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NNN0LHI (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore | Mon Jul-14-03 07:27 AM Original message |
Here is the dark horse Dem candidate for President |
For the mods, this is from the Congressional Record and does not infringe on copyright laws therefore I am going to post the whole thing. Don
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002_cr/s091002b.html Congressional Record: September 10, 2002 (Senate)
Now, here we are a year later. The war on terrorism continues. Few, if any, would say that it is resolved or that we have won it. And we are debating the possibility of another war against another enemy. Osama bin Laden has not been captured or accounted for. The major leaders in al-Qaida are still on the loose somewhere. We believe al-Qaida still has a network of sleepers in 60 nations around the world. Afghanistan, the first battleground in the war against terrorism in the 21st century, is still not a stable and safe country. Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan, barely survived an assassination attempt last week. We have thousands of American troops still on the ground there. I had the honor to meet with some of them last January; our hearts and prayers are with them every single day. But that war on terrorism still continues. Yet the administration comes forward and tells us we still have to think about the possibility of another war, in this case a war against Iraq. Indeed, it is possible that within a few days or maybe a few weeks the people of the United States of America, through their Members of Congress, will be asked to vote on whether to go to war against Iraq. It is hard to believe the events are moving so quickly that we would be declaring a second war within little more than a year of the September 11 attack.
We recall the Persian Gulf war. It was a much different situation, a little over 10 years ago, precipitated by Saddam Hussein's invasion and occupation of Kuwait: The formation of a coalition led by the United States but also with the United Nations and allies around the world, including many Arab States who joined us. We fought to remove Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. We were successful in doing that. We had logistical support. We positioned our troops in
In the midst of the Kuwait situation, Saddam Hussein didn't use This time, we are not talking about moving Iraqi troops out of Kuwait but actually killing and capturing Saddam Hussein. To what lengths would he go in response? What victims would he seek? He doesn't have missiles to reach the United States, but he has the capacity to train what missiles he does have on nearby neighbors such as Israel.
Vice President Cheney is saying to Congress: It is your turn to make this decision. The decision to go to war is the most significant decision any Senior administration officials publicly identified Iraq's It is interesting, if you look at the countries that the Bush
All that I am telling you is a matter of public information. We know this. We know what their capability is. When you look at the status of the three countries which the President said are the axis of evil, Iraq clearly ranks third. If all three are threats and enemies to the United States, why is it that the administration has focused in on Iraq, which to our knowledge does not have nuclear weapons today nor the ability to deliver any type of long-range weaponry against the United States? As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, I am It is within the power of the Director of the CIA, George Tenet, to order a national intelligence estimate, known as an NIE. National I was stunned to learn last week that we have not produced a national intelligence estimate showing the current state of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. What is incredible, with all of the statements made by members of this administration about those weapons, is the fact what the intelligence community has not been brought together. If we learned anything from September 11 of last year, we learned, when it came to the intelligence out there at the FBI and the CIA and other agencies, that no one ever brought it together. Had we been able to bring it together by September 10, could we have avoided September 11? I am not sure. I wouldn't say that. But we certainly would have appreciated the threat a lot better, and perhaps we would have been prepared a lot better. Maybe--just maybe--we might have avoided some or all of the tragedy. But we didn't do it. Time and again since then as we looked back on last year, we have said we have to be better prepared, with better communications and better coordination of information from outside the country and inside, and bring it all together so we can make the best decision. When we are talking about a possible invasion of Iraq and a war This morning, I handed a letter to the deputy to Director Tenet Let me tell you the many components of the U.S. intelligence The letter I sent to Director Tenet asked him to initiate this Let me tell you that during the time I served in the Congress--the House and the Senate--there is no moment I recall with more pain in my heart than the debate a little over 10 years ago about the Persian Gulf war. After we persuaded President Bush's father to follow the Constitution, to come to Congress and to seek the authority of the American people and the permission and approval of Congress before initiating that war, we then engaged in a debate--a long debate. I think virtually every Member of the House of Representatives took the floor over a 2- or 3-day period of time. The House met continuously. In that period of time, each of us stood in the well of the House of Representatives--as we did in the Senate Chamber here--and spoke our hearts about the challenge we faced and the vote we faced. We knew that if a vote were cast to go to war, innocent people would die and that American soldiers and American sailors and marines and airmen would have their lives on the line. I assured them that I would think about him constantly as I made my decision on the Persian Gulf war. Of course, we all recall what Little did I know that Christian Porter of the U.S. Marine Corps from Springfield, IL, was one of the several hundred American casualties in that war. This young man, whom we all worried about so much, was the victim of friendly fire. I went to his funeral service in Springfield and to the veterans We have to take this responsibility very seriously. And if we are going to take it seriously, we must insist, in Congress, that the If this administration cannot produce a National Intelligence It is time for the administration to rise to the occasion, to produce this evidence, as has been asked for and been produced so many times in the past when America's national security was at risk. We cannot accept anything less than that before any Member of the House or the Senate is asked to vote on this critical question of going to war. We have to say to the administration: Bring forward your best War is the last option. We have to know every element before we make that decision. We have to exhaust every other opportunity before we reach it. On Thursday, the President will be at the United Nations in New York. I am certain he is going to remind them that Saddam Hussein is a thug, that he has been a threat to his own people, to the region, and to people around the world with his weapons of mass destruction. He will, undoubtedly, remind them of his cruel invasion of Kuwait, which mobilized the United Nations to defeat him and to displace his troops from Kuwait. He will, undoubtedly, remind them of what has happened since: when the United Nations resolution, which condemns and prohibits Iraq from ever having weapons of mass destruction, has been ignored by Saddam Hussein; how the inspectors, some 4 years ago, were pushed out of his country; and how this man has literally, as a thug, ruled this nation in a manner and form that most civilized countries in the world find reprehensible. All of those things, I will concede, are true. But the next question facing the United Nations and facing the United States and its people, through its elected representatives in Congress, is: Is it the right thing for us to do? We cannot make the right decision without the best information. And the production of the National Intelligence Estimate will give us that information. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Clinton). The clerk will call the roll. Mr. BYRD. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. |
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Cocoa (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore | Sat Jul-12-03 01:36 PM Response to Original message |
1. He'd be an excellent running mate for a northern candidate |
He's practically a southerner, being from southern Illinois. But he'd be a big loss in the Senate.
Dean-Durbin and Kerry-Durbin both have nice rings... |
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NNN0LHI (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore | Sat Jul-12-03 01:43 PM Response to Reply #1 |
2. I think the Illinois Democratic governor could find a suitable replacement |
until a special election takes place.
Don |
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kentuck (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore | Sat Jul-12-03 01:49 PM Response to Original message |
3. He would make a good Majority or Minority Leader... |
IMO..
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election_2004 (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore | Sat Jul-12-03 02:44 PM Response to Original message |
4. biography on Durbin |
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DU AdBot (1000+ posts) | Sun May 05th 2024, 03:28 PM Response to Original message |
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