Louie Gohmert: “I thank my friend, also from Texas. He has made wonderful points. For those of us who have studied history--especially…”

“I thank my friend, also from Texas. He has made wonderful points. For those of us who have studied history--especially in my case, spending my life studying history--you know one thing if you really understand history: Weakness is provocative. There was no better display than in 1979, November 4, actually. I was at Fort Benning, in the Army there. We took notice when our Embassy was attacked, and we had a very weak President who went about begging Iran to let our people go without any threat. We just wanted diplomacy. Iran then and now does not understand the weakness they perceive from diplomacy unless there is a hammer behind it. We are here today to vote on two amendments. One, of course, has already been discussed, titled ``No War with Iran Act.'' The other is titled ``Repeal of Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002.'' Some of us have been wanting a new AUMF since we got here. During the Obama administration, it was clear we weren't going to get that. I appreciated Chairman McKeon allowing me to come up with language to try to make it a little better, but he made me stay in a back room to write the language so the Democrats in the Senate didn't know it was me who was doing the language. That might have created a problem. We made some amendments, but we needed a new AUMF.…”