Robert C. Byrd is the senior senator from West Virginia.
Four years ago, President Bush landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln to declare, "Mission Accomplished." For thousands of our soldiers and their families, and likely for the Iraqi people, it feels like a lifetime has passed. How wrong the president was then and how wrong he continues to be today.
By vetoing the supplemental legislation, the president has chosen to hold hostage $100 billion for our troops to a failed policy. He is once again demonstrating his detachment from the realities on the ground in Iraq, and his indifference to the will of the American people at home. The president's veto ensures that hundreds, maybe thousands more will die in Iraq without bringing that country any closer to peace.
Before the war began, I urged the president to think through the consequences. I was very concerned about the repercussions that would follow this country’s certain military victory. Tragically, the repercussions I feared all have come to pass.
No matter how hard the president hopes it will happen, sectarian violence will not be quelled with U.S. forces occupying the Iraqi nation. Cross your fingers. Rub your lucky rabbit’s foot. Nail a horse shoe over the door to the Oval Office. Hoping for luck will not change the deadly dynamic in Iraq. Peace demands an Iraqi-led diplomatic, economic and security effort, the kind of which, to date, the Iraqi government has been unable or unwilling to undertake. Our legislation could have motivated the Iraqi people to take more responsibility by instituting benchmarks and rewards for positive outcomes. Instead, the president has again chosen to have our troops go it alone in a centuries old sectarian war with no end in sight.
When he took office more than six years ago, George W. Bush issued a call for renewed responsibility in government. What is responsible about clinging to this failing course in Iraq? What is responsible about the president continuing to foster and manipulate the fears of the American people? Today, faced with the tragic consequences of his misjudgments in Iraq, the Bush administration is paralyzed, unwilling to even acknowledge, much less remedy, its catastrophic blunders.
We have learned a lot about President Bush since this war began. We know that he cannot admit mistakes. Although the Bush administration has misled the American people and caused a disaster in Iraq, the White House has chosen to continue living in the fantasy world of a public relations campaign designed to obscure reality.
I am sorry that this day has come to pass. I have seen clashes between the legislative and executive branches. I have seen presidents make mistakes in the past. Everyone makes mistakes. I have made them. Every senator has made them. But I have never seen such arrogance by a White House that seals its eyes and ears and blindly sends our brave troops to their doom.
The Congress will get to work on a new version of the supplemental appropriations conference report. We will not delay. But we also will not stop in our efforts to stand for what is right and to craft policies that reflect the true strength of America—humility, modesty, honesty. We will continue to press for a strong, intelligent foreign policy that does not rely on military might alone. And we will not relent in our efforts to bring secure peace for Iraq and to bring our troops home from war.
