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[Pages H19-H20]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONGRESS SHALL HAVE POWER TO DECLARE WAR
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Connecticut (Mr. Himes) for 5 minutes.
Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, for the last 2 months, the House has been
riven by the process of impeachment. It has been emotional, divisive,
and challenging. If you noticed, many of the statements about
impeachment started with some version of this: Impeachment is the most
serious thing that Congress will do, other than declare war.
Well, here we are. In the next day, in the next month, and in the
next year, this body may be called upon to make decisions that will
alter history and possibly send young men and women to their deaths or
not. I say ``or not'' because, once again, I see Congress at risk of
failing to stand up for the clear mandate placed on us by the
Constitution, to which each and every one of us took an oath.
There is no argument about our duty here. The language of the
Constitution is plain: Congress shall have power to declare war, not
Congress shall have power to declare war unless the President wants to
retaliate against someone; not Congress shall have power to declare war
unless a Syrian airbase needs destruction; not Congress shall have
power to declare war unless our forces are attacked in the Tonkin Gulf.
Congress shall have power to declare war. Period, full stop.
Mr. Speaker, in the long run, this has nothing to do with our
confidence in a particular President. It has everything to do with
whether we take the obligations that Mr. Madison and Mr. Hamilton asked
us to take seriously. In their wisdom, the Founders understood that
every American--every American--should have a voice in the decision to
go to war because it will be those Americans who offer up their
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sons and their daughters; because it will be those Americans and their
children who will sacrifice not just themselves but the roads, the
bridges, the schools, and the scholarships that will get consumed in
the costs of war; and because our Founders understood that the true
power of our awesome war machine was not in the technology. It lay in
the sober assent and careful enthusiasm of millions of Americans, not
in the decision of one person in an Oval Office.
So, here we are. Yes, the questions are many and complicated. Was the
strike on General Soleimani legal? Was it ethical? Was it smart? These
are not easy questions, and I suspect the answers will come only over
time and after careful study. But right now, in this there is a
question that hangs the lives of our people and potentially trillions
of dollars: What comes next?
For those of us who were chanting, cheerleading, and whipping
themselves into a belligerent frenzy, reflect on our experience over
the last 20 years in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. Comments
by the Secretary of Defense notwithstanding, that we are not looking to
start a war, but we are prepared to end one, the experience of the last
20 years is that we are not prepared to end any war. Some estimates
suggest that we have spent $6 trillion on Middle Eastern wars, and more
importantly, we have laid down the lives of thousands of our men and
women.
While we may have taken some satisfaction from the removal of people
like Saddam Hussein and Muammar Qadhafi, at what cost? One of our most
accomplished Middle Eastern diplomats, Philip Gordon, answers that
question best. Philip Gordon wrote this years ago: ``In Iraq, the U.S.
intervened and occupied, and the result was a costly disaster. In
Libya, the U.S. intervened and did not occupy, and the result was a
costly disaster. In Syria, the U.S. neither intervened nor occupied,
and the result is a costly disaster.''
Mr. Speaker, I close my plea for care, thoughtfulness, and careful
consideration by reminding my colleagues of a friend who died almost
exactly a year ago, Walter B. Jones, Jr., from North Carolina. Some of
us in this Chamber remember his journey.
{time} 1045
In 2003, he was an ardent supporter of the Iraq war; and over time
and, in particular, when he attended the funeral for a young sergeant
in his district, he came to regret his decision. This was the guy who
led the charge to rename French fries ``freedom fries,'' and he came to
be haunted by what he had done and by what we had done.
I didn't know Walter well, but we celebrated his life when he died.
Let's be like Walter. Let's learn the cost of war--but let's not attend
funerals to do it--and give this decision the careful consideration it
deserves.
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