4,000 Souls

Last week marked the fifth anniversary of the start of our nation's invasion of Iraq. Again we are confronted with a sorrowful reminder of the consequences of that fateful decision by the death of four Americans killed in Baghdad, bringing the total number of American troops who have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq to 4000. Each brave soul leaves behind devastated loved ones -- sons, daughters, wives, husbands, moms, and dads. Each tragic loss leaves a void -- a missing smile and loving embrace, an empty chair at the family dinner table -- that can never be filled.

As we mark this painful milestone, we must ask ourselves: what is the moral justification for allowing this war to continue? Can we honestly say that the disastrous mission in Iraq warrants the sacrifice of more of our troops and the heartache and loss that so many loved ones continue to suffer?

In March of 2003, just prior to the invasion of Iraq, I made a final plea to the administration and my colleagues in Congress to avert a war that I believed would reap sorrowful consequences for our nation. In a speech entitled "We Stand Passively Mute", I expressed my outrage at the fact that the United States Senate -- the world's greatest deliberative body -- stood "for the most part-silent-ominously, dreadfully silent" on this monumental question.

Sadly, my worst fears have been realized. The decision to invade Iraq may go down as one of the gravest foreign policy blunders in our nation's history.

Yet the war continues. American troop levels are higher than they were the day President Bush flamboyantly swooped onto the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln to declare "Mission Accomplished."

Four thousand Americans have now lost their lives, including twenty-three brave West Virginians. Almost thirty-thousand Americans have been wounded in action, many gravely, and countless thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed.

It is long past time to start bringing our troops home. Our men and women in uniform toppled the dictator. There were no weapons of mass destruction. There is scarce evidence that the Iraqi government is working to achieve the kind of political reconciliation that could end the continuing sacrifice of our brave men and women.

At this somber moment, let us resolve to take steps to finally bring this tragic war to an end. In 2008, the American people must not stand passively mute, as far too many of their leaders did five years ago. Let your voices be heard.

Comments

[BlueAsh]

Senator Byrd,

For all the work you have done, I most admire your passionate speech *against* the war on the senator floor. Thank you!

[Terrakron]

Thanks so very much Honorable Senator Byrd! You are truely a national hero, we will be for ever grateful for your service to the country. We should do whatever is in our power to help you! (I have contributed to your campain before and will do it again in the measure of my possibilities.)
Hope more people come out in your support!

[JohnBarleycorn]

Since you voted to authorize it, shouldn't you tell us?

[GnitenGoodLk]

"Byrd (D-WV), Nay "

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=2&vote=00237

He voted against it. Do your homework.

[realitytrumpsbull]

Well, Sir, Senator, I'm running my foolhardy Independent campaign(truly that, because even my state's Independent party doesn't seem to want to talk to me, looks like it's down to getting signatures, if I press ahead with it) to, among other things, bring an abrupt and decided halt to the Iraq war. It's been 5 years, and the people of Iraq did, in fact, vote our troops out of their country. If we're spreading democracy, then that should have been the cue to load the ships and come home. IF, on the other hand, what's really going on is the Neverending War Profiteering/Global Influence Peddling Bonanza Of All Perpetuity, which is my suspicion/estimation at this junc-ture, well, the only answer for that is to firmly depress the 'Emergency Stop' button repeatedly, and with Great Vigor.

Bert08

[mickyx65it]

4000 dead and many more wounded and maimed, who killed thousands of inocent iraquis to steal their oil on Bush/Cheney's behalf. Cheney says they volunteered. I would like to ask them, how much oil the got in exchange? Was it worth it to kill Iraquis to steel their oil?

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

Senator it's many more than 4,000. The DoD has been lying to Congress and to the American people. Please read the following links:
http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1669.htm
http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a2540.htm#001

[shamanbart]

Fellow anti-occupation proponents:

We must not be content to know that the decision to go to war in Iraq was wrong. We must put forth three arguments to get the US out of Iraq.

1. That it is in our country's self-interest to free up troops and resources to act elsewhere and to "regroup". Several top military authorities concur that our military is dangerously close to be overstretched and further troop rotations into Iraq are unsustainable. We don't have enough forces to send into Afghanistan, where the Taliban and Al-Qaida should be defeated. And then of course the monetary cost is unsustainable for the US.

2. The hard one -- that bringing US troops out now will not only save American lives, but will save Iraqi lives in the medium to long term by forcing them to resolve their own differences. There is some evidence of this occurring now with the recent Basra battles, and some support of this by looking at the numbers of attacks directed at coalition forces vs. intra-Iraqi factions. During the surge -- all decreased, but attacks against the US remain proportionally higher. This suggests that a large part of the problem of violence is our presence. The Iraqi Forces should be able to take it from here, perhaps with some air support and humanitarian support.

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/03/12/world/20080312_IRAQ.html

[shamanbart]

Couldn't fit the last one on...

3. The obvious one -- the occupation is horrible for the Iraqi people (10s of 1000s dead, wounded), bad for mideast relations and counterproductive to anti-terrorism efforts.


