[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13895]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        PERMANENT, FOREVER WARS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Wagner). The Chair recognizes the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee. Madam Speaker, I am now the only Republican 
remaining in Congress who voted against going to war in Iraq. For about 
3 or 4 years, that was probably the most unpopular vote I ever cast. 
But slowly, slowly it became so that now probably it is the most 
popular vote I ever cast, because the American people do not want 
forever, permanent wars.
  So, Madam Speaker, you can understand why I was very interested in 
two very recent columns that I read.
  Adam Walinsky wrote in the September 21 Politico Magazine that he was 
a lifelong Democrat, former aid to John Kennedy, and former 
speechwriter for Robert Kennedy. He wrote, though, that he will be 
voting Republican in the Presidential race this year.
  He said: ``But today's Democrats have become the Party of War: a home 
for arms merchants, mercenaries, academic war planners, lobbyists for 
every foreign intervention, promoters of color revolutions, failed 
generals . . .''

                              {time}  1045

  He added that ``Our first answer to trouble or opposition of any kind 
seems always to be a military movement or action.''
  He wrote that Secretary Clinton, unlike the Kennedy brothers, has not 
sought peace, but ``instead she has pushed America into successive 
invasions, successive efforts at `regime change.'''
  Perhaps worst of all, according to Walinsky, ``Her shadow War Cabinet 
brims with the architects of war and disaster for the past decades, the 
neocons who led us to our present pass, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, 
Libya, Yemen, in Ukraine, unrepentant of all past errors, ready to 
resume it all with fresh trillions and fresh blood.''
  Also, in yesterday's Washington Times, Jed Babbin, a former Deputy 
Secretary of Defense in the administration of the first George Bush, 
said the second George Bush made a terrible mistake allowing the 
neocons to lead him into nation building in the Middle East after he 
had spoken so strongly against such nation building when he was running 
for President. Secretary Babbin wrote that Islam is incompatible with 
democracy, and Iraq and Afghanistan--and I suppose these other 
countries where we are still sending troops--will go back the way they 
always have been when we leave, whether we stay 6 more months or 60 
more years.
  George Will wrote that the neocons were magnificently misnamed and 
really were the most radical people in Washington. These neocons have 
caused many thousands of young Americans to be killed or maimed for 
life. They should be ashamed, but they seem to have no shame.
  The American people, Madam Speaker, I repeat, do not want permanent, 
forever wars. They want to do whatever it takes to win wars, get them 
over with, and go back to days of peace and prosperity.

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