Discussion · House of Representatives
Jason Crow Democrat
“Iran is a threat, but a threat does not mean we must go to war. We spent 20 years, trillions of dollars, and thousands of lives in Iraq and Afghanistan because we thought war was the only answer. There is no proof Iran is building a nuclear weapon right now. Americans are tired of endless wars in the Middle East.”
“Mr. Speaker, I join all Americans, my colleagues, and Chairman Mast in mourning those lost who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our Nation, once again. I honor greatly the service of the chairman. We served in these wars together. He knows sacrifice. He, in fact, sacrificed and gave more than I did. He also deeply understands the threats. He was right when he outlined those threats. Iran is a malignant regime. Iran does and has posed a threat to Americans, as has North Korea, Russia, and many other regimes, countries, and terrorists around the world. The important thing is not just to recognize the threat and say if there is a threat that we automatically have to go to war, because that is the start of the analysis, not the end of it. The next questions and the important questions are what do we do about it. Do we go to war? Do we assemble a coalition? Do we use sanctions? Do we use soft power? How do we meet that threat? It is a fact that in the 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan we stopped asking that essential question and just assumed that war was the answer and would solve it. That is what led us to 20-plus years, trillions of dollars, and thousands of American lives lost for wars that ended poorly. I am unwilling to not learn that lesson. I want to be really clear about Iran, in particular. There was no intelligence showing that Iran was proceeding with the development of a nuclear weapon. If there was intelligence, we would be having a different discussion here. There wasn’t, and that fact matters. That leads us to the second part of it: What do we do? How do we meet this threat that has been posed for 40-plus years? What is clear is that Americans are done with an endless cycle of conflict in the Middle East. When I was in Afghanistan, our adversaries, the enemies that we fought, would often say: Americans have all the clocks, but we have all the time. They simply want to wait us out knowing that we will just spend more money, have more combat deployments, that we will just continue to do it year after year until we wear out.”
Mr. Speaker, I join all Americans, my colleagues, and Chairman Mast in mourning those lost who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our Nation, once again. I honor greatly the service of the chairman. We served in these wars together. He knows sacrifice. He, in fact, sacrificed and gave more than I did. He also deeply understands the threats. He was right when he outlined those threats. Iran is a malignant regime. Iran does and has posed a threat to Americans, as has North Korea, Russia, and many other regimes, countries, and terrorists around the world. The important thing is not just to recognize the threat and say if there is a threat that we automatically have to go to war, because that is the start of the analysis, not the end of it. The next questions and the important questions are what do we do about it. Do we go to war? Do we assemble a coalition? Do we use sanctions? Do we use soft power? How do we meet that threat? It is a fact that in the 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan we stopped asking that essential question and just assumed that war was the answer and would solve it. That is what led us to 20-plus years, trillions of dollars, and thousands of American lives lost for wars that ended poorly. I am unwilling to not learn that lesson. I want to be really clear about Iran, in particular. There was no intelligence showing that Iran was proceeding with the development of a nuclear weapon. If there was intelligence, we would be having a different discussion here. There wasn’t, and that fact matters. That leads us to the second part of it: What do we do? How do we meet this threat that has been posed for 40-plus years? What is clear is that Americans are done with an endless cycle of conflict in the Middle East. When I was in Afghanistan, our adversaries, the enemies that we fought, would often say: Americans have all the clocks, but we have all the time. They simply want to wait us out knowing that we will just spend more money, have more combat deployments, that we will just continue to do it year after year until we wear out.