Bill Pascrell: “I am very, very concerned. President Bush initially wanted the authority in the October 16, 2002 Act of War to use force…”

“I am very, very concerned. President Bush initially wanted the authority in the October 16, 2002 Act of War to use force to restore peace and security in the region, not just Iraq. We rejected that. The Congress of the United States, Mr. Speaker, rejected that and said no. The exercise of the authority granted in the resolution, read the resolution, is conditioned on the President certifying that war in Iraq would not harm the war on terrorism. We will make a point of that over the next 3 days. Iran has an oppressive economy. We must understand Iranian culture in order not to make the same mistakes we made in Iraq. Ethnically, Iranians are of Indo-European descent and have no kinship to their neighbors in the Middle East. Their language is Indo-European, with grammar and structure similar to classical Latin. They do not identify with Arabs. We do not understand the Middle East. We made that mistake once, we should not make that mistake again.”