Vote By House On Whether To Go To War With Iran Is Needed Now

Floor Speech

VOTE BY HOUSE ON WHETHER TO GO TO WAR WITH IRAN IS NEEDED NOW -- (House of Representatives - May 15, 2007)

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, we need a vote on whether this country is going to go to war with Iran. We have talked to the Speaker about it. She has promised it. But the time is getting short. Every day that we wait, we allow people down at the White House to continue to talk about this.

The vote we gave in 2002 to allow the President to deal with the problems of 9/11 was not a blank check to attack any country in the world. This war on terror began with some sense in Afghanistan, and then moved to Iraq to the absolute chaos we have today. It is a quagmire from which we can't get ourselves. And, unfortunately, the President and his Vice President are leading us, it appears, toward a war with Iran.

Ask why the urgency? Why do you want to come out here and talk about that tonight? Well, there was an article that appeared today in the Al-Quds Al-Arabi, which is an Arabic paper published in London. It is a very respectable paper, and it is one that most people in this body, in fact most people in this country, never heard of, nor do they understand and will never know about it because our press won't pick it up.

But I read the Middle Eastern press every day. I have some in my office who read Arabic, and they translate it for me, and I get a summary every day in my office of what is going on. This article I think deserves to be quoted a little bit, because people may not get the Congressional Quarterly or the Congressional Record and read it.

The article says this: ``Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday ended his tour of the Arab world that started with Iraq and ended in the capitals of four other Arab countries, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. High ranking Arab diplomatic sources close to the talks with Cheney confirmed to the newspaper that the probability of war became more likely than peace in the region.''

This is Arabs listening to the Vice President of the United States talk.

``The same sources indicated that Cheney was talking to Gulf leaders he met in a very confident and self-assured way, stressing that the involvement of this country in Iraq does not mean it is in a weak situation and cannot launch another war.''

Think about that. The Vice President is telling the Arab leaders, because we are in this mess in Iraq, just ignore that. We still can go to Iran and have a war.

Cheney went and talked to soldiers and sailors on one of the aircraft carriers, ``announcing to them,'' and this again is a quote, ``in a decisive manner that the U.S. will not allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons and that the option of a military attack is not excluded.''

Now, he said, again quoting, ``Cheney expressed his conviction that striking Iran may be the best solution for the situation in Iraq.''

Think about it. We are going to solve our problems in Iraq by attacking Iran. He says, ``because Tehran,'' the capital of Iran, ``has the biggest influence in the country and is the source of the arms of the militia.''

Now, this is from a man who sent to Iraq a guy named Bremer who took down all the guards and all the barriers at the border between Iran and Iraq, and Iran, of course, has been coming into Iraq. This administration set it up, or else they were ignorant. You can take your choice on that.

He said, ``They do not expect that there will be any retaliation by Iraq's Shiite militias. Quite the contrary, the Sunni groups and militias will take the opportunity to settle accounts with the ruling government in Baghdad under American support.''

So what he is saying is that the United States is shifting its support from the Maliki government, which is Shiite, and they are now over there telling people, well, we are going to now be supporting the Sunni elements so that they can get--Mr. Speaker, I include the translation of the Al-Quds Al-Arabi article for the Record.

Vice-President Dick Cheney yesterday ended his tour of the Arab world that started with Iraq and included the capitals of four other Arab countries, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, amidst a war of words with the Iranian President Ahamdi Nijad, who launched a diplomatic counter-attack in the form of two sudden visits to the Emirates and to Oman.

High-ranking Arab diplomatic sources close to the talks with Cheney confirmed to Al-Quds Al-Arabi that the probability of war became more likely than peace in the region after the round of meetings of the vice-president, and that the expected meetings between the Iranian and American sides in Baghdad might be the last chance to avoid military confrontation.

The same sources indicated that Cheney was talking to Gulf leaders he met in a very confident and self-assured tone, stressing that the involvement of his country in Iraq does not mean that it is in a weak situation and cannot launch another war, against Iran. Cheney, who visited the troops of his country in Iraq and the Gulf during his last round, made sure that he met American soldiers on an airplane carrier announcing to them in a decisive manner that the US will not allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons, and that the option of a military attack is not excluded. The Iranian President replied against that with severe threats in a press conference in Abu Dhabi, assuring that if they (Americans) make that mistake, the reply of Iran will be very strong and they will regret it. [Amedinejad said] ``All the world knows that they cannot beat us and Iran is capable of defending herself, and that the superpowers cannot stop us from possessing nuclear energy.''

It was observed that Gulf states have begun searching for alternatives to the Gulf straits to export their oil abroad. There were suggestions to build pipelines to the Red Sea or the Arab Sea across Yemen, due to fears of closing the Strait of Hormuz through which 18 million barrels pass daily. Western analysts expect that Iranian retaliation will include closing the Strait of Hormuz, bombing American bases, and burning down oil wells in the Gulf, in addition to bombing Israel with rockets from Iran directly, through Hezbollah in Lebanon or both.

Cheney expressed his conviction that striking Iran may be the best solution for the situation in Iraq, because Tehran has the biggest influence in the country and is the source of arms for militias. The source added that American estimates do not expect Iraqi Shiite retaliation against American troops in case war breaks out. Quite the contrary, the Sunni groups and militias will take the opportunity to settle accounts with the ruling government in Baghdad under America's support and protection. The same source indicated that Cheney asked his allies (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates) to reassure Sunni groups in Iraq and win them to the American side, passing a message that the U.S. has lost confidence completely in Al-Maliki government because of its failure to control the security situation and to achieve national reconciliation, including giving the Sunnis a bigger role in the decision-making process.

Cheney assured Gulf leaders that the Iranian nuclear reactor of Bushahr that lies on the other side of the Gulf will not be a target for strikes because it has no value and due to the presence of Russian experts at the reactor, and that even if it became a target of strikes, it would not cause pollution to the Gulf waters because it does not have depleted plutonium. Gulf states that obtain 90% of their water from treatment stations on the Gulf shores expressed to American officials their concerns and fears in the face of a water crisis which would be caused if a nuclear leak pollutes the Gulf waters in case of war with Iran.

The same source also confirmed that Cheney's talks in the four capitals focused on Iraq and Iran only and never dealt with the Arab-Israeli conflict. This was explained by a change of roles between Cheney and Rice, with the latter's role confined to the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

In Abu Dhabi, there are currently rumors about Mr. Nijad's asking the Emirates for mediation with Washington in the current nuclear crisis, and that he brought forth new ideas that an Emirate delegation will present to Washington in the next 2 days. The delegation is headed by crown-price and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Sheikh Muhammad bin Zaid. The delegation left for Washington, D.C. already and has among its members the foreign minister of the Emirates.

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