AP News, February 14th, 2007
House debate over the Iraq war did more than pit Democrat against Republican. It pitted ghosts of the past against each other.
Historical figures, some long gone, were invoked in the debate Tuesday. A terrorist's dark words were enlisted. So were the musings of a poet. Even Davy Crockett played a part.
In the swirl of rhetoric, there were dead men talking.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., opened the debate with an answer for critics of people like herself who are against President Bush's plan to send more U.S. troops into Iraq. She quoted former Republican Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio, speaking a few weeks after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941:
"Criticism in a time of war is essential to the maintenance of a democratic government," Pelosi said.
House Minority leader John Boehner, another Ohio Republican, followed her to the microphone.
Boehner brought Abraham Lincoln into the debate, commending his Civil War leadership and using some of the president's words to make the case for aligning with Bush in wartime.
"Lincoln famously said, in 1858, that 'A house divided against itself cannot stand,'" Boehner said, urging his colleagues to choose carefully on the issue. "Then, it was whether we should abolish the evil institution of slavery. Today, it's whether we'll defeat the ideology that drives radical Islamic terrorism."
Boehner also quoted Osama bin Laden, the still-at-large al-Qaida terrorist leader behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"He said, and I'll quote, 'I would like to tell you that that the war is for you or for us to win. If we win, it means your defeat and disgrace forever.'"
Although historic in nature and tone, the debate raged inside a largely empty House chamber as snow and a threatened overnight ice storm prompted the government to send workers home early. The Senate announced at midafternoon that it planned no more votes, meaning its business for the day was done.
House lawmakers planned to have at it all day Wednesday and Thursday, after going late into the night Tuesday. A vote was expected Friday putting the House on record rebuking a wartime commander in chief.
Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, concluded his remarks in support of Bush by quoting from Gen. Douglas MacArthur's farewell speech at West Point. MacArthur talked about "the American man at arms," who he said had "written his own history and written it in red on his enemy's breast."
Hunter added: "Our soldiers are engaged in combat right now. The worst disservice that we can give to them is to retroactively blast and degrade the mission that they are currently undertaking."
Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., a decorated Korean War veteran who served under MacArthur, said both the country and the troops would be served by the House registering disapproval of the Iraq war. "I didn't come down here, my colleagues, to talk about General MacArthur," Rangel said, "but I guess I knew of him better than anyone in this room."
Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., imagined Davy Crockett, his back against the wall at the Alamo, getting a message on his Blackberry from Congress saying "we support you" but won't be sending any reinforcements. "I'm sure that would be really impressive to Davy Crockett."
Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Fla., quoted Robert Frost, the poet who wrote that "the best way out is always through."
"We doggedly seek the way through: success in Iraq, security for our allies and everlasting victory for freedom," Putnam said. "This week's discussion should be about the way through, not the way back."
House: http://www.house.gov
