Issue Position: National Security

Issue Position

Issue Position: National Security

The primary reason I'm running for Congress is my grave concern about the unintended consequences of our invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Prior to the invasion, we had in place a very successful containment policy against Iraqi aggression, instituted by the first President Bush after the first Gulf War. By keeping Saddam Hussein in power, in concert with a vigorous weapons inspection regime and enforcement of no-fly zones, President George H. W. Bush preserved a delicate balance of power between Iran and Iraq in one of the world's most volatile regions, the Middle East.

We've heard the phrase "The world is safer because Saddam Hussein is no longer in power" so often from defenders of the Iraq war that many of us have uncritically come to accept it as fact. But in truth, the Middle East after Saddam is vastly more complex and unpredictable, and poses much greater national security challenges than before.

With some notable exceptions - Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) foremost among them — few congressional Republicans have shown the courage or insight to acknowledge this important truth. And Democrats, at best, have been timorous in challenging the conventional wisdom that the world is safer without Saddam, calling instead for rapid troop withdrawal, which no longer is the most important issue, if ever it was.

The truth about Iraq is that without a significant U.S. presence in the region, Islamic fundamentalist Iran, with its nuclear ambitions, will quickly fill the power vacuum left by the removal of Saddam, thus creating an infinitely more serious threat to U.S. national security than Iraq under the secular Saddam, inherently hostile to Islamic fundamentalism, in power. And this time, the threat of weapons of mass destruction may well be real.

The invasion and occupation of Iraq has already exacted a huge cost in American blood, treasure, and international stature. It's the worst foreign policy blunder in a generation.

Unfortunately, it's also an irreversible error and a military and economic burden we will have to bear for some time to come.

As a people, we must come to terms with that reality and see it with a clear eye for what it is, unclouded by partisan lenses. For the sake of our children and the future security and prosperity of our great nation, we must learn the lessons of history and move on to a better tomorrow, with judicious leadership for the new century.

I will elaborate on this statement in the coming weeks as the campaign unfolds, extending the discussion to other national security flashpoints, including Afghanistan and North Korea.

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