Mention of the war in Iraq clouded a House resolution marking the third anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and 16 lawmakers voted yesterday against the otherwise noncontroversial measure.
Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey (D-N.Y.), one of 15 Democrats and one Republican to cast no votes, said linking the terrorism to the war in Iraq was “blatantly untrue” and had turned a resolution honoring the sacrifices of Sept. 11 victims into a political document.
“Why are we putting together a resolution that convolutes the issue?” asked Rep. Barbara T. Lee (D-Calif.), another no vote. The vote was 406 to 16.
The sponsor of the resolution, International Relations Committee Chairman Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), responded to the critics, saying that “there is a direct connection between the war in Iraq and the bombing of September 11.”
U.S. troops in Baghdad, added House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), are “fighting the same evil and upholding the same virtues” as the passengers aboard Flight 93 who battled the hijackers or the police and firefighters who lost their lives at the World Trade Center. “It is one and the same conflict,” he said.
The resolution’s introduction noted that “since the United States was attacked” on Sept. 11, “it has led an international military coalition in the destruction of two terrorist regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
It amazes me. It’s as if they think that if they lie enough, it will eventually come true.
