JULY 21, 2003

[House Record Page: H7203]

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) is recognized for 5 minutes.

   Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. I appreciate it very much, Madam Speaker.

   I once again this evening continue reading constituent mail that has come to the State of Illinois, 3,621 comments, that were actually made available to people by MoveOn.org, which had on the Web site a petition that said, ``We believe that Congress should support an independent commission to investigate the Bush administration's distortion of evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs.''    

[Time: 20:15]

   A number of times, the Speaker has cautioned Members who get up to be careful that we say proper things and do not impugn anybody's integrity on this floor. I agree that we ought to have a level of decorum. But I want to also read a quote from Theodore Roosevelt, because these are coming from constituents who only want to know the truth and want a process, an independent commission to make sure that we get the truth about why it is that the United States thought it was an imminent threat that we had to go to war. This quote, I think, is important for us to look at. This is from the former President, Theodore Roosevelt:

    ``To announce that there must be no criticism of the President or that we are to stand by the President right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile but is morally treasonable to the American public.''

    So it is really in that spirit that many, many people, in fact, about 320,000 people who are also calling for an independent commission to investigate the truth about the rationale for going to war in Iraq who have sent letters. Here is one, from Darryl of Watseka, Illinois:

    ``As a father of one of our Nation's finest, I respectfully request that you demand an independent review of our government's actions leading up to the war in Iraq. The U.S., once a greatly respected Nation around the world, has now made a large part of the world not trust us. If we as a Nation do not question questionable acts of our own government, how can we go around the world telling other nations to create democracies when the one we have seems more like a dictatorship than a democracy?

    ``The current leadership of this great Nation and the media manipulated the general public into believing Iraq was a threat to us. If we don't question these actions, how can we question the actions of other nations? For years, the world has stated that the U.S. has a double set of standards, one for us and one for the rest of the world. Will we set a precedent of attacking other nations with false justification for the rest of the world? What are we teaching our children? It's okay if you don't like someone to attack them first because our government says it's okay.

    ``Before the war, President Bush and Colin Powell claimed that Iraq was a threat to our security with weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons. Since the war, they have changed their tune and say that Iraq had a weapons program. That alone should make one want to question their actions. Don't let politics dictate your actions, let the facts. When I hear that other nations think President Bush is more of a threat to the world peace than Iraq was, it disturbs me. I love my country and believe that we can make a difference in the world, but if we don't question these actions, I highly doubt that the rest of the world will trust us again.''

    Rodney from Sauk Village says:

    ``My youngest brother is in Baghdad in a rank heavy unit which is costing taxpayers millions of dollars per month in salary alone. Our men and women are still over there being killed but the President claims the war is over. I can't tell. I've always been of the belief that if you get tired of being treated a certain way, eventually you'll stand up and do something to change it. We need to be focusing on the wars at home like gang violence, AIDS and the homeless.''

    Ronald from Malden says:

    ``I am a `never miss an election' independent who has never voted a straight party ticket. I seriously would like to know who misled us or the President or if our intelligence community is this poor. It appears there are no weapons of mass destruction or our great intelligence that told us all about them before the war certainly could have located at least a few of them by now. Billions of our tax dollars have been spent on this war and billions more will continue to go out every month for years now because of this while we cut domestic programs, spend billions on interest alone for the deficit to cut taxes, most to people who do not need it, and mortgage our children's future. Because of lies? Because of incompetency? I want to know what happened.''

   Beth from Plano, Illinois:

    ``The public, especially the families of the women and men who have bravely entered into military service, worry, and justifiably so, that the war in Iraq is turning out to be a second Vietnam. We want to know whether this war was truly justified, or if President Bush and his administration merely embarked upon a reckless revenge match with disregard for the very citizens they have sworn to protect.''

    Mary from Westmont, Illinois:

    ``I have a nephew in the military and a niece soon to follow. Why were our young men and women's lives threatened, lost?"

    This must be stopped.

END

IN SUPPORT OF INDEPENDENT COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE DISTORTION OF EVIDENCE OF IRAQ'S WMD PROGRAMS -- (House of Representatives - July 21, 2003)

[Page: H7205]

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   The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.

   Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I first thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul) for his intellectual honesty and consistency and his clear vision on so many foreign policy issues.

