[Dialogue] Rep John Lewis D-GA speakes to the House

[KroegerD at aol.com]

Mr. Lewis of Georgia: 
 
"Mr. Speaker, I rise with deep concern that on this very day 4 years ago,  
our Nation inaugurated a conflict, an unnecessary war, a war of choice, not a  
necessity.

The most comprehensive intelligence we have, the National  Intelligence 
Estimate and the latest Pentagon report, tells us that Iraq has  descended into a 
state of civil war. Over 3,000 Americans have died, and  hundreds of thousands, 
some even say up to 1 million citizens of Iraq, have  lost their lives in 
this unnecessary conflict.

And while we are telling  our veterans of this war, the elderly, the poor, 
and the sick that there is no  room in the budget for them, the American people 
have spent over $400 billion  on a failed policy. We cannot do more of the 
same. Mr. Speaker, violence  begets violence. It does not lead to peace.

President John F. Kennedy  once said, ‘‘Those who make peaceful revolution 
impossible will make violent  revolution inevitable.’’ My greatest fear is 
that the young people of Iraq and  of the Middle East will never forget this war. 
My greatest fear is they will  grow up hating our children and our children’s 
children for what we have done.  Mr. Speaker, the Bible is right. Even a 
great nation can reap what it  sows.
Nothing troubles me more than to see the young faces of these  soldiers who 
have been led to their death.

Some are only 18, 19, 21,  22, 23. It is painful; it is so painful to watch. 
Sometimes I feel like crying  and crying out loud at what we are doing as a 
nation and what this  administration is doing in our name. Our children do not 
deserve to die as  pawns in a civil war.

They do not deserve to pay with their lives for  the mistakes of this 
administration. They never had a chance.

When I  was their age, when I was 23 years old, I was leading the Student 
Non-Violent  Coordinating Committee, soon to speak in Washington on the steps of 
the  Lincoln Memorial, but then we were involved in a nonviolent revolution to 
 transform the soul of America, to create a beloved community.

Forty  years ago, I was there in New York City in Riverside Church when 
Martin Luther  King, Jr., gave one of the most powerful speeches he ever made 
against the war  in Vietnam. If he could speak today, he would say this nation 
needs a  revolution of values that exposes the truth that war does not work. If he 
 could speak today, he would say that war is obsolete as a tool of our 
foreign  policy.

He would say there is nothing keeping us from changing our  national priority 
so that the pursuit of peace can take precedence over the  pursuit of war.

He would say we must remove the causes of chaos,  injustice, poverty, and 
insecurity
that are breeding grounds for terrorism.  This is the way towards peace.

As a nation, can we hear the words of  Gandhi, so simple, so true, that it is 
either nonviolence or nonexistence? Can  we hear the words of Martin Luther 
King, Jr., saying that we must learn to  live together as brothers and sisters 
or perish as fools?

Tonight I  must make it plain and clear that as a human being, as a citizen 
of the world,  as a citizen of America, as a member of Congress, as an 
individual committed  to a world at peace with itself, I will not and I cannot in good 
conscience  vote for another dollar or another dime to support this  war.”





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