Rob Bishop: “I am honored to be here and I wish to address the first of the four points that Mr. Cole presented when he introduced…”

“I am honored to be here and I wish to address the first of the four points that Mr. Cole presented when he introduced this particular rule. I, like the gentlewoman from California who just spoke, and those of us who were elected for the first time in the last two cycles, was not here for the 1998 debate and piece of legislation passed by 360 of our Members and signed by President Clinton which outlined our foreign policy objectives with Iraq; nor was I here for what I was told was the 17-hour debate on the vote that authorized use of force in Iraq. Those two, in my opinion, should have been the definitive debate and vote on what our common policy would be as we move forward. What I would like to talk to you about now is what I find most compelling, and that is the legal rationale for what we are doing in Iraq. Saddam Hussein's Iraq violated 17 U.N. resolutions, three of which demanded use of force for the violation of those. Saddam Hussein's Iraq had violated the treaty he signed with the United States. His forces were shooting at American servicemen. He put a bounty on the head of every American airman that could be brought to him. He had offered a cash bonus to every family of a suicide bomber who would blow up either an Israeli or an American at the time. When a foreign country violates its treaty with us and shoots at our servicemen, that is a legal justification for our actions.…”