Press Releases
Contact:
Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami
202-226-7616
For Immediate Release
03/19/2008
Pelosi Statement on Fifth Anniversary of the Iraq War
Washington, D.C.
– Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on the fifth
anniversary of the war in Iraq:
“Today marks the fifth anniversary of the start of the war
in Iraq.
“We honor our fallen men and women, their comrades who have
returned home, and those who continue to serve in Iraq,
Afghanistan
and in other parts of the world. They
have performed their duties excellently, with bravery, with dignity and with
honor. We also thank their families,
whose quiet sacrifice for our nation can never be fully repaid.
“With the war in Iraq entering its sixth year,
Americans are rightly concerned about how much longer our nation must continue
to sacrifice our security for the sake of an Iraqi government that is unwilling
or unable to secure its own future.
“The human cost of the war has been enormous, with nearly
4,000 lives lost and tens of thousands injured, many of them permanently. The cost to our national security has been
immense -- our military is stretched thin and our reputation in the world is
damaged. And now, the war in Iraq
has become a threat to our economy, with its colossal cost to taxpayers taking
us more deeply into debt.
“It is for our military readiness, for the families of our
brave men and women in uniform, for our national security, and for our standing
in the world that America
needs a New Direction in Iraq
- not the continuation of the President’s plan for at least a 10-year, $3
trillion dollar war in Iraq. Democrats will continue to push for an end to
the war in Iraq
and increased oversight of that war.”