Ten years ago today the debate over the Iraq War came to Congress in the form of a resolution promoted by the Bush administration. The war in Iraq will cost the United States as much as $5 trillion. It played a role in spurring the global financial crisis. Four thousand, four hundred, eighty eight Americans were killed. More than 33,000 were injured.
As many as 1,000,000 innocent Iraqi civilians were killed. The monetary cost of the war to Iraq is incalculable. A sectarian civil war has ravaged Iraq for nearly a decade. Iraq has become home to al Qaeda.
The war in Iraq was sold to Congress and the American people with easily disproved lies. We must learn from this dark period in American history to ensure that we do not repeat the same mistakes. And we must hold accountable those who misled the American public.
On October 2, 2002, the day the legislation to authorize war in Iraq was introduced, I sent and personally distributed a memo to my colleagues in Congress refuting point-by-point every reason given by the Bush administration to go to war.
On October 3, 2002, I held a press conference with 25 Members of Congress and then presented an hour long explanation to Congress on the House Floor, refuting the lies upon which the cause of war was predicated.
It was clear from information publicly available at the time that Iraq did not have Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs), that Iraq had no connection to 9/11, and that Iraq was not a threat to the United States. Anyone who wanted to look could have seen the same information that I did.
Yet some of America's top political leaders bought into the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld drumbeat of war. Two leading Democrats were among those taken in by the White House hype and the WMD argument:
"I believe the facts that have brought us to this fateful vote are not in doubt. Saddam Hussein is a tyrant who has tortured and killed his own people ... [I]ntelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort and sanctuary to terrorists including Al Qaeda members." -- Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), October 10, 2002.
"September 11 was the ultimate wake-up call. We must now do everything in our power to prevent further terrorist attacks and ensure that an attack with a weapon of mass destruction cannot happen. ... the first candidate we must worry about is Iraq... [Saddam Hussein] continues to develop weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear devices." -- Leader of the Democratic Caucus in the House, Richard Gephardt (D-MO), October 10, 2002.
Even the most trusted newspapers around the country blindly repeated as fact grossly incorrect assertions by leaders of both parties.
"No further debate is needed to establish that Saddam Hussein is an evil dictator whose continued effort to build unconventional weapons in defiance of clear United Nations prohibitions threatens the Middle East and beyond." The New York Times, Editorial Board, October 3, 2002.
Notwithstanding the blizzard of disinformation, 133 Members of Congress voted against the resolution that authorized the use of military force in Iraq, including nearly two-thirds of the Democratic Caucus in the House. Seven Republicans, including Ron Paul (R-TX), also voted against the resolution. In the Senate, the vote was 77 to 23 in favor of a war of choice.
Ten years ago Congress voted to wage war on a nation that did not attack us. That decision undermined our fiscal and national security. To this day we are suffering from the blowback. While most of the troops are home, the United States maintains a significant presence in Iraq through the State Department and its thousands of private security contractors.
The war against Iraq was based on lies. Thousands of Americans and perhaps a million Iraqis were sacrificed for those lies. The war in Afghanistan continues. New wars have been propagated in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia pursuant to the never-ending "War on Terror." This mindset puts us at the edge of war against Iran. Ten years and trillions of dollars later, the American people by and large still do not know the truth. It is time to usher in a new period of truth and reconciliation.
Follow Rep. Dennis Kucinich on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RepKucinich
Michael Brenner: Iraq: The High Price of Amnesia
People should read this before they vote.
Despite the rhetoric, it's really hard to find a positioning farther right of the one B@rrack 0Bam@ currently has without imploding.
It's what the M|C wanted.... it's what the M|C got.
In these times of austerity, the Pentagon has to lower its expectations. Is it guns or butter?
i do like kocinich though as a plain speaker.
The Lobbies and the corporations pay and choose the majority of the reps, senators as well as the presidents. every fact is manipulated in order to fit the requirements of very powerful individuals.
It is un imaginable how can a truly democratic society permit the individuals and corporations that provoked the crisis walk free with absolutely no responsibility.
As long as an election of a president of a country depends on how much money is spent, hardly any positive change can be detected.
President Obama's greatest failing, in my opinion, is in the way he genuflects to the neo-con/military-industrial complex on the "war on terror" meme. Ergo, he got in to office.
No one who voted for Mr. Obama did so thinking that he would get us into more of these stupid wars (Libya, Syria) or that he would keep us in Afghanistan. I want to call him "the executioner."
If you're reading this and you voted for Mr. Obama (I did), ask yourself - if you had known that he would increase military spending and cut domestic spending, would you have voted for him?
This country is almost past saving - we've almost past the point where citizen involvement can save us from corporatocracy.
If you read this article and think our current situation sucks, please do everything you can to stop supporting corporations. Localize your economy.
The war on terror is a war for oil. We are killing people so we can drive monster trucks.
Thank you Mr. Kucinich for putting the war on terror into such a clear light.
Young Student: Then what's the point? What's the point of being President? You're powerless!
Richard M. Nixon: [Firmly] No. No, I'm not powerless. Because, because I understand the system, I believe I can, uh, I can control it. Maybe not control it totally, but tame it enough to make it do some good.
Young Student: Sounds like you're talking about a wild animal.
Richard M. Nixon: Yeah, maybe I am.
The lesser of two evils is still an evil
fnf...