Issue Position: War In Iraq

Issue Position

Shortly before the invasion of Iraq, alarmed at how little the Administration appeared to care about the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, I wrote to President Bush urging him not to rush towards war, noting:

"[Because of the] presence of more than 250 weapons inspectors from 60 countries … we insist that the lives of American servicemen and women should not be sacrificed as a response to discrepancies in Iraq's reporting obligations. Nor do we believe that our current frustration over the pace of inspections should trigger military action."

But as we now know, the Bush Administration never cared whether or not there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The fact that Saddam Hussein is gone is good. But it was not worth a single American life to invade Iraq since Saddam Hussein did not have an active nuclear weapons program.

The Bush Administration lied to get the support of the American people for this wrong-headed war in Iraq. The world community knew then it was a lie. Now the American people have reached the same conclusion.

It took months, not years, to train the American army that sailed to Europe to defend world freedom against Hitler. In Iraq, after years, not months, of training the Iraqi security forces to defend their own country, it should be clear that no matter how long and how hard we train Iraqi security forces, they simply won't stand up and fight for the Iraqi government. President Bush needs to acknowledge reality before another American soldier dies for the freedom that Iraqis won't defend for themselves.

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