Relating to the Liberation of the Iraqi People and the Valiant Service of the United States Armed Forces and Coalition Forces

RELATING TO THE LIBERATION OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE AND THE VALIANT SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES AND COALITION FORCES -- (Extensions of Remarks - March 22, 2004)

SPEECH OF
HON. KENDRICK B. MEEK
OF FLORIDA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 2004

Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this very flawed, very inadequate and blatantly political resolution.

Every Member of this House wants to honor our troops. That view is truly non-partisan. Each of us is deeply grateful for the patriotism and courage our troops have exhibited in Iraq, and for the sacrifices that they and their families are making.
But House Republican leaders should be ashamed of themselves for playing politics and trying to score political points by pushing this partisan resolution through the House, and using the brave men and women in our armed forces as cover in order to do it.

This resolution does not even mention the thousands of wounded soldiers from this war, many of whom I met at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, DC. Their sacrifices will not end when they come home and leave the military. For those who lost limbs or suffered other serious, debilitating injuries, their sacrifice will be with them for the rest of their lives. That is certainly true for the parents, brothers and sisters, spouses, children and friends of the 564 Americans who have lost their lives so far in this Iraq War.

They clearly deserve our recognition and our gratitude, but they are not mentioned in this resolution.

Republican leaders are so single-minded and so dead-set on justifying the President's decision to go to war that they use the opportunity to honor our troops as an excuse to explain away the war. And they purposely excluded Democrats in the drafting process so that they could have it their way, and their way alone. Their failure to reach across the aisle and make this resolution bipartisan is wrong and disgraces the memory of those who serve, and those who have sacrificed, and those who have died.

As written, this resolution states that the "United States and the world have been made safer by the removal of Saddam Hussein and the Baath party from power". There is certainly not unanimity on that point. The Bush administration has tried hard to change the reasons the President took this country to war. We were told that Saddam Hussein was hand-in-hand with Al Qaeda; that he was constructing weapons of mass destruction; and that he had a program to create nuclear weapons. We were led to believe that Iraq was arming itself to attack us-and to attack us imminently.

But now little of what they told us appears to be true. It now appears that the President's rationale for war in Iraq was fundamentally and deeply flawed. Judging from the 27 people killed in a car bombing in Baghdad this afternoon or the 200 people killed in Madrid only 6 days ago, it appears that the undisputed enemy that all Americans recognize, Al Qaeda, is as strong as ever. No weapons of mass destruction have been found. The sober warnings from the President about an Iraqi nuclear program were exaggerated and based on discredited and unverified reports.

So, while every Member of Congress is glad that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power and no longer a menace to the people of Iraq, it is certainly not clear that removing Saddam Hussein has made the United States any safer, or that it was worth the terrible cost of 564 American lives, thousands of Americans wounded, and over $150 billion-so far.

It seems to me that, if the Republican leadership really wanted to salute the troops involved in this year-old war, they would join with Democrats to draft a resolution of praise and honor that every Member would support. Even more fitting would be an immediate vote on legislation to ensure that all of our troops are properly armed and outfitted, and that they and their families will be taken care of. The President's budget request shortchanges our troops and the generations of American soldiers before them.

And so, Mr. Speaker, I will vote against this resolution. We must support our troops with action, not with political rhetoric.