    A hundred sixty-five years ago, Madam Speaker, the United States Congress, amazingly enough, the House of Representatives, passed a rule prohibiting its Members from debating the great issue of slavery, the greatest blemish on American history. In those days, John Quincy Adams, former President, then elected to the House of Representatives, came down to the well of the House week after week reading letters from his constituents, reading what he called petitions from groups in his State of Massachusetts, many of them written by women in women's clubs, women who actually could not in those days, as we all know, vote in American elections. He read these letters protesting this rule prohibiting the discussion of slavery and protesting the institution of slavery itself.

    Today, we find ourselves in a Congress where this Congress has refused to discuss and investigate what exactly the President did and said about weapons of mass destruction. As the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) said earlier in the evening, an organization called MoveOn.org, an organization of 1 1/2 million Americans, tens of thousands in my State of Ohio, asked its members to sign an on-line petition saying that we believe Congress should support an independent commission to investigate the Bush administration's distortion of evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program.

    Tens of thousands of those members, in addition to signing the petitions, wrote letters to Members of Congress. And similar to John Quincy Adams's coming to the House floor to expose the Congress' inability and unwillingness to discuss issues of national import, many of us have come to the House floor every night to share the concerns, not just our concerns, Members of Congress, but to share the concerns of people in my district in my State. And I would like to share a handful of those letters.

    Dennis Gadel of Akron, Ohio wrote: ``What makes this tragedy especially difficult for freedom-loving people to come to terms with is that, unlike September 11, this tragedy was self-inflicted. In order to have a strong democracy, we must hold leaders accountable for their deception.''

   Ms. Barbara Hanselman from Wadsworth wrote: ``I consider it my patriotic duty to give my informed support to those who represent our people. When I cannot trust my government to speak the truth,'' Ms. Hanselman wrote, ``our very basic freedoms are eroded. To lead a country to war, when many U.S. citizens and millions of people around the world were against this act of aggression without clear evidence, by calculated misrepresentation of the facts, is so beneath what my country stands for.''

    Jim Miraldi of Lorain, Ohio, my hometown, writes: ``Our leaders must respect democracy. If our leaders lie or mislead their own people to support military action to make an immense change in foreign policy, then this greatly undermines our country'' `` ..... Saddam Hussein was'' ..... ``evil,'' certainly. ``Maybe we should have gone

[Page: H7206]

ahead with this invasion. But that decision should have been based on accurate reporting by our leaders and not by deceiving the American people.''

    Patrick and Sandra Garrett, Mr. and Mrs. Garrett of Avon, Ohio, in northern Ohio, write: ``Democracy cannot endure without truth and integrity from its leadership. Look at what the Vietnam war, the Iran Contra scandal, and Watergate did to the public's confidence in government,'' the Garretts wrote from Avon.

    Cheryl Elman from Akron, Ohio, wrote: ``You and a handful of others may truly be all that stand between public ignorance about possible manipulations of policy in the Iraqi war. An enlightened public is a prerequisite for functioning democracy.'' Please continue your commitment ``to free flow of information. Do what you can to shed light on this issue.''

    Teri Egan from Shaker Heights, Ohio, writes: ``As the toll rises daily in Iraq with our troops in harm's way, we need to know if there is any credible reason for continuing in this manner.''

    Wanda Crawford from Cincinnati, Ohio, in the other end of the State, writes: ``With American soldiers' lives at risk and American soldiers' lives lost already, the American public needs to know the true reason for our entry into war with Iraq. Covering up the truth dishonors the sacrifice of those in uniform. As a daughter and a sister of veterans,'' Ms. Crawford writes, ``I am appalled that soldiers may have been lied to about the reasons they were sent to Iraq. Please support an independent, bipartisan investigation to get to the truth of the administration's call to arms.''

    Norma Roberts from Lexington, Ohio, writes: ``I was alarmed at recent reports that our government led us into war without honest justification. President Bush responds by saying that such reports are attempts to `rewrite history,' but the point is that the American people do not know the real history. If this country is to be a model of democracy, the people must be informed.''

    Madam Speaker, it goes on and on. We ask for this investigation. Literally hundreds of thousands of Americans have written to their Members of Congress asking for an investigation into the Bush administration's distortion of evidence of weapons of mass destruction.

END