IRAQ -- (Senate - November 14, 2005)
Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, last Friday, on Veterans Day, President Bush attacked those of us who questioned or criticized his conduct of the Iraq war. Once again, he tried to portray his critics as opposing our own troops or aiding their enemies. Once again, he was wrong. Once again, he tried to blame others for his mistakes and for the failures of his policies--mistakes and failures that have trapped 158,000 of America's best and bravest soldiers in Iraq for over 2 1/2 years, since the fall of Saddam Hussein, with no end in sight.
Let's be clear that every person in this Senate supports our troops 1,000 percent. We provided every dollar requested for defense authorizations, appropriations, and supplementals with overwhelming bipartisan and often unanimous support. Some of us have tried to provide more funding than the administration would support for our returning troops and veterans. We have never accused them of being against our troops or un-American.
Together, on the Senate Armed Services Committee on which I am proud to sit, Republicans and Democrats have repeatedly asked our civilian and military commanders: What more do you need to win this war as soon as possible? What do you need to bring our troops home as safely and quickly as possible, with the victory that they won in 3 weeks in the spring of 2003 secured, finally, by the Iraqis? Tell us what you need, and it is yours.
This Senate has not failed our troops. This Senator, a critic of your policies, has not failed our troops. You, sir, have failed our troops; and you, sir, have failed the American people by the failures of your policies in Iraq.
Last Friday, President Bush stood in front of a banner that said: ``Strategy For Victory.'' Two and a half years ago, he stood on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln before a banner: ``Mission Accomplished.'' Unfortunately, he had the banners mixed up. If he had a ``Strategy For Victory'' 2 1/2 years ago, we would have ``Mission Accomplished'' today.
The President accuses his critics of rewriting the history of this war. Nonsense. The history of this war was clearly enunciated by this administration and is available for all to reread. The President, the Vice President, and their top advisers repeatedly presented their rationales for this war and predicted its outcomes, and they were repeatedly wrong. On just about everything, they were wrong. I say that with sorrow because when the President of the United States is wrong, all Americans suffer the consequences.
There is no better or worse summary of the administration's prewar fallacies than the transcript of Vice President Cheney's appearance on ``Meet The Press'' with Tim Russert the Sunday before the invasion began. I excerpted those remarks for brevity but without altering their meaning.
The Vice President said on the program, as he had said repeatedly during the past 7 months:
We believe Saddam Hussein has in fact reconstituted nuclear weapons.
We know he's out trying once again to produce nuclear weapons and we know he has a longstanding relationship with various terrorist groups, including the al-Qaida organization.
When Mr. Russert queried:
And even though the International Atomic Energy Agency said he does not have a nuclear program, we disagree?
Vice President Cheney replied:
I disagree, yes. .....We believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons. I think Mr. ElBaradei frankly is wrong.
Mr. Russert: If your analysis is not correct, and we're not treated as liberators, but as conquerors, and the Iraqis begin to resist, particularly in Baghdad, do you think the American people are prepared for a long, costly, and bloody battle with significant American casualties?
Vice President Cheney: Well, I don't think it's likely to unfold that way, Tim, because I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators. I've talked with a lot of Iraqis in the last several months myself, had them to the White House. ..... The read we get on the people of Iraq is there is no question but what they want to get rid of Saddam Hussein and they will welcome as liberators the United States when we come to do that.
Mr. Russert: The army's top general said that we would have to have several hundred thousand troops there for several years in order to maintain stability.
Vice President Cheney: I disagree. ..... But to suggest that we need several hundred thousand troops there after military operations cease, after the conflict ends, I don't think is accurate. I think that's an overstatement.
Mr. Russert: We have had 50,000 troops in Kosovo for several years, a country of just five million people. This is a country of 23 million people. It will take a lot in order to secure it.
Vice President Cheney: ..... There's no question but what we'll have to have a presence there for a period of time. It is difficult now to specify how long. We will clearly want to take on responsibilities in addition to conducting military operations and eliminating Saddam Hussein's regime. We need to be prepared to provide humanitarian assistance, medical care, food, all of those other things that are required to have Iraq up and running again. And we are well-equipped to do that. We have got a lot of effort that's gone into that.
Mr. Russert: Every analysis said this war itself would cost over $80 billion, recovery of Baghdad, perhaps of Iraq, about $10 billion per year. We should expect as American citizens that this would cost at least $100 billion for a two-year involvement.
Vice President Cheney: I can't say that, Tim. ..... In Iraq you've got a nation that's got the second-largest oil reserves in the world, second only to Saudi Arabia. It will generate billions of dollars a year in cash flow if they get back to their production of roughly three million barrels of oil a day, in the relatively near future.
On every one of those key assertions, Vice President Cheney was wrong. Whether he was misinformed, misguided, mistaken, or knowingly misleading the American people, I cannot say. I can say that he was consistently wrong. And because he and the President were wrong, over 2,000 of our best and bravest Americans have lost their lives in Iraq. Many thousands more have returned home wounded or maimed for life. Hundreds of thousands more have been separated from their families for years, with more separations for more years still to come.
Because the Bush administration's assumptions and expectations were wrong, because their preparations for post-Saddam Hussein Iraq were wrong, and because their predictions before and after the war began were wrong, America's standing in the world is worse than before. The terrorist organizations that hate the United States are stronger than before, and our national security is tragically and terribly weaker than before this war began.
When I voted against the Iraq war resolution in October of 2002, I said I hoped I was wrong and the war's proponents were right because the stakes were too high for partisanship. When I disagreed with President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in March of 2003, I said I hoped I was wrong and he was right because the stakes were too high for anything but patriotism.
I deeply regret when he has been wrong. I deeply regret the mistakes of his policies and the failures of his practices because a President's mistakes and failures become America's mistakes and failures. And America, the greatest Nation on Earth, the leader of the world's hopes and opportunities for peace and prosperity, America cannot afford mistakes and failures in this difficult and dangerous world, and this world cannot afford America's mistakes and failures.
Two and a half years after our troops toppled Saddam Hussein is too long for 158,000 of Americas's soldiers, the world's best and bravest, to still be doing the patroling, the policing, the fighting, the bleeding, and the dying in Iraq--too long, and there is no end in sight. It is because we support our troops, because they are our sons and daughters and we love them, that we want to bring them home safely as soon as possible with their military successes of 2 1/2 years ago secured by Iraqis, not Americans.
The President and the Vice President could show their support for our troops by telling them and us what the strategy for victory in Iraq really is and how and when we will achieve it and what are the timetables and measures of that success or lack of it so our courageous fighting men and women and their families and their fellow Americans can know how they will win, when they will win. Those are the answers they and we deserve.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
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