Declars War
Fund, John H.
1 Liberals became unglued in the days just before President Bush gave the green light for the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Syndicated columnist Richard Reeves, the author of respected books on John...
...This woolly-headed travesty rang the alarm bells of moderate House Democrats...
...While Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle supported American troops while railing against Bush's failure to pursue a diplomatic solution, other Democrats were even bolder in their criticism...
...Marshall told them, "I certainly agree there's a constitutional right to speak, to protest, to differ in our society...
...Those rules allow an objection from any member to delay a caucus of House Democrats for up to five days...
...Gene Green of Texas...
...John Lewis of Georgia vowed to oppose President Bush's request for emergency funds to pay for the war...
...A dozen years later they will be proven wrong again on the very same battlefields...
...I remember when majorities of people in Western Europe opposed the deployment of cruise and Pershing missiles to counteract new Soviet missiles aimed at NATO member states...
...Opposition to the war among some House Democrats was so intense that Rep...
...A competing resolution drafted by Jackson Lee would bring home all but a token force of 50,000 American troops from the Middle East, increase humanitarian aid to Iraq, restart the stalled Mideast peace process and restate U.S...
...A total of thirty-two House Democrats either voted against or abstained on a resolution "expressing the support and appreciation of the nation for the president and the members of the armed forces who are participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom...
...The visceral reaction against the war from the Democrats' "loony left" wing proves once again how the party refuses to learn from history...
...That means one out of seven House Democrats couldn't bring themselves to affirm patriotic support for our armed forces during a time of war...
...Marshall acknowledged he might have breached congressional etiquette, but refused to back down...
...The old saying goes that "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results...
...Jim, what you did today was unthinkable...
...My personal view is now's not the time to do it...
...He isn't the only liberal to have people walking out in disgust for blind opposition to the war in Iraq...
...History has proved those 1991 naysayers wrong...
...There are members who feel that once hostilities are started, we ought not talk about opposition," said Rep...
...I also remember when leftists and Hollywood stars of all stripes opposed American intervention in Grenada and supported the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua...
...But there have also been successes which the "loony left" refuses to acknowledge and learn from...
...Jackson Lee's caucus meeting eventually went forward, but after a useful cooling-off period of five days...
...The demonstrations dwarfed even today's "peace" marches...
...Many of the same members who rallied behind Rep...
...I remember, too, how many countries were hesitant to join the allied coalition in the 1991 Gulf War, fearing that it would turn out horribly...
...Left unexplained is how his appearance would be compelled without military intervention...
...Syndicated columnist Richard Reeves, the author of respected books on John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, shocked a Florida audience the day war started by predicting that the conflict would lead to the assassination of President Bush...
...Reeves's assassination comment led to several hundred people booing him and about fifty walking out of his lecture...
...When it comes to the enduring hostility of some congressional Democrats to the use of American power, that explanation might fit as well as any other...
...The people of both countries have shown their gratitude for our help and today live in freedom...
...Rep...
...Lewis was livid...
...History shows it was the right course of action...
...I believe that the president has done everything necessary and has exercised every option short of war...
...Jackson Lee explained her plan to call a caucus meeting to discuss her resolution, she and her supporters were interrupted by their Georgia colleague, who, according to the Houston Chronicle, "asked them to pipe down...
...At least two senators decided to leave the chamber at that point...
...support for the UN Security Council...
...Senator Robert Byrd took to the Senate floor to allege, "The case that this administration tries to make to justify its fixation with war is tainted by charges of falsified documents andcircumstantial evidence...
...Jackson Lee voted against the resolution authorizing the Gulf War...
...War is obsolete," heexplained, using his best impersonation of Neville Chamberlain brandishing his umbrella after Munich...
...As a sop to anti-Saddam sentiment, it would ask America's allies to bring Saddam Hussein before an international war crimes tribunal...
...I've been here seventeen years...
...Jim Marshall, a first-term member from a Georgia district with a large minority population, went even further...
...We do not believe this war should continue," she said...
...Texas Rep...
...The delay probably saved House Democrats a great deal of embarrassment...
...Another, John McCain, felt compelled to rush from his office to the Senate floor to defend the president...
...As Rep...
...Rep...
...Sheila Jackson Lee, one of the abstainers on the resolution, convened a Capitol Hill meeting with the support of fifty other House Democrats to discuss alternatives to the war, even as American airmen were being shot at over Baghdad...
...I never, ever have seen this happen before...
...We cannot convince the world of the necessity of this war for one simple reason...
...American foreign policy makers have made many mistakes over the last twenty years, and no doubt some arrogance has been exercised...
...War is evil, it's bloody, it is messy...
...This is not a war of necessity, but a war of choice...
...Rather than debate the issue of war or peace, Lewis lashed out...
...He then stunned the room by announcing he had used his rights under Democratic Party rules to cancel their meeting...
...along with President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, it helped precipitate the collapse of the Soviet Union...
...A few days earlier he had concluded his column by saying, "It is hard not to conclude that the president is ignorant, the secretary of defense is nuts, and the secretary of state incompetent...
Vol. 36 • March 2003 • No. 2
