Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) lambasted neoconservatives for opining on the current situation in Iraq on Wednesday, arguing that America couldn't afford another costly conflict in the Middle East.
"After a decade of war, the American people have had enough. I do not support in any way putting our men and women in the midst of this civil war in Iraq," he said on the Senate floor. "This is an Iraqi civil war and it is time for the Iraqis to resolve it themselves."
On Tuesday, former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz Cheney joined the chorus of critics accusing President Barack Obama of abandoning Iraq to radical Islamic militants who have been gaining territory in their march to Baghdad.
"Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many," they wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
But Reid was having none of it.
"If there's one thing this country does not need, is that we should be taking advice from Dick Cheney on wars," he said. "Being on the wrong side of Dick Cheney is being on the right side of history. To the architects of the Iraq War who are now so eager to offer their expert analysis, I say, Mr. President, thanks, but no thanks. Unfortunately, we have already tried it your way and it was the biggest foreign policy blunder in the history of the country."
Reid further accused Republicans of taking advice from former George W. Bush officials, often called architects of the Iraq War, who advocated a failed strategy that cost billions of dollars and the lives of thousands of U.S. troops.
"Republicans are getting their talking points from the same neocons who pushed us into this war in the first place," he said.
The majority leader also called out Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol and former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who pushed for the Iraq invasion soon after the 9/11 attacks, for taking the spotlight with new advice on the conflict.
"After all these years, their suggestions haven't changed," he said. "They are in a time warp. Those who are the so-called experts are so eager to commit American soldiers to another war. Why is their advice so valuable?"
Before You Go
