Jay Inslee: Washington's 1st Congressional District
Issues
Iraq
| Inslee on Iraq Progress Report |
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[ 10 September 2007 ] U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee released the following statement in response to much anticipated testimony given in the House today by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker on progress in Iraq. |
| Inslee rejects a blank check for the president, votes no on war funding measure |
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[ 24 May 2007 ] U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee voted against an emergency spending bill to continue military operations in Iraq. The measure passed by a vote of 280 to 142, despite opposition of Inslee and 139 other Democrats. |
| Inslee votes for timetable to end the war |
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[ 23 March 2007 ] U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee released the following statement after voting in favor of the supplemental Iraq war spending bill, H.R. 1591, which included an Aug. 31, 2008 deadline for bringing American troops home. |
| Inslee takes stand against troop increase |
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[ 16 February 2007 ] U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee voted for a resolution that expresses support for American troops and disapproves of the president's plan to increase troop levels in Iraq. |
| Inslee statement on Iraq Study Group Report |
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[ 6 December 2006 ] U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, who voted against the Iraq war in 2002 and passed an amendment in the House to increase funding for training Iraqi troops in 2005, made the following statement on the report released by the Iraq Study Group. |
| Iraq trip op-ed |
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[ 29 November 2005 ] Though I strongly and vocally opposed the invasion of Iraq, I went there last week to thank hardworking American soldiers, take stock of the current situation and focus on the challenge of today -- crafting a new strategy for transitioning power and bringing our troops home. |
| Inslee to weigh troop withdrawal plan during visit to Iraq |
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[ 17 November 2005 ] U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee will travel to Iraq during a congressional recess to learn firsthand about the situation there as he considers a new troop withdrawal proposal. |
| Accelerating Replacement of U.S. Troops with Iraqi Security Forces |
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[ 20 June 2005 ] In an effort to bring American troops home sooner, U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee offered and successfully passed an amendment today to help fully fund the training and equipping of Iraqi and Afghan troops. Inslee's amendment removes the $500 million cap that had been placed in the Department of Defense (DOD) Appropriations Act to train, equip and provide assistance to security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. |
Thanks to Our Troops
Before discussing the substance of issues in Iraq, we all want to express our appreciation and respect to those in our armed forces. I am extremely grateful to our troops in Iraq for their service to our country. I have met many of our service personnel, and have great respect the sacrifices that they and their families make on our behalf every single day. Thanks to these dedicated souls we live in a free country where citizens may reflect upon, criticize and work to improve government policies, without having their patriotism or loyalty called into question.
Administration's Errors in Iraq
I voted and spoke against President Bush’s invasion of Iraq for three main reasons:
- The Bush administration’s selective use of intelligence significantly overstated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.
- Invading Iraq drained attention and resources from the war on Al Qaeda.
- The Bush administration was clearly unprepared to provide security in post-conflict Iraq.
Before going on to discuss our responsibilities now that the Bush administration has invaded, I would like to recap the ten mistakes that the Bush administration made in its rush to war.
Error #1:
This administration told America in no uncertain terms, with no doubt, with no vagueness, with no ambiguity whatsoever, that it was required to start a war in Iraq because Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. On August 26, 2002, the President said, “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.'' There was not only no weapons of mass destruction, there was plenty of doubt. We now know that this President's statement was false. [ further reading... ]
Error #2:
The President told us on repeated occasions that they had clear, convincing and cogent evidence that there was a working relationship between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda which led to the attack on September 11. The Vice President has stated that this connection led to the attacks of September 11. They told us this over and over and over again, and continue to do so today. But there is a mountain of evidence showing the falsehood of this President's statement, which led to a war. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission) concluded categorically that there was "no credible evidence" -- zero -- of any such connection having led to the attacks of September 11. Saddam Hussein is a brutal thug, but no administration should be able to confuse the American people about whether Iraq was behind the attacks of September 11. [ further reading... ]
Error #3:
The Bush administration told the American people repeatedly that we would be welcomed as liberators in Iraq. We would be welcomed with rose petals at our feet. We would be welcome with nothing but clear sailing because the people would see us as liberators. This President made a massive misjudgment by listening to Mr. Chalabi, one of the great sycophants in failures of predictions in international history. We have paid dearly with our treasury and our lives and the health of our service personnel in Iraq as a result of this gross misjudgment. [ further reading... ]
Error #4:
This President ignored the clear, professional judgment of people who said we needed to have more boots on the ground to prevent anarchy in Iraq. This President ignored that advice because he has wanted to fight this fight on the cheap from day one, and we have suffered as a result. General Shinseki told him that we needed several hundred thousand people in Iraq to quell disturbances after the Iraq war, and he ignored it. Ambassador Paul Bremer has now admitted that the administration allowed chaos to develop, saying, "We never had enough troops on the ground." [ further reading... ]
Error #5:
The President said we did not need the United Nations because we could go in there alone, as long as we had the Philippines, Great Britain and a couple of other small island nations on our side. Well, the Philippines have now withdrawn. This President decided to go it largely alone in Iraq, and our people have suffered 90% of the casualties of the non-Iraqi coalition in Iraq.
Error #6:
The President said that by implication, everything in the reconstruction of Iraq would be aboveboard, and that there would not be any war profiteering in Iraq. Now we see Halliburton, this company so intimately tied with this administration, wrongfully reaping millions of dollars of U.S. taxpayers' money. The General Accounting Office has reported on it. This is a scandal. We need to get to the bottom of this war profiteering by Halliburton and the like. [ further reading... ]
Error #7:
This President and this administration led us to one of the most embarrassing breaches of American integrity, and that is the horrendous occasions of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison. This abuse happened because people at the top of this administration gave a green light to stretching the well-accepted rules of the Geneva Convention. Multiple memos were sent saying that we did not have to give the protections of the Geneva Convention to people. This is something we do to protect our own troops so that they will be not abused if they are captive. This is a long held principle of America. But out of hubris, out of outright arrogance, this administration ignored those rules and we have suffered in the eyes of the world grievously. Make no mistake, 99.9 percent of our troops are doing a magnificent job, but this was error number seven by the administration. [ further reading... ]
Error #8:
This President sent American troops into battle without adequate armor. Even today, our troops are driving around thin-skinned Humvees that should have armor. [ further reading... ]
Error #9, and this is one that is going to haunt us for a long time:
The President started and continued a war with absolutely no plan whatsoever in how to pay for it. He has tried to hide the ball over and over again on the costs of this war to the American taxpayer, and he is still doing it. This year, the majority party put out a budget with with $25 billion for Iraq, and we know it is going to be $60 billion next year. There is no question about this. Why did they hide this information from the American people? Do they think the American people will be so sleepy they will ignore the fact that another $60 billion will go to Iraq instead of schools and health care in America? Do they think that will be forgotten? This deficit is now in the billions of dollars and it is growing rapidly because the President wants our children to pay for the Iraq war rather than us. And this is that continued attitude of trying to fight this war on the cheap. This President needs to be honest and forthright with the American people about the real costs of this war, which are grievous. [ further reading... ]
Error #10:
This one rankles me greatly as a person who has read the casualty reports of what hot steel and shrapnel has done to our troops. Our troops were sent into combat without flak jackets, and it took us a year-and-a-half to get this administration to get flak jackets. Is that too much to ask of an administration for our troops? This is error number ten. [ further reading... ]
Where We Go From Here
Despite my vote against giving the President authorization to go to war, and despite my vote against financing the war through deficit spending, we did go to war in Iraq. We cannot now simply remove all our support from this unstable country, and the question is what to do next. The administration's postwar strategy does not pass muster. We have a duty to steer American policy in a way which will: (1) achieve stability in Iraq as soon as possible, (2) treat our troops well and get them home, (3) not squander taxpayer funds.
- Stability in Iraq:
We must engage the Iraqis in their own reconstruction effort, rather than contracting out to favored American corporations like Halliburton. Every additional Iraqi employed in the reconstruction is one less recruit for the insurgency. It makes no sense to give U.S. taxpayer funds to Halliburton to rebuild Iraq when Halliburton just outsources these jobs to foreign workers instead of Iraqis. We should accelerate the training of the Iraqi security forces, because currently only 40% of the trainers necessary to do the job are available. We also must do everything possible to engage other allies in Iraq, no matter the difficulty of building support for the reconstruction effort. Finally, we should not have a permanent military presence in Iraq. As I have said before, the sooner Iraqis believe their destiny is their own hands, they sooner they will be ready to stand up for their country.
- Treating Our Troops Well and Getting Them Home:
We must support our troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have urged the administration not to cut pay benefits for our troops in Iraq, and to start paying for our troops’ flights back home to the United States. Today, 21% of Reserve and Guard members do not have any health insurance coverage. I wrote legislation to provide medical and dental screening to activated Reservists, and to extend TRICARE health care benefits to members of the Reserve (amendment to an emergency supplemental HR 3289), but the majority party denied an opportunity to vote on my amendment. I was disappointed that the majority party also did not allow votes on other amendments to increase hazardous duty pay for our troops, and to provide adequate funding for basic supplies like body armor.
- Responsible Use of Taxpayer Funds:
As of this writing, our national debt stands at $6.8 trillion and grows an additional $1.59 billion every day. To simply borrow the money for Iraq by adding to the already bulging federal deficit puts the cost of this conflict on the backs of our children, a reckless and negligent credit card mentality. We need to put our fiscal house in order.
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U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee visited the sailors of the U.S.S. Frigate Rodney M. Davis before they departed for military action in the Persian Gulf.