[lit-ideas] Jim Moran, 8th District, Virginia Tells it Like it Is
- From: "John McCreery" <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 22:13:17 +0900
Jim Moran, member of Congress, representing the 8th district in
Virginia, says what many of us firmly believe.
----------------------------------------
Mr. Speaker, when the White House announced that the U.S. Military
would attack Iraq under the guise of the Global War on Terrorism, not
one single uniformed military officer believed that Iraq was part of
the war on Terrorism. Saddam had nothing to do with the 9/11 attack.
Saddam wasn't harboring any al Qaeda cells that did attack us.
In fact, starting a new war would distract us and limit us from
accomplishing our objective of eliminating Osama bin Laden. Saddam
was a vicious, secular, despotic dictator. But, he saw al Qaeda as a
threat to his control and al Qaeda viewed Saddam as an enemy of their
religious extremist world vision.
The US intelligence community knew that there was no clear evidence
that Saddam was a threat to the US
There was no failure of our professional intelligence community, but
there was an abysmal failure of our political leadership.
How did we get to this point?
First, we were scared with the threat of Saddam's arsenal of weapons
of mass destruction, mobile labs, aluminum tubing, and yellow cake
uranium. There were no WMD. The White House knew before the
President informed us about the mobile labs that our experts had
determined that they were not in any way related to chemical or
biological weapons. Likewise, the aluminum tubing was bogus
information. Well, before the so-called yellow cake uranium from
Niger was cited as evidence of nuclear armament, our intelligence
community had informed the White House it was a hoax.
We were told that Saddam was the threat to global stability, that
there was a direct connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda.
We were told, in the buildup to the war, that our troops would be
greeted by the Iraqis as liberators, being offered flowers in the
streets.
This was propaganda that the State Department warned the White House
not to believe, but they nonetheless peddled it to the Congress and
the American people.
And yet, all we have done is to finance extremist and further Iranian interests.
We were told that to liberate Iraq was to spread freedom and
democracy, to keep the oil out of the hands of potentially terrorist
controlled states.
We were told the war would pay for itself with Iraqi oil revenues.
After Baghdad fell we were told that America had prevailed, that the
mission was accomplished, that the resistance was in its last throws
and that more troops were not needed.
And, as things went from bad to worse, we were told of turning point
after turning: the fall of Baghdad, the death of his sons Uday and
Qusay, the capture of Saddam, a provisional government, the trial of
Saddam, a charter, a constitution, an Iraqi government, elections,
purple fingers, a new government, the death of Saddam. All excuses for
triumphant rhetoric while the reality on the ground continued to
worsen.
We were told, `As they stood up, we would stand down.' We would `stay
the course.'
Now we are told there is a new course but it's in the same misguided direction.
After falsehood after falsehood unravels each day with the morning
paper reporting even more deaths, the American people are being asked
to put 20,000 more sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands
and wives into the line of fire, into the dead zone between the
sectarian sides of a civil war.
A message was sent to the President on November 7, 2006. This surge of
more troops into Iraq defies the will of the American people.
But this is a new Congress. We will no longer be cowed by leaders
using 9/11 as a bludgeon against sensible people who oppose the
administration's failed Iraq policy.
Today, for the first time since the war began, Congress will go on
record opposing the President's failed Iraq policy.
Some will argue that it's a non-binding resolution. That it won't
have the impact of a law, that it won't stop a roadside bomb or bring
a single soldier home to their family.
But the President understands what this resolution means. It is the
beginning of the end of this wrong war of choice.
If the Administration continues not to listen, the President can rest
assured that the next Iraq legislation we consider won't be a
non-binding measure.
-----------
I stand with Moran.
--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
http://www.wordworks.jp/
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