Ed Markey: “last October I voted for the Bush resolution on Iraq. The reason I did is the President said he wanted to stop Saddam…”

“last October I voted for the Bush resolution on Iraq. The reason I did is the President said he wanted to stop Saddam Hussein from obtaining a nuclear weapon, that we were going to stop him and anyone else in the world from the capacity to develop nuclear weapons. The message the Republicans are sending to the world today is that nuclear weapons are usable. If the Russians send nuclear weapons to the United States, shoot them at us, every Trident submarine we have has up to 100 nuclear weapons on it. Russia will be destroyed in 1 day. But if we use one nuclear weapon in Baghdad, in Damascus, in P'yongyang, we will send a signal to dozens of countries in the world that nuclear weapons are usable, and that will destroy our moral and political credibility to end the spread of weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons, on this planet. This is the most important vote we are going to have, and I urge an ``aye'' vote on the Tauscher amendment so that we fulfill the commitment of those who voted on the resolution to support a war with Iraq in order to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.”