Frank Lautenberg: “I will use our time to discuss a couple of subjects, one of which relates to the present debate or dialog, and that is…”

“I will use our time to discuss a couple of subjects, one of which relates to the present debate or dialog, and that is the position of our respective parties on behalf of the interests of the American people. After that, I will talk about the terrible attack that took place in Egypt against a group of Israelis and what the world is saying about events such as that. First, what we heard in the debate a little while ago was the fact that the reason, as I heard it--and I am willing to be corrected if wrong--that one of the reasons we went to war in Iraq was a resolution that was passed in this body, in the Senate--talking about the resolution that was passed in October 2002--giving the President authority to send our troops to Iraq. That hardly was the reason we did that. We did not mandate in this body that we go to war. What we said was: OK, Mr. President, if you know about those weapons of mass destruction, and if you know that al-Qaida has a presence there, and if all of these threats are directed at world peace and a threat to the security of the United States, we give you permission, we give you support to send them.”