Out of Iraq Congressional Caucus - Statements against the War

[DrDebug]

As you probably know Maxine Waters has started the Out of Iraq Congressional Caucus

Rep. Waters said: "The Out of Iraq Congressional Caucus is a newly formed effort whose sole purpose is to be the main agitators in the movement to bring our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Our efforts will include the coordination of activities and legislation designed to achieve our goal of returning our troops home. Through floor statements, press conferences, TV and radio appearances and other actions, we will provide leadership for the American Public who has been waiting too long for our collective voices against the war."

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0616-32.htm

Sometimes it feels like we are only. But let's hear it from some of the people who are in that newly formed group.

Neil Abercrombie

Abercrombie wants inquiry into Iraq war
Star Tribune, Wednesday, July 23, 2003

U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who last year voted against a congressional resolution giving President Bush the authority to use force against Iraq, said an independent investigation of the war is warranted.

(...)

Abercrombie said those connected with the Bush administration are "determined to start a war in Iraq, to include Syria and Iran, because of the policies that they feel this country should be not only espousing but pursuing in terms of world domination beginning in the Middle East."

http://starbulletin.com/2003/07/23/news/story8.html

Xavier Becerra

Published 6.10.2004

“Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld must resign or be fired,” said Rep. Xavier Becerra (D- Calif.) to a May 22 meeting with constituents from the Lincoln Heights neighborhood, part of his congressional district here. Becerra told the more than 100 residents, primarily Latino and Asian Pacific American, at the “Coffee With Your Congressman” gathering that he opposed a military draft and that he would not vote for the $25 billion “blank check” of additional funding for the Iraq war.

http://www.latinola.com/story.php?story=1837

Corrine Brown

Q: Do you favor or oppose President George W. Bush's doctrine of pre- emptive defense, which argues that in the war on terror it is prudent sometimes to strike before the United States is attacked?

A: I do not support President Bush's doctrine of pre-emptive defense. As demonstrated in the Iraq War, which was ostensibly fought to “pre-emptively fight terrorism,” the war has only served to augment anti American sentiment worldwide. Moreover, it has fanned the flames of radical anti-Americanism, and instead of making our citizens safer, has made us even more vulnerable to terrorism in retribution to this war

http://www.vgt2004.org/a-orlandosentinel/candidate-detail.go?id=1195706

John Conyers, Jr.

Congressman John Conyers is calling on American citizens to sign on to a letter to the President that demands a response to questions originally posed by Conyers and 88 other members of Congress in a similar letter dated May 5, 2005. Conyers has committed to personally delivering the letter to the White House when it garners 100,000 citizen signatures.

http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/

William Delahunt

Anticipating such problems before the war, I asked fundamental questions about the “Coalition of the Willing” and subsequent occupation. The Administration never answered. Yet concerns about the rationale and ramifications of the invasion persist – as do questions about past US support for Saddam.

A very good website with information:
http://www.house.gov/delahunt/iraq_watch.htm

Lloyd Doggett

Statement to Congress Opposing Going to War with Iraq
by Rep. Lloyd Doggett


Mr. President, unite our country and the world to eliminate weapons of mass destruction; do not divide us by making war the first instrument of your foreign policy.

http://www.progressiveaustin.org/doggett3.htm

Sam Farr

"In my district and across the country, our citizens are crying out to us to stop this unnecessary war," he said. "Congress must reclaim its constitutional right and not allow this president to continue on a path towards war without the people's approval.

http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/2629/1011953.html

Chaka Fattah

Congressman Fattah said, "This President should remember the words of John Quincy Adams when he said, "America does not need to go abroad in search of monsters to destroy - She might become dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit " "

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/pa02_fattah/bushiniraq.html

Raul Grijalva

We must acknowledge and accept that the Bush Administration did not have a plan for the occupation and has led us into this quagmire with no real vision for success. We, as a nation, cannot continue to implement foreign policy in ignorance of cultural and religious differences around the world, especially in the Middle East. The occupation in Iraq has been an utter failure, allowing insurgencies to rise up focused not on the liberation of Iraq, but our policies and efforts of occupation.

http://www.vgt2004.org/a-azstarnet/candidate-detail.go?id=1259864

Rush Holt

Instead, he has said America would simply 'stay the course' (whatever that is). I share the President's commitment to ensuring that the Iraqi people are left with a stable and democratic government, and agree that we cannot simply abandon the mess. But frankly, I am concerned that the President has failed to adjust to realities on the ground.

http://rushholt.com/archives/2004/12/security.html

Marcy Kaptur

Miss Kaptur added, "I wonder how many points we've lost (inside Iraq) this past year because of our bad planning. Now, more than nine out of 10 Iraqis look at us as occupiers.

http://www.kaptur.house.gov/Article.aspx?NewsID=1262

Dennis Kucinich

The war in Iraq was wrong. While the United States has won a military victory in Iraq, the Administration never justified the war, rendering it a diplomatic and foreign policy failure.

http://www.kucinich.us/issues/iraq.php

Barbara Lee

The highest costs will be paid by those who can least afford them. That, too, is the wasteland of war. This war is not necessary, and it is not inevitable. As we remember our drum major for justice, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., let us remember that he dreamed of a better world and in his words and vision, he showed us a better way.

http://www.globalwomenstrike.net/English/us_politicians_against_the_war.htm

Sheila Jackson-Lee

More than 50 House Democrats signed a letter supporting a motion by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, calling for Bush to go back to Congress to ask for a declaration of war, even though the House voted in October to give Bush broad authority to take military action against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0326-09.htm

John Lewis

Mr. Speaker, in good conscience - I cannot and will not support President George W. Bush's misled, failed policy.

I did not vote for going to war. I did not vote to put our young people in harm's way. And I will not be party to financing this war.

It is time to stop the madness. It is time to hold President Bush accountable for his words and his deeds.

http://www.house.gov/johnlewis/pr031016_speech.html

Jim McGovern

"Trust me when I tell you things are so much better in Iraq," said one US military official to me on my recent visit to that war-ravaged country. I didn't know whether to scream or pull the remaining two strands of hair out of my head. I was in Iraq as part of a delegation of eight members of Congress, led by House minority leader Nancy Pelosi. Everything we have been told about Iraq by the Bush Administration has either been an outright lie or overwhelmingly false. There were no weapons of mass destruction; we have not been greeted as liberators; and the cost in terms of blood and treasure has outpaced even their worst-case scenarios. Trust is something I cannot give to this Administration.

http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/38/10423

Grace Napolitano

Many U.N. Security Council Members, including France, Russia and China, were not convinced by Secretary Powell of the need to immediately go to war. “We must continue to act in concert with the U.N. and our allies to find a peaceful solution to this situation that puts so many American lives in danger,” noted the Congresswoman. “Many of our allies oppose military action at this point and want to continue with weapons inspections. France has suggested that we increase the number of inspectors in Iraq as a way to ensure greater compliance, and this idea deserves consideration. We must fully exhaust all diplomatic possibilities before going to war,” she concluded.

http://www.napolitano.house.gov/press_releases/press_2003/pr020503.htm

John Olver

War with Iraq will clearly divert attention from the war against Al-Qaeda, which is not yet won, and from Afghanistan, which we and our coalition allies are committed to rebuilