[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16115-16116]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   A GREAT NATIONAL DEBATE AND OPEN GLOBAL DIALOGUE WILL WIN WAR ON 
                               TERRORISM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 20, 2004, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, we know the President landed on the deck 
of an aircraft carrier and declared ``mission accomplished'' in Iraq. 
We know there have been more casualties in Iraq after the President's 
declaration than before. We know that Iraq was a wrong war at the wrong 
time in the wrong place. We know the justifications offered by the 
administration for war were either outright wrong or grossly 
misrepresented. We know that the work of the United Nations' weapons 
inspectors was finding the truth. We know Iraq did not pose a clear and 
present danger or an imminent threat to the United States. We know the 
President has led us into a blind, box canyon. We know we have diverted 
U.S. resources and international attention away from the hunt for the 
real terrorist. We need to remember that the war goes on. The U.S. 
casualties mount.
  When the administration pulled out of Iraq, it left 160,000 U.S. 
soldiers in Iraq in harm's way. Not a day goes by without more U.S. 
soldiers being killed or injured in combat. Is the world safer or more 
dangerous? Did we succeed in Iraq because the administration pulled out 
on time, or did we fail in Iraq by going there in the first place?
  A new book, published by a 20-year national security veteran, bluntly 
concludes that Iraq was ``a bloody and unsuccessful tool.'' Worse yet, 
the book is another voice saying that the war in Iraq will nurture more 
terrorism around the world. The book, entitled Imperial Hubris, ought 
to be required reading by every American, regardless of political 
party. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the author, you reach one 
inescapable conclusion: It is time for America to seriously debate and 
define a national terrorism policy.
  Today, America has the so-called PATRIOT Act, passed in the middle of 
the night, that endangers the very freedoms the President claims to be 
defending. Today, we have a useless, so-called terror alert system 
fixed in permanent threat mode, as if scaring Americans on a daily 
basis somehow comforts them. Today, resolutions are rushed through the 
Congress, as if a rush to judgment will somehow make us safer. Today, 
we have a constant stream of terror rhetoric from the administration 
that speaks in broad generalities.
  Some way, someday, somehow, someplace, something bad is going to 
happen. We will not be surprised. What we need to know as a Nation is, 
what are we going to do about it? Osama bin Laden may be the face of 
the terror, but the arms, the legs, and the rest of the body is much 
more than one person, and the issues involved are much deeper than the 
daily dose of rhetoric out of the White House.
  America must face the choice before us; that we can confront the 
roots of terrorism by listening to everyone involved, by looking at all 
sides of the story, and acting from one of America's founding 
principles: Equal justice for all.
  The Middle East is a place that wobbles on the brink of madness. A 
war without borders is a war carried on by

[[Page 16116]]

people from place to place. A war without borders is a war against an 
invisible enemy standing in plain sight. We can confront the roots of 
terrorism by debating their cause, our role, and the worlds's future.
  The alternative is to accept a world where we imagine that bullets 
and bombs can win a war without soldiers, where guns will prevail on a 
battlefield no one can walk on because we are standing on it, and where 
U.S. casualties risk going unnoticed by the Nation because the media 
has moved on, even as the blood of our beloved ones continue to flow.
  Today, 160,000 soldiers are fighting and dying in Iraq. There is no 
end in sight, there is no homecoming anywhere soon. The bombs and the 
bullets and the madness are limitless, unless we choose to stop them. 
We best honor those who have fallen by resolving to face the 
consequences of war and by confronting the origins of terror. Words 
alone will not end the war on terrorism, but words are the only way to 
stop.
  The war on terrorism can be won: First, with a great national debate, 
followed by an honest and global dialogue with all the parties 
involved. Every day we delay is another day of bloodshed, another 
soldier dies, another casket comes home, another family buries their 
loved one, and it is another day further away from real peace and real 
judgment for all.
  Mr. Speaker, the President has 106 days to begin this debate. If he 
fails, we will have a new president.

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