Henry Hyde

Mr. HYDE

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Weldon). (Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey), the majority leader.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 8 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on International Relations.

Mr. HYDE. I certainly am, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I oppose the motion to recommit; and if anybody wants detailed reasons, I suggest they read it. It sets up roadblocks that I think are virtually insurmountable. In the thousands of words we have heard in the last couple of days uttered on Iraq, a few important truths emerge. First, Saddam Hussein is a very dangerous person. The history of his regime is one of unrestrained violence against Iran, against Kuwait, against the Kurds, against the Shias, and against others whose only offense is to oppose his despotic regime. Secondly, he hates America. Thirdly, he is making a feverish attempt to arm with weapons of immeasurable destructive capacity; and when he is ready, he will use them. Do you remember the first time you saw the films of the mushroom cloud engulfing Hiroshima and then you learned about the deadly effect of radiation on humans? That was 1945. Does the fact that modern thermal nuclear weapons would unleash a thousand times the destructive power of Hiroshima worry you at all? You might ask why are we debating this resolution at this moment in time. The answer should be apparent: September 11, which was more than a wake-up call. It shook us out of a long, deep sleep and held us by the throat. It taught us there are people in the world willing to destroy themselves to gratify their hatred and we had better take them seriously. We tend to visualize what we call weapons of mass destruction in terms of bombs reducing buildings to rubble, but missiles can carry bombs with chemical and biological agents that can poison a city as well as destroy its infrastructure. Either way, it is death and destruction on a horrendous scale. Is such an attack imminent? Did we know Pearl Harbor was imminent? Did we know the World Trade Center attacks were imminent? The willingness to destroy must never marry the capability to destroy. And Santayana was right, those who do not read history are condemned to relive it. In a book written sometime after, I suppose, in the 1940's by William C. Bullit, who was our first ambassador to Russia appointed by President Roosevelt called ``The Great Globe Itself,'' he said: ``To beat our swords into plowshares while the spiritual descendants of Genghis Khan stalk the earth is to die and leave no descendants.'' The world looks to us for leadership. The world looks to us for strength and resolve. We make no demands for territory or commercial advantage. All we want is a peaceful world. ``If you love peace, prepare for war,'' said the ancient Romans. There are ideals and ideas worth fighting for. They are the civilizing forces that make life worth living, that respect the dignity that is every person's entitlement. Those ideals and principles are under attack and we must defend them. By supporting the President, we send a message to the forces of conquest and chaos that America, the West, is not as decadent as they may think. Support the President. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. History is an exciting adventure. On April 28, 1999, in this very Chamber, right where we are now, this House voted to allow the President, President Clinton, without any U.N. resolution, to take military action: Bombing in Kosovo. And among those who voted to allow the President to do this, without a U.N. resolution, but to go ahead, gung ho, was virtually everybody that has spoken on that side of the Chamber. Absolutely, I applaud them. I do not know what changed them, why they now demand we process this through the U.N., but they did not feel that way back then, in April of 1999, and I have the rollcall if anybody cares to see it. But everybody voted to bomb Kosovo. Now, is that because that was President Clinton? There must be some explanation. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Cox).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 7 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Watts), the Chairman of our Conference.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Graham).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Gillmor). (Mr. GILLMOR asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte). (Mr. GOODLATTE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley). (Mr. OXLEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield the balance of my time to the distinguished gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Buyer).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Kirk).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, with great pleasure, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Wyoming (Mrs. Cubin)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. Mr. Speaker, when you retire from Congress and the great summing up comes with your great-grandchildren or great-great-grandchildren, and people say, ``What did you do in Congress,'' you say, ``Well, I voted to yield sovereignty to the United Nations. I voted to have the decision to defend the United States national interests to the Security Council, which is composed of five members, three of which are France, China, and Russia.'' What a precedent, to condition our taking action by getting approval and by getting a new resolution. What is that, Resolution No. 7,842? No, it is only about the seventeenth resolution. A new resolution authorizing the United States to defend its national interests? This is not a preemptive strike. The shooting has never stopped from Desert Storm. There was a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, in February of 1991 and, after that, every day they shoot at us in the sky. So this is not preemptive, it is just finishing what should have been finished several years ago. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Royce).

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Kennedy). (Mr. KENNEDY of Minnesota asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)