
  Now, surely, with thousands of people being paid by American 
taxpayers at this very moment to comb Iraq for weapons of mass 
destruction, sooner or later they will find at least a trace. But an 
honest assessment of this whole weapons of mass destruction question 
requires asking whether this third-rate tyrant, Saddam Hussein, unable 
to effectively defend himself and his own family, really ever had the 
capability to pose an imminent threat to our families here in America. 
Meanwhile, Americans continue to do most all of the dying, and American 
taxpayers are asked to continue to do most all of the paying for the 
cost of this administration's war justified by weapons of mass 
destruction.
  In view of this, more and more Americans are contacting us here in 
Congress about the weapons of mass destruction question. Many of these 
people have done so through the organization called moveon.org, a 
citizens' organization to advance concerns in a way that I think is 
very healthy. I just want to share with my colleagues tonight the 
thoughts of some of those people from central Texas who share my 
concern about the rationale the administration used, how quickly it is 
walking away from that rationale, and the tremendous cost in the 
meantime, not only in dollars, but in blood.
  Glee Ingram. Glee is a small business owner in Austin, and she 
writes: ``I strongly support an independent investigation of the claims 
that were made by the Bush administration as a prelude to declaring war 
on Iraq. Using deception to create support to go to war is absolutely 
unacceptable. We, the citizens who must reap the consequences of this 
decision, are due all honesty,'' and indeed they are. And it is 
particularly questionable why this administration that made such bold 
claims about how weapons of mass destruction posed a danger to our 
families now resists a complete investigation of why they have been 
unable to find them.
  Chantal Tetreault, who is a University of Texas student, contacted me 
saying: ``Please support an independent commission to investigate the 
Bush administration's distortion of evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass 
destruction programs. My confidence in the government is shattered and 
will only be restored if the American people are given the truth about 
government intelligence prior to the Iraqi war. Innocent Americans have 
died and continue to die, along with many Iraqi civilians in this 
war.''
  I think she raises some important questions, as does Kathy Goodwin, 
who is an Austin social worker who contacted me saying: ``I firmly 
believe that when we witnessed the bombing of September 11, people 
everywhere shared our grief and millions in the United States and all 
over the world have since come to the conclusion that war will not 
solve all our problems. The terrorism that caused 9-11 will not be 
stopped through a war with Iraq. We need the truth.'' And that is what 
an independent investigation of the whole WMD controversy would get to.
  I believe the voices of these Austinites and others across the 
country should be heeded. We need action now to find out why and what 
occurred here.

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