Gravel calls on Congress to end Bush's war in Iraq

August 23, Washington, D.C. – Democratic Presidential candidate and former United States Senator Mike Gravel called on Democrats and Republicans alike in Congress to bring to a swift and immediate end to the American presence in Iraq.

The Senator said, “When the President lied to the American people as to why he was invading Iraq, he not only broke his trust with the American people but took the nation into a conflict in which the ship of state became directionless and the policy, mission and the war was lost in a fog of confusion and ignorance. In short, behind the façade of public relations and sound bites, the United States did not know where it was going and why it was going there.”

The Senator continued, “I publicly opposed this war in early 2002 during its run up while appearing several times on MSNBC stating that the Iraqi regime had no weapons of mass destruction, was not a threat to the United States and that the war would be a critical mistake severely compromising the national interest. It is sadly mistaken now to assert that whether or not it was right or wrong to invade Iraq in the first place is irrelevant since we are already there. The past makes the present coherent and it is important to recognize that our misadventure in Iraq is not merely the result of a failed policy but of a series of deliberate and inexplicable lies and deceptions that have wrecked our nation’s credibility and leverage in the Middle East, damaged our relationship with many of our allies, impaired our ability to secure cooperation with nations like China and Russia and made us suspect and worse throughout the Moslem world.”

Answering those who criticize advocates of an immediate withdrawal, Senator Gravel cited Lt. General William E. Odom, U.S. Army retired, currently a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute. “General Odom, a prolific author and formerly the Director of the National Security Agency during the Reagan Administration, has written what I believe to be the authoritative word on why an immediate withdrawal from Iraq would best serve our nation’s interests.”

The Senator continued, “General Odom accurately points out that Iraq is already engaged in a civil war and that ‘everything that opponents of a pullout say would happen if the U.S. left Iraq is happening already.’ The General pointed out that ‘It is rapid withdrawal, reestablishing strong relations with our allies in Europe, showing confidence in the UN Security Council and trying to knit together a large coalition including the major states of Europe, Japan, South Korea, China and India to back a strategy for stabilizing the area from the Eastern Mediterranean to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Until the United States withdraws from Iraq and admits its strategic error, no such coalition can be formed.’”

Calling on Congress to shake loose from its paralysis and put aside its election year partisanship, the Senator said, “Republicans and Democrats must take off their party hats and approach this deadly crisis as Americans. The issue of war and peace in the most volatile part of the world in an age where weapons of mass destruction can easily proliferate and suicide bombers can thwart the untold billions spent on suspect Star Wars defense systems, as well as all other attempts to make America secure, is too important to be left to a failed, blind and bankrupt administration. The Congress must act and act now.”