Truthdig Exclusive: Rep. Kucinich’s Resolution Calls on Bush to Push for Cease-Fire

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced a resolution Wednesday that calls on President Bush to appeal to all sides for a cessation of hostilities in the Israeli-Lebanon conflict and to commit the United States to multiparty negotiations.

Also, at bottom, read the speech that Rep. Kucinich delivered on the House floor on Tuesday that warned of “mutually assured destruction” if saner heads do not soon prevail in the Middle East.

Plain-text version of the resolution follows:

109TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION

H. CON. RES.

Calling upon the President to appeal to all sides in the current crisis in the Middle East for an immediate cessation of violence and to commit United States diplomats to multi-party negotiations with no preconditions.

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CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Calling upon the President to appeal to all sides in the current crisis in the Middle East for an immediate cessation of violence and to commit United States diplomats to multi-party negotiations with no preconditions.

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress:

(1) calls upon the President to:

(A) appeal to all sides in the current crisis in the Middle East for an immediate cessation of violence; (B) commit United States diplomats to multi-party negotiations with no preconditions; and

(C) send a high-level diplomatic mission to the region to facilitate such multi-party negotiations; (2) urges such multi-party negotiations to begin as soon as possible, including delegations from the governments of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt; and (3) supports an international peacekeeping mission to southern Lebanon to prevent cross-border skirmishes during such multi-party negotiations.

Rep. Kucinich’s speech, delivered on the House floor on Tuesday, July 18.

Mr. Speaker, We make war with such certainty, yet we are befuddled how to create peace. This paradox requires reflection, if we are to survive. Making and endorsing war demands a secret love of death, a fearful desire to embrace annihilation. Creating peace requires the mirror of compassion, putting ourselves in the other person?s place, in all their suffering, with all their hopes, and to act from our heart?s capacity for love, not fear.

The fight against terrorism in the 21st century is beginning to have the feel of the fight against communism in the 20th century: Conjuring of enemies, scapegoating and wanton destruction. Our war on terror has become a war of errors as we blindly exercise our capacity for war making.

We have not yet begun to explore our capacity for peacemaking, so we are reduced to a predatory voyerism: creating war, watching war, being aghast at war, impotent to stop ourselves.

We are the most powerful nation, but even we do not have the power to reserve for ourselves, or to grant to our allies, an exemption from the laws of cause and effect. The fate of the world lies in the balance. And until we consciously choose peace over war, life over death, the balance is tipping toward mutually assured destruction.