Barney Frank: “along with a large majority of the House, I voted for a resolution that reiterated our opposition to the acquisition by…”

“along with a large majority of the House, I voted for a resolution that reiterated our opposition to the acquisition by Saddam Hussein of Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. But I am concerned that some might try, quite inaccurately, to take that large vote repeating our condemnation of Saddam Hussein and our insistence he comply with U.N. resolutions regarding these weapons, that some might mistake this as an expression of support for a war in Iraq. First of all, we should be very clear: there is no legislation, no resolution that has passed this House, that expresses support for war in Iraq. The post-September 11 resolution was explicitly limited to involvement in the attack on the World Trade Center. And to date, no one has produced evidence, as reprehensible as Saddam Hussein is, as despicable as his regime, that he was in any significant way involved in that. Many of us, in fact many of us who voted for the resolution, signed a letter to the President reiterating we do not believe it would be appropriate to commit America to a major military action in Iraq or anywhere else in the world without a congressional vote. And I would be, at this point, voting against that. We did a very good job in Afghanistan. The American military made us proud. And, by the way, that is the American military that President Bush inherited from President Clinton.”