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Statement Of Sen. Patrick Leahy
Changing Course In Iraq
Senate Floor
June 21, 2006

 

Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I intend to vote for the Levin-Reed amendment on Iraq, and I will also vote for the Kerry amendment, of which I am a cosponsor.

Both amendments are a step in the right direction, as they finally begin the process of winding down what has been the most poorly conceived, costly, and tragic misuse of United States military power since Vietnam.

We got into this war for reasons that bear little if any resemblance to the reasons the White House gives for keeping our troops there today at a cost of more than a billion dollars every week.

First it was weapons of mass destruction. There were none. Anyone who urged continued monitoring by United Nations inspectors was ridiculed by the White House as being naive.

Then it was Saddam Hussein's supposed ties to al-Qaida, which was a blatant, calculated distortion.  There was none, yet the Vice President continues to say there was. Today, thanks to the policy of the President and the rubber stamping by the Congress, Iraq and Guantanamo are the rallying cry for terrorists around the world.

Then it was because Saddam Hussein--who posed no threat to the United States--was a brutal dictator, which he was. He was also supported by the Reagan administration.

That, however, is not a justification for a war that has cost the lives and limbs of thousands of young Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians.

Winning against terrorism, like stopping the proliferation of dangerous weapons, promoting peace between Arabs and Israelis, or solving any other regional or global problem, requires the trust, the respect, the cooperation and the support of our allies.

Unfortunately, these, too, are casualties of this war. Squandered away.

The damage that this reckless adventure has caused to our reputation, particularly among the world's Muslims in countries like Turkey, Jordan, Indonesia, Egypt and other traditional allies, is incalculable.

We have heard a lot of partisan rhetoric about cutting and running. How easy it is to ask others to fight and die from the safety and comfort of an office in Washington.

How easy it is to vote for tax cuts and to self-righteously wave the flag, while our troops are scavenging for scraps of metal to protect themselves from IEDs. They were sent to fight and die without armor, by top Pentagon officials back home who proudly, dismissively and resolutely insisted they were ready, when they were not.

How easy it is to mislead the country, with patriotic pronouncements by the President like ``mission accomplished,'' or that we are seeing the ``last throes'' of the insurgency.

Contrary to the blatantly partisan and false attacks of the President's political advisors, no one questions the threat that al-Qaida and other terrorist networks pose to the security of Americans and to the people of other nations.

No one questions that we need an effective strategy to combat it. The issue is how best to combat it.

This administration has shown the world how not to do it, creating a lengthening catalogue of squander.

You don't do it by starting a war with selective, faulty intelligence, by dismissing thoughtful criticism as unpatriotic, without enough troops, with no plan to win the peace, by cavalierly discounting the risks.

You don't do it by repeatedly misleading the American people.

You don't do it by creating and fueling a terrorism problem where there was none.

And you don't do it by shamelessly denigrating the Geneva Conventions and the rights and values that distinguish us from the terrorists.

Unlike the war to defeat the Taliban, which continues to this day and shows no signs of abating, the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with Osama bin Laden or the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

It has degraded our military in ways that will cost us trillions--not billions--trillions of dollars to rebuild.

It has left a legacy of thousands of maimed and crippled young veterans with medical and other needs that they, their families, and their communities will cope with for the rest of their lives. Our troops have fought bravely in the harshest of conditions. They are our constituents. They are the sons and daughters of our friends and neighbors. They have carried out extraordinarily difficult missions, including tracking down and capturing Saddam Hussein and killing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

They have sacrificed so much. We support them unequivocally, Democrats and Republicans. The question is how we can best support them.

This was to be the year of transition. That was what the Congress voted last year, and what the President signed into law. Yet, the Administration continues to simply stay the course. This course is not in America's best interest.

Iraq has a new constitution. It has had elections. It has a democratically elected government.

We have trained and equipped more than 100,000 Iraqi soldiers.

It has been more than three years since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. More than 2,500 Americans have died. We have been there as long as we were in World War II.

The Iraqi people need to take responsibility for their own country. It will not happen immediately, but both the Levin amendment and the Kerry amendment move us toward that goal.

I have cast over 12,000 votes in this Senate. I am as proud of my vote against the open ended resolution that gave the President the authority to invade Iraq as any I have cast in 32 years. It is time for the Congress to change the course of a policy that has cost us hundreds of billions of dollars that would have been far better spent here at home, that has weakened our leadership, that is dividing our country, and that has not made us safer.

I yield back the remainder of my time.

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