Janice Schakowsky: “I came to the House floor because I felt that I needed to come down here and speak before this body about my opposition…”

“I came to the House floor because I felt that I needed to come down here and speak before this body about my opposition to the war that seems to be pending in Iraq. I come to the floor today to say that war is not inevitable; that this great Nation, whose power and hegemony is not disputed, can assert its leadership without the terrible destruction of a preemptive all-out war. I come to the floor today to pay tribute to the millions and millions of everyday people all around the world, including throughout the United States, who have expressed so clearly their conviction that a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq is not the answer. I come to pay tribute to the city of Chicago, one of about 100 U.S. cities whose elected leaders, responding to their citizens, voted 'no' to a preemptive war. In Chicago it was by a vote of 46 to 1. We are on the brink of the first war in history started by the United States against a country that has not threatened violence against the United States. We are on the brink of implementing a new policy of preemptive war, and ushering in not a new world order but a world of unprecedented disorder.”