Bill Delahunt: “let me pick up where we left off. And where we left off, obviously, was my very brief conversation with my friend from…”

“let me pick up where we left off. And where we left off, obviously, was my very brief conversation with my friend from Iowa (Mr. King), because I can never remember a debate on the floor of this House or in any committee of this House where the rationale that was put forth by the proponents of the resolution authorizing the President to invade Iraq was to liberate the Iraqi people. And clearly the headlines, we all remember the phrases such as mushroom cloud, links to al Qaeda, the potential for an imminent attack on the United States. The gentleman indicates that it was one of those reasons. What I find interesting, Mr. Speaker, is why was Iraq selected. Because as I look over the map, if it was a combination of reasons, why did we not invade Iran where we had hard evidence relative to weapons of mass destruction, where we knew that they possessed the capability, where there clearly was a denial of freedom? Why did we select Iraq? And, Mr. Speaker, if we were so concerned about democracy, if the White House had this unstated vision and goal, why did they put a coalition of the willing together that embraced some of the most tyrannical regimes on the face of the Earth? Why did we embrace Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan whose human rights record was the equal of the human rights record of Saddam Hussein? Why did Islam Karimov come to the White House and have a photo opportunity with President Bush? Why did we embrace Turkmenbashi, another thug, Mr.…”