Ed Royce: “This resolution rightly highlights the vast crimes against humanity committed by Saddam Hussein's regime. And as we have…”

“This resolution rightly highlights the vast crimes against humanity committed by Saddam Hussein's regime. And as we have heard today, as many as 270 mass graves have been found so far, containing the bodies of 400,000 Iraqis. Four hundred thousand. I remember photos my father, a U.S. serviceman, took when U.S. forces overran the death camp in Dachau, Germany in the closing days of World War II. People executed in pits, by the thousands. I never thought I would see photos like those photos again. In the days and weeks following Saddam's overthrow, we learned more about another dictator's evil, and here is one account from the L.A. Times: ``The executions took place two or three times on most days. Each time between 100 and 150 blindfolded people, their hands and sometimes feet bound, were led into pits about 10 feet deep. Gunmen then fired into the pit, often for several minutes . . . A bulldozer then pushed dirt over the bodies, sometimes burying or crushing people who had survived the volley and were trying to climb out.'' Four hundred thousand people. In two trips to Iraq, I have had the chance to talk to tortured Iraqis. Some ask, Why act in Iraq and not the other countries suffering through human rights nightmares? I would respond that just because we do not act in all cases of gross human rights abuses does not mean we should not act in any cases.”