Mike Levin: “the most important questions before the House today and tomorrow and the next day are posed by the resolution introduced…”

“the most important questions before the House today and tomorrow and the next day are posed by the resolution introduced by the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt) and many others of us. The question is not whether action must be taken to disarm Saddam Hussein of weapons of mass destruction; that action must be taken. The question is not whether the U.S., as the sole superpower, should exert leadership to bring this action about; it must. The basic question is where the emphasis should be in the use of our superpower standing. What messages do we want to send the rest of the world? In meeting the challenge posed by Saddam Hussein, is the emphasis on using our leadership to form a broad partnership with other nations or to go it alone? And should any decision as to how and when to use unilateral force be essentially in the hands of the executive alone or should the elected representatives of the public in this U.S. Congress be an active participant? Should we be authorizing the President to use the U.S. Armed Forces to go it alone in a war against Iraq now, before the U.N. Security Council has acted further, or not? Before Iraq has responded completely to those demands or not? Before a new inspection regimen occurs or not? Before we might use force as a member state in compliance with U.N. resolutions?”