[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5205-5206]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                BUSH FOREIGN POLICY IS ISOLATING AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, before this war starts, we should recognize 
that the Bush administration foreign policy toward the Middle East and 
central Asia is leading America down a dangerous, dark alley globally. 
It is isolating America in the world even further.
  Even before the Bush administration took office, America had a 
growing problem there related to the unresolved Arab-Palestinian 
conflict as

[[Page 5206]]

well as our addiction to the import of Middle East oil from which the 
profits prop up repressive regimes.
  This chart shows the dramatic increase in deaths among U.S. diplomats 
in service to our country overseas. Most of them are in the Middle East 
and central Asia and most in the Middle East. It is very interesting. 
Here were the Beirut bombings in 1983 at our embassy, the Kenya 
bombings. This chart does not include now the millions of people that 
have been affected and the thousands of Americans here at home who lost 
their lives on 9-11, as well as diplomats like Lawrence Foley who 
recently was assassinated in Jordan or the soldiers who recently lost 
their lives in Kuwait.
  In 2 years, Bush's programs have reduced America's standing in the 
world, plummeting even more than before. The conduct of the Bush 
administration foreign policy is costing America friends across the 
world. Even our oldest and staunchest allies in the cause of freedom 
are turning away from us.
  Our neighbors, Canada and Mexico, are increasingly at odds with this 
administration's foreign policy goals. The Bush administration cannot 
buy the loyalty of the people of Turkey. We offered billions of dollars 
in grants and loans, and we sold out more textile workers in North and 
South Carolina by saying the Turkish textiles could be used in U.S. 
military uniforms to lure their support, but the Turkish parliament has 
refused to be a rubber stamp for the government and rejected the 
request to allow U.S. troops to use Turkey as a staging base.
  Why? It is not Colin Powell's fault necessarily. We should look at 
the fact that about 95 percent of the people of Turkey oppose this 
administration's war with Iraq.
  Henry Luce called the 20th century the American Century, but USA 
Today says the 21st century might be known as the anti-American 
century. USA Today this week had a huge article talking about how 
Americans traveling abroad are now being treated. One traveler told USA 
Today he carries a lighter emblazoned with an American flag. On recent 
overseas trips, he says he had been turned down when he offered someone 
a light and they see the flag on his lighter.
  In Britain, 67 percent of the public opposes a war against Iraq 
without specific backing from the United Nations Security Council. 
Americans are being told by USA Today, do not patronize U.S. franchise 
restaurants abroad.
  In Germany, 86 percent of the people are opposed to a military attack 
against Iraq; and in Russia, at least 91 percent of the people oppose a 
war against Iraq. It is widely recognized that support for the United 
States has never been lower in South Korea. Around the world, public 
opinion has shifted against this country.
  A former national security adviser's brigadier general said in the 
New York Times yesterday, America's standing in the world has never 
been lower since 1945. We are losing the battles for the hearts and 
minds of the people of the world.
  For a White House that follows polling results as closely as the Bush 
White House, these numbers are staggering. The problem is not President 
Chirac of France or Chancellor Schroeder of Germany. These have been 
America's most historic and dependable democratic allies. The problem 
is that the Bush administration has simply failed to convince the 
people of the world that a preemptive strike against Iraq is justified.
  Meanwhile, here at home, energy prices are going up. Gasoline is over 
$2 a gallon in California and rising across America, and the last four 
recessions have been caused by rising oil prices. Just be smart enough 
to connect the dots.
  It is time for the United States to put all that money that we are 
spending abroad right here at home to create energy independence, and 
it is time for us to get back to the bargaining table with Israel and 
the Palestinian authorities to put peace in that region and every 
single bit of energy that we have toward that end.
  Today, we had a magnificent outpouring of support against the war 
from the poet laureates of America, and I choose to read one of the 
13,000 poems that they presented to us by Mr. Stanley Kunitz, a 97-
year-old poet from New York City, who said, ``When they shall paint our 
sockets gray and light us like a stinking fuse, remember that we once 
could say, yesterday we had a world to lose.''

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