Tom Lantos: “Mr. Speaker, today we are asked to commemorate a preemptive war. President Bush told the world there was no doubt Iraq…”

“Mr. Speaker, today we are asked to commemorate a preemptive war. President Bush told the world there was no doubt Iraq was concealing weapons of mass destruction, but this Republican resolution instead reinterprets history. It would have the American people believe that President Bush took our Nation to war because in 1988 Saddam gassed the Kurds while President Reagan appeased the Iraqi regime or because Saddam punished the Marsh Arabs by draining the marshlands while the first Bush administration watched. This resolution memorializes the horrors of a dictator to justify the flawed premise for preemptive war, but it fails to acknowledge the 565 American patriots who sacrificed their lives. This resolution exploits the sacrifices of our troops, the suffering of the Iraqi people, all for partisan gamesmanship. Our Nation is at war. Our troops, their families, and the American people deserve honesty from this House and from the White House. We all support our troops. We all want a safer world. And the American people deserve the truth.”