[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3828]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   WE MUST UNDERSTAND IRANIAN CULTURE

  (Mr. PASCRELL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, I am very, very concerned. President Bush 
initially wanted the authority in the October 16, 2002 Act of War to 
use force to restore peace and security in the region, not just Iraq.
  We rejected that. The Congress of the United States, Mr. Speaker, 
rejected that and said no. The exercise of the authority granted in the 
resolution, read the resolution, is conditioned on the President 
certifying that war in Iraq would not harm the war on terrorism. We 
will make a point of that over the next 3 days.
  Iran has an oppressive economy. We must understand Iranian culture in 
order not to make the same mistakes we made in Iraq. Ethnically, 
Iranians are of Indo-European descent and have no kinship to their 
neighbors in the Middle East. Their language is Indo-European, with 
grammar and structure similar to classical Latin. They do not identify 
with Arabs.
  We do not understand the Middle East. We made that mistake once, we 
should not make that mistake again.

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