Bill Delahunt: “not only were we silent, and it is very important that the historical record be revealed to the American people, and…”

“not only were we silent, and it is very important that the historical record be revealed to the American people, and that is why we are tonight. If any viewer has any questions about the accuracy of what we state, I am sure that the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland) and the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee) and any other member of Iraq Watch, we would be happy to respond and see that the reports, unbiased, that were authored back in 1992, would be provided to anyone who has an interest. They can contact our office. But it was not just silence. It was absolutely, according to this report, action to block the imposition of sanctions at that point in time. I dare say what would have happened if in 1988 and 1989 and 1990 there were sanctions on Iraq, that would have been a message to Saddam Hussein. We can speculate that maybe we would have avoided the first Gulf War if we had taken on that thug then. But, no, we were not sending that message. We continued after the conclusion of the war. I have heard the argument while we tilted towards Iraq, that was the language that was used, we tilted towards Iraq because of our concern with Iran and the Ayatollah Khomeini. As I said earlier, what are we doing now? We are allying ourselves with two more despots, two more thugs who I dare say years from now could very well be the new Saddam Husseins.”