The following excerpts are taken from: Representative Rob Andrews’ Press Release of September 29, 2002 prior to the invasion of Iraq . http://www.house.gov/andrews/pressarchive/92902oped.html
September 29, 2002 – REP. ROB ANDREWS MAKES CASE FOR WAR
(OP-ED SUBMITTED TO THE GLOUCESTER COUNTY TIMES)
Following each of Rob’s false statements, are the known, true facts.
The most serious duty of a President or Member of Congress is to decide whether to send our Armed Forces to war.
Fact: Their “duty” is to uphold their oath of office , “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States ”. The invasion and 5 year occupation of Iraq neither supports nor defends our Constitution. The removal of the Terrorist(s) from the White House (Bush & Cheney) does.
Our nation must act by any means necessary, including military action, to remove the government of Saddam Hussein.
Fact: Saddam posed no threat! Vice President Cheney stated on 09/16/01 that Saddam was not a threat , and was bottled up.
Failure to act will result in calamity for America. We will likely suffer attacks by enemies using chemical, biological and nuclear weapons that will result in deaths that dwarf the grim casualty of September 11, 2001. These attacks will strike people here in own land as well as around the world.
Fact: Iraq never had any connections to 9/11 or Al Qaeda. Ten days after 9/11, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda.
At the request of President Bush, I have helped to form a small group of Members of Congress from both political parties.
Fact: Rob acted as Bush’s recruiter in drafting the Resolution for the invasion of Iraq . Congress abdicated its constitutional powers “to declare war” to Bush. But the responsibility for sending almost 4,000 American soldiers to die in a foreign land, in a war for profit is shared by all who support the occupation.
We share the conviction that our duty requires us to remove the Iraqi government from power. We are working to write and pass a Resolution authorizing our nation to take any steps necessary to replace the Iraqi dictatorship with a government that will practice peace.
Fact: Invading a sovereign nation without just cause is against International Law.
Iraq today possesses chemical weapons, such as sarin gas, and biological weapons, such as anthrax and smallpox virus. Some experts believe Iraq presently has a small nuclear bomb that could fit into a suitcase. Intelligence authorities who have served under Democratic and Republican administrations alike agree that Iraq will soon possess more powerful nuclear weapons.
Fact: Saddam possessed no WMD’s . On 02/11/02, Donald Rumsfeld told Tony Snow on Fox News: “ Iraq is probably not a nuclear threat at the present time.” Experts pointed out that apart from mustard gas, Iraq never had the technology to produce materials with a shelf-life of 12 years , the time between the two wars. All such agents would have deteriorated to the point of uselessness years ago.
Make no mistake; however, Saddam’s weapons of mass death are not pointed at the Germans who minimize our peril or the Arab states who criticize our actions. These weapons are meant to kill Americans. We must destroy those weapons and displace their owners before we suffer mass catastrophe.
Fact: The US destroyed the majority of Iraq’s WMD’s after the 1 st Gulf War. In 1999, a Security Council panel concluded: "Although important elements still have to be resolved, the bulk of Iraq's proscribed weapons programs has been eliminated."
Others contend that Iraq will never use these weapons because their use would constitute an act of suicide. Do we really want to stake the lives of our people on the rationality of a dictator who has already used mustard gas and other chemical weapons against the people of Iran, Kuwait, and the Kurdish minority of his own country?
Fact: 08/18/02 NYT “The extent of US military collaboration with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during Iraq's 1980-88 war with Iran:” not only did Washington turn a blind-eye to the Hussein regime's repeated use of chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers and Iraq's Kurdish minority, but the US helped Iraq develop its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.
Even if Saddam Hussein avoids the suicide option, his regime could secretly transfer these weapons to terrorists groups and then deny responsibility as Americans bury our dead. If the weapons no longer exist, neither does the risk of their secret transfer.
Fact: 02/01/02 Report from DIA states “Saddam’s regime is intensely secular and is wary of Islamic Revolutionary movements. [like al Qaeda]
We received a wake up call on September 11, 2001. If we wait for terrorists to attack us, they will. The fact that we have endured the threat of the Iraqi arsenal since 1991 is not evidence of how smart we have been. To the contrary, it is evidence of how lucky-and careless—we have been.
Fact: Tyler Drumheller, the former chief of the CIA’s Europe division, revealed that in the fall of 2002 , President Bush, Vice President Cheney, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and others were told by CIA Director George Tenet that Iraq’s foreign minister — who agreed to act as a spy for the United States — had reported that Iraq had no active weapons of mass destruction program .
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