In short, time to make the case that McCain's way is the wrong way -- we need to get out ASAP for the benefit of all parties concerned.

[jkerrigan]

I am proud to call Senator Byrd, my Senator. Well done sir!

[willrothfuss]

God bless Robert Byrd for having the courage to stand up in 2002-2003 and the courage to stand up now.

[hira]

Dear Senator,

Dear Senator,

I recall your outrage in the senate chamber before your colleagues authorized GW to start this tragic war. Most informed Americans know that you did everything within your power to prevent this national tragedy. Unfortunately, your timely advice and warning went unheeded. However, honorable Senator, you can do something NOW to bring this war to a quick end . Please extend your endorsement right away to Barrack Obama who was truly with you from day one, and who is the only Presidential candidate who is genuinely interested to bring this war to a quick end. Will you ?

[georgecrupper]

Sad to say that neither congress of the admisitration are doing their job...too much greed and corruption and desire for money...I have a solution that will get the attention of Americans the Stupid and that is start the draft of all males 18 to 60, no deferments to be stationed on every street corner of Iraq, Pakistan, Afganistan or others, 24 hours a day...and tax all Americans 15% until the debt is paid. What has been done is a pacifier of beer, entertainment a credit card and 24 hour of misinformation to keep them in place....so why should the worry....

[sfnative]

This war has done exactly what American foreign policy tried to avoid for decades.
They handed Iraq and their oil over to Iran.
Real Mission Accomplished?Possibly.
An emboldened Iran now plays right into Mc Cain's hands.
Expect the bombing to start before the election to strengthen his chance for victory.

[BellaCollina]

Congratulations Senator Byrd.

Why has no one brought up the fact that George Bush is now responsible for more American Deaths than Osama Bin Laden.

Why will no one bring articles of impeachment against this morally bankrupt, incompetent criminal? Now is the time to make things right Senator, and use your influence to get the house to finally do its job and put the American people above politics.

[GH]

Senator Byrd on Unilateral action in Iraq, 9/06/1996:

"To those who would doubt the necessity of the actions by the president, one should pose the question as to what the consequences would be in the face of American inaction. First, clearly, no other country would take the lead. The signature of the current era is such that response to aggression will not be taken up by other powers in the absence of American leadership, unfortunately. This was the case in the invasion of Kuwait. It was the case in Bosnia when, after several years of Western inaction in the face of ethnic atrocities in Bosnia, only the United States, only the United States, could bring about a credible, effective implementation of peace in that sorry part of Europe. . . . It is American leadership which is decisive to the peace in these regions, and I commend President Clinton for his decisive action. It was necessary to weaken the Iraqi leader's ability to intimidate his neighbors, and to make it clear that he will pay a price for his aggression."

President Clinton, 7/22/2003:

".. but it is incontestable that on the day I left office, there were unaccounted for stocks..of biological and chemical weapons... -- again, I would say the most important thing is we should focus on what's the best way to build Iraq as a democracy?...

We should be pulling for America on this. We should be pulling for the people of Iraq. .."

[Sergeantfreedom]

Oh, by the way, as an addendum to my other comment, the "4,000" death rate for "Americans" in Iraq is not actually true either. There is a second set of Enron accounting books being kept on Americans being killed in Iraq, and it"s called the "Private Contractor" set of books. They are American. You pay for them with your tax dollars. Bush/Cheney privatized the formerly military jobs into contractor jobs, and now if they get killed, shot in their trucks, have their burned bodies strung up from bridges, have their heads cut off on video, have their fingers cut off before being dumped in a street dead somewhere, get killed by an IED or a mortar through the chow hall, they don"t count. They go on the second SECRET set of books that no Americans talk about. You know as well as I, there are far more than 4,000 Americans killed in Bush"s war in Iraq. They just don"t get counted because they do the "privatized" jobs.

[GH]

You make a very good point, and while I'm going to draw a historical point -- it's with the full understanding that this current war in Iraq - and in Afghanistan - are requiring much larger resources than the little skirmishes and genocides of the 90's that resulted in the deaths of 5-8 million human beings (God, I wish we could return to that period of peace and prosperity).

The process is not new. Even in 1994 Clinton was sending KBR's Brown and Root into Rwanda (after we were complacent in the deaths of some 800,000 human beings). And why is it that everyone brings up Clinton's old pals, Enron. Enron was running around the world with the Clinton administration during the 90's - when Bush came into office, Enron went under - not even Robert Rubin then at Citigroup holding Enron's commercial paper, could not get the Bush administration to help them out.

[Sergeantfreedom]

Below in the thread, the poster "Reasonablethought" (how ironic) puts in a made up table of assumed military death rates, but a quick check of the actual "real" facts on page CRS-8 Table 5 http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf shows that in fact, the opposite is true. So, when do Bush/Cheney apologists actually ever tell the truth about anything? Do people with zero credibility think that if they repeat something often enough, their delusions will sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda at our heads?

[Ramus]

Hey, it worked before!

[BellaCollina]

Seems to have worked well for Cheney and Bush...