[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9236]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             OUTRAGE AND DISAPPOINTMENT OVER CRISIS IN IRAQ

  (Ms. LEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my outrage and disappointment 
over the crisis in Iraq.
  I must start by condemning, in the strongest possible terms, the 
brutal decapitation of Nicholas Berg. The act was unconscionable, and I 
join all of my colleagues in sending my deepest sympathies to his 
family and loved ones.
  What kind of climate allows for such unbelievable, gruesome acts? 
What kind of climate are we creating with the abuses at Abu Ghraib?
  Secretary Rumsfeld has dismissed the Geneva Convention. That sends 
the wrong message. That message clearly, however, stuck.
  The horrifying photographs of the abuses in Abu Ghraib are symptoms 
of a much larger failure of leadership.
  Earlier this week, President Bush said that Secretary Rumsfeld is 
doing a superb job. Of course, that is the same President who 
communicated that the mission in Iraq was accomplished over 12 months 
and 500 American lives ago.
  Nothing is superb about this situation, and little has been 
accomplished. The buck stops with the Commander in Chief, and so does 
the responsibility for the disaster we now face.

                          ____________________