Diane Watson: “I stand to oppose H.J. Res. 114, the authorization for military force against Iraq. Mr. Speaker, I have attended…”

“I stand to oppose H.J. Res. 114, the authorization for military force against Iraq. Mr. Speaker, I have attended numerous administrative hearings on Iraq where not one bit of new evidence was offered to demonstrate that presently Saddam Hussein is more of a menace than that proven diabolical character, Osama bin Laden. Why are we not still focusing our attention on him? I remember so well the declaration made by the President: ``Wanted, dead or alive.'' We have painfully experienced his capacity to wreak havoc on thousands of our people from thousands of miles from his own perch. And now, he appears to be an afterthought. We have given Saddam Hussein the power to force the greatest country on Earth to abandon its domestic agenda, to potentially violate the U.N. charter, and possibly take unilateral and preemptive action before exhausting all diplomatic efforts. I am not convinced that Saddam Hussein warrants the daily headlines and the extraordinary amount of time and resources given to him. We are equating his power with ours and, in some ways, ascribing it to be beyond our ability to detect. While we are monitoring his every move, I have no doubt that if he were to plan an attack on the United States or on our allies, we would be able to stop him in his tracks.”