[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 19]
[Senate]
[Pages 25850-25851]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAQ

  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, last Friday, on Veterans Day, President 
Bush attacked those of us who questioned or criticized his conduct of 
the Iraq war. Once again, he tried to portray his critics as opposing 
our own troops or aiding their enemies. Once again, he was wrong. Once 
again, he tried to blame others for his mistakes and for the failures 
of his policies--mistakes and failures that have trapped 158,000 of 
America's best and bravest soldiers in Iraq for over 2\1/2\ years, 
since the fall of Saddam Hussein, with no end in sight.
  Let's be clear that every person in this Senate supports our troops 
1,000 percent. We provided every dollar requested for defense 
authorizations, appropriations, and supplementals with overwhelming 
bipartisan and often unanimous support. Some of us have tried to 
provide more funding than the administration would support for our 
returning troops and veterans. We have never accused them of being 
against our troops or un-American.
  Together, on the Senate Armed Services Committee on which I am proud 
to sit, Republicans and Democrats have repeatedly asked our civilian 
and military commanders: What more do you

[[Page 25851]]

need to win this war as soon as possible? What do you need to bring our 
troops home as safely and quickly as possible, with the victory that 
they won in 3 weeks in the spring of 2003 secured, finally, by the 
Iraqis? Tell us what you need, and it is yours.
  This Senate has not failed our troops. This Senator, a critic of your 
policies, has not failed our troops. You, sir, have failed our troops; 
and you, sir, have failed the American people by the failures of your 
policies in Iraq.
  Last Friday, President Bush stood in front of a banner that said: 
``Strategy For Victory.'' Two and a half years ago, he stood on the 
aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln before a banner: ``Mission 
Accomplished.'' Unfortunately, he had the banners mixed up. If he had a 
``Strategy For Victory'' 2\1/2\ years ago, we would have ``Mission 
Accomplished'' today.
  The President accuses his critics of rewriting the history of this 
war. Nonsense. The history of this war was clearly enunciated by this 
administration and is available for all to reread. The President, the 
Vice President, and their top advisers repeatedly presented their 
rationales for this war and predicted its outcomes, and they were 
repeatedly wrong. On just about everything, they were wrong. I say that 
with sorrow because when the President of the United States is wrong, 
all Americans suffer the consequences.
  There is no better or worse summary of the administration's prewar 
fallacies than the transcript of Vice President Cheney's appearance on 
``Meet The Press'' with Tim Russert the Sunday before the invasion 
began. I excerpted those remarks for brevity but without altering their 
meaning.
  The Vice President said on the program, as he had said repeatedly 
during the past 7 months:

       We believe Saddam Hussein has in fact reconstituted nuclear 
     weapons.
       We know he's out trying once again to produce nuclear 
     weapons and we know he has a longstanding relationship with 
     various terrorist groups, including the al-Qaida 
     organization.

  When Mr. Russert queried:

       And even though the International Atomic Energy Agency said 
     he does not have a nuclear program, we disagree?

  Vice President Cheney replied:

       I disagree, yes. . . .We believe he has, in fact, 
     reconstituted nuclear weapons. I think Mr. ElBaradei frankly 
     is wrong.
       Mr. Russert: If your analysis is not correct, and we're not 
     treated as liberators, but as conquerors, and the Iraqis 
     begin to resist, particularly in Baghdad, do you think the 
     American people are prepared for a long, costly, and bloody 
     battle with significant American casualties?
       Vice President Cheney: Well, I don't think it's likely to 
     unfold that way, Tim, because I really do believe that we 
     will be greeted as liberators. I've talked with a lot of 
     Iraqis in the last several months myself, had them to the 
     White House. . . . The read we get on the people of Iraq is 
     there is no question but what they want to get rid of Saddam 
     Hussein and they will welcome as liberators the United States 
     when we come to do that.
       Mr. Russert: The army's top general said that we would have 
     to have several hundred thousand troops there for several 
     years in order to maintain stability.
       Vice President Cheney: I disagree. . . . But to suggest 
     that we need several hundred thousand troops there after 
     military operations cease, after the conflict ends, I don't 
     think is accurate. I think that's an overstatement.
       Mr. Russert: We have had 50,000 troops in Kosovo for 
     several years, a country of just five million people. This is 
     a country of 23 million people. It will take a lot in order 
     to secure it.
       Vice President Cheney: . . . There's no question but what 
     we'll have to have a presence there for a period of time. It 
     is difficult now to specify how long. We will clearly want to 
     take on responsibilities in addition to conducting military 
     operations and eliminating Saddam Hussein's regime. We need 
     to be prepared to provide humanitarian assistance, medical 
     care, food, all of those other things that are required to 
     have Iraq up and running again. And we are well-equipped to 
     do that. We have got a lot of effort that's gone into that.
       Mr. Russert: Every analysis said this war itself would cost 
     over $80 billion, recovery of Baghdad, perhaps of Iraq, about 
     $10 billion per year. We should expect as American citizens 
     that this would cost at least $100 billion for a two-year 
     involvement.
       Vice President Cheney: I can't say that, Tim. . . . In Iraq 
     you've got a nation that's got the second-largest oil 
     reserves in the world, second only to Saudi Arabia. It will 
     generate billions of dollars a year in cash flow if they get 
     back to their production of roughly three million barrels of 
     oil a day, in the relatively near future.

  On every one of those key assertions, Vice President Cheney was 
wrong. Whether he was misinformed, misguided, mistaken, or knowingly 
misleading the American people, I cannot say. I can say that he was 
consistently wrong. And because he and the President were wrong, over 
2,000 of our best and bravest Americans have lost their lives in Iraq. 
Many thousands more have returned home wounded or maimed for life. 
Hundreds of thousands more have been separated from their families for 
years, with more separations for more years still to come.
  Because the Bush administration's assumptions and expectations were 
wrong, because their preparations for post-Saddam Hussein Iraq were 
wrong, and because their predictions before and after the war began 
were wrong, America's standing in the world is worse than before. The 
terrorist organizations that hate the United States are stronger than 
before, and our national security is tragically and terribly weaker 
than before this war began.
  When I voted against the Iraq war resolution in October of 2002, I 
said I hoped I was wrong and the war's proponents were right because 
the stakes were too high for partisanship. When I disagreed with 
President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in March of 2003, I said I 
hoped I was wrong and he was right because the stakes were too high for 
anything but patriotism.
  I deeply regret when he has been wrong. I deeply regret the mistakes 
of his policies and the failures of his practices because a President's 
mistakes and failures become America's mistakes and failures. And 
America, the greatest Nation on Earth, the leader of the world's hopes 
and opportunities for peace and prosperity, America cannot afford 
mistakes and failures in this difficult and dangerous world, and this 
world cannot afford America's mistakes and failures.
  Two and a half years after our troops toppled Saddam Hussein is too 
long for 158,000 of Americas's soldiers, the world's best and bravest, 
to still be doing the patroling, the policing, the fighting, the 
bleeding, and the dying in Iraq--too long, and there is no end in 
sight. It is because we support our troops, because they are our sons 
and daughters and we love them, that we want to bring them home safely 
as soon as possible with their military successes of 2\1/2\ years ago 
secured by Iraqis, not Americans.
  The President and the Vice President could show their support for our 
troops by telling them and us what the strategy for victory in Iraq 
really is and how and when we will achieve it and what are the 
timetables and measures of that success or lack of it so our courageous 
fighting men and women and their families and their fellow Americans 
can know how they will win, when they will win. Those are the answers 
they and we deserve.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cornyn). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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