Give Peace A Chance

Floor Speech

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Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, ``All is well!'' ``So far, so good!''

This is the latest sequel in Trump's government-by-tweets, that couldn't be further from reality. Hopefully, we pray that no American lives were lost last night. But every American is less safe today than before Trump's assassination of a major foreign leader. He has taken us to the brink of war, and, hopefully, he will use the opportunity of a restrained counterattack not to escalate further but to seek an off- ramp to deescalate the crisis that could endanger the world.

Attack begetting attack, and hate begetting hate--in that direction lies the abyss. The only justification that he can offer for ignoring President Ronald Reagan's Executive Order against assassination of foreign leaders is that of an imminent attack, that we need to get them before they get us. He has failed to offer any such evidence of an imminent attack to justify this rash assassination that previous administrations, Republican and Democrat, and the Israelis who had the capacity to do this, recognized posed more danger than good.

``Overreliance on our packing the biggest gun and having the fastest draw as in some old John Wayne western movie does not truly make us safer. This is not a formula for the safety of our families. It is a formula for international anarchy. A quick draw may eliminate the occasional villain, but it comes at the cost of destabilizing the world, disrupting the hope of international law and order, and, ultimately, it will make even Austin a very unsafe place in which to live.''

Those were the precise words I used in challenging the horrendous Bush-Cheney invasion of Iraq, and they apply even more today to the war with Iran, a country that is about four times the size and three times the population of prewar Iraq and has far more capacity to do harm to us and our allies.

Trump has no plan and no strategy in the Middle East. Ending one general's life is not an endgame. Like the invasion of Iraq, already the biggest winner from Trump's misguided non-policy is the country that he opposes the most, Iran, whose allies now in Iraq have asked all of our troops to leave and who have called them occupiers; Iran, whose presence has caused the removal of all civilian employees and foreign service officers of the United States from Iraq.

Now, with the assassination, Trump has united those who were once opposing the regime in Iran. In Iran, there are incredible protests, and in Iraq there are protests against Iranian influence. So after abandoning our Kurdish allies and surrendering that part of the Middle East to our adversaries, Trump has now managed to unite the many people who were favorable to the United States and who were questioning the very malicious presence of Iran.

I believe that Congress must act and this House must act to assert its constitutional authority to rein in this out-of-control President. Last July, we attempted to do just that. I voted with a strong majority in this House to adopt the Khanna amendment to basically say that we would deny all funds for his attacking Iran without his coming first to this Congress to justify it; and I supported a second amendment that was adopted by our colleague, Representative Lee, which made it clear that there is no authorization for use of military force that exists on the books today that justifies any offensive action against Iran.

This House should use the full strength of our authority to restrict President Trump from rushing into another war that will be so costly to us in blood and treasure. It is a war that American families do not want.

As one very concerned father movingly wrote to me this week: ``[If] my son is to be deployed to protect and serve our country, please do your best to be sure it is for the right reasons. He is proud to [serve] and will do his duty to the best of his ability without question. His Mother and I could not be prouder. Please don't let it be about some ill-conceived political distraction from an egomaniacal madman.''

Let us come together to build a better path forward. Let us give peace a chance.

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