Nadler Floor Statement on House Iraq Resolution

Our intelligence tells us that only 7 to 8 percent of those we are fighting in Iraq are Islamic terrorists.  The other 92 to 93 percent are fighting a war for power between contending religious and ethnic groups.  There is no compelling reason to send our young people to die to determine how to divide the spoils between the Sunnis and the Shiites.

We should be redeploying our resources to fight the real war on terrorism: going after Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, fighting jihadist ideas all over the Muslim world, getting the loose nuclear material out of the former Soviet Union before it is smuggled to al Qaeda to make nuclear weapons, screening all the shipping containers before they enter our ports, and protecting our chemical and nuclear plants against sabotage that could kill tens of thousands of Americans.

But the Bush Administration and this Congress won’t vote the funds to fight the real war against terrorism.

And every reason we were given for invading Iraq has been shown to be false. 

Weapons of Mass Destruction?  Not there.  Saddam Hussein working hand in glove with Al Qaeda?  Not true.  And the more information that leaks out, the more apparent it becomes that these were not mistakes, but deliberate lies.

But does Congress seek to get to the bottom of this?  Not this Republican Congress.  This Republican Congress sees no evil, hears no evil, and speaks no evil when it comes to a war that has already killed 2,500 of our young men and women, and promises to kill thousands more.  This Republican Congress asks no questions about what we can possibly achieve that can justify the continuing slaughter.

I ask you: if the President had gone to the American people and said we must invade a country that poses no imminent threat to us; we must sacrifice thousands of lives in order to create a democratic government in Iraq, would we have agreed?  I think not.

            And as the President now says to us that we should continue indefinitely to expend American blood and treasure to support one side in a sectarian civil war, a side, moreover, that is increasingly cozying up to the Mullahs in Iran, who do pose a threat to us, should Congress continue to consent?  I think not.

           This Congress should agree with the Out of Iraq Caucus.  We should say “Enough already!”  Enough with the lies, and the deceit and the evasions.  Enough with the useless bloodshed.  We should assure the Iraqi people that we desire no permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq.

This Congress should adopt the Murtha resolution.  We should set a swift timetable to redeploy our troops out of Iraq and bring them home, and let the Iraqi oligarchs know they can’t depend on the United States forever. 

             It is our duty at this crucial moment in American history to concentrate our resources on the real threats that face us at home and around the world and put an end to this bloody, senseless, and diversionary war.