HOUSE BILL: Korean Crisis Investigation Act (Debating)

[Oakvale]

Mr. Speaker,

The Goldwater administration's disastrous decision to launch a first strike on North Korean and the ensuing geopolitical chaos was perhaps the defining event of the last several years. It caused untold damage to our international reputation that the current administration and the State Department are still working to repair.

To take the right lessons from this fiasco, we need a full and comprehensive investigation into what happened, how, when, why, and how, most importantly we can avoid repeating the same mistakes in the future.

While I am, of course, open to changes in the language of the bill I urge all my colleagues to join me in supporting the establishment of such an investigation.

[Oakvale]

As a concerned citizen this looks good though I personally think a special counsel with no partisan bias involved anywhere and the ability to file criminal charges would be the best option. And probably best not to involve the AG too much in the process.

I'm more than open to being persuaded on removing myself from the process through amendments, sure.

[Oakvale]

Can the sponsor please explain ever exact crimes he thinks may have been committed by Goldwater and or other cabinet members at the time. While I certainly hope we can reform the process of declaring war to make sure these decisions are Government wide decisions; I am not sure how productive this investigation would be. After all we kind of know what happened already and rehashing exact details just doesn’t seem that productive.

I don't know if there were any. That's not my call to make - should the Committee come to that conclusion I would abide by their recommendation.

It's not at all clear to me that we do know exactly what happened, and I agree with the Senator from Fremont on the necessity of such an investigation.

The Speaker makes a compelling point on the potential for conflicts in the Attorney General role. I may look into a text that could address some of those concerns.

[Oakvale]

AYE.

I must apologise profusely for my absence over this last week. In the imaginary alternate reality where I am not a Congressman but just an average schlub with a job etc. I had to make strenuous efforts to ensure I kept said job. I trust all members understand.

In regards to Leinad's objection - it may well be that, at the end of this process, we already know what happened, but that's a poor reason to dismiss the idea out of hand. And the fact that we need to put systems in place to ensure such a fiasco is never repeat should be so apparent as to be banal - clearly an official, thoughtful report on the matter would guide us making these decisions.

He also touches upon a key point - it might be fun. Well, yes! I am confident that this Committee would have significant potential for increasing activity through the always entertaining promotion of intrigue and partisan scuffling. I am additionally entirely unpersuaded that an active committee would distract in any meaningful way from policymaking - it takes, what, a few minutes a day for members to give their thoughts on a piece of legislation? Let's be realistic here.

I say only this to my colleagues - Atlasia needs to take a long, hard look at its past and that includes the grisly, unpleasant events that happened with Korea and plunged us, and the wider world, into chaos. If we ignore this truth, and attempt to wash our hands of the task of confronting that ugly reality and learning from it, we will, mark my words live to regret it. Perhaps not today, and perhaps not any time soon, but we will regret it.