Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
First let me express my appreciation for the gentleman from Ohio and for his good intentions and for his support of dialogue. Certainly nobody is against dialogue.
But we have a situation here where a democratic, freedom-loving, sovereign people are insisting on the results of their own self-determined election that they came to through democratic processes and are doing that in the face of outside interference in the form of armed opposition, murders, assassinations that are being sponsored by Hezbollah, financed by the Iranian and Syrian regimes. And the gentleman instead calls for dialogue. We call for nothing other than dialogue.
This is a nonbinding sense of the Congress resolution. And while other countries are running interference and murdering the people of Lebanon and preventing their democratic government from governing, we are sending them a message of hope, a message of support. And the gentleman's protestations say that we shouldn't interfere, let them have a dialogue.
What we are looking at, Mr. Speaker, is the equivalent of a rape, and I have just heard the argument that what we should do is not interfere and take sides between the victim and the raper and to say let them have a dialogue and work it out, while each and every day the rape continues. As a civilized, democratic society, we cannot sit idly by without saying a word.
I do appreciate the argument of those who are against violence, who are against arms, and who are against war. I stand with them on that. But we have no alternative than to act and at least send a message of support. There is no interference other than our best wishes while others are sending arms. There is nothing in the 17 whereases in this resolution that suggests that we're in favor of violence. And if the gentleman and those who argue his argument are truly opposed to raising an army, let them at least raise their voice. Let them speak out with us on this resolution. Let us reaffirm our dedication to the principles of democracy and self-determination of a people who have already made their choice in their election, and to stand by them, not by providing arms or violence, but by sending them the wishes of this Congress, of the American people, expressing our support for their determination to continue in their quest to effectuate the democracy to which they are entitled.
