Resolution, to Remove United States Armed Forces From Hostilities with Iran

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CROW. Mr. Speaker, I am here on behalf of the millions of working-class Americans who have had it and are fed up with an endless cycle of unaccountable conflict in the Middle East.

I started my service to this Nation in uniform, like the chairman. I honor his service, like all of our brothers and sisters. I am proud of that service, as should all of my brothers and sisters who took the oath I took, stood up when our country called, and did our duty honorably.

What is abundantly clear is that our system is broken. Working-class Americans, like the kids who I grew up with, deployed with, fought with, and suffered with, are the ones who have to do the fighting, the dying, and the paying for of these conflicts. They see that the burden of these wars falls on them, while the elites, the rich, and the powerful in this country get richer, more powerful, and more comfortable. The burden is not equal in this Nation. It is because the system is broken.

Mr. Speaker, I want to be clear that this isn't about process to me. Yes, there are important constitutional checks and safeguards at play, but this isn't about inside baseball, notification, and process. The Americans' eyes glaze over when people talk about that under this dome. What it is about to me is accountability.

When I did my combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, combat mission after combat mission after combat mission, what I had to know is that important questions were being asked and people were being held to account and asking tough questions, so that I could focus on my mission in bringing my men home.

That has stopped. The debate isn't happening. We are paying for these wars with debt, $5 trillion to $8 trillion, 7,000 American lives, and on and on it goes.

It is not just our right. It is our duty. It is our job under this dome to take votes, to appropriate money, to ask tough questions, to hold people to account, and then go home and stand in front of high school gymnasiums, stand in front of our constituents, go to Rotary Clubs, and explain those votes, why we should send our sons and our daughters and our money to the Middle East again and again and again.

That is what our system requires. That is what Americans deserve.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CROW. Mr. Speaker, this is not optional. The Framers dedicated this responsibility to us because they knew that the decision to send our sons and daughters into war and to spend taxpayers' money was our most solemn responsibility, and no one person should make that decision.

The system is broken. It is our duty to take it back. That is what this vote is for.

Maybe we should go to war in one instance, but the debate must happen. The vote must happen.

I encourage--I demand that my colleagues step up and take this vote and retake our constitutional duty and to get this done. It is what our servicemen and -women deserve.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source