Maurice Hinchey: “the decision to go to war is the most profound decision that any nation can make. It should be done, of course…”

“the decision to go to war is the most profound decision that any nation can make. It should be done, of course, judiciously and only with the utmost of care and only as a last resort. This is especially true of democratic republics such as ours, when the actions of the government must be with the consent of the governed. In order for the governed to give their consent, that consent, of course, must be informed. And it is the responsibility of the government to inform its citizens in an honest and straightforward way with regard to the background and information that it has that causes it to make such profound decisions. On January 23 of this year, the President of the United States in this room addressed the Joint Session of the Congress as well as the people of the United States. And in that address he made a number of assertions with regard to the state of Iraq and why it was important for us to engage that country in hostility. Among those statements he made was one with regard to the importation of processed uranium from Niger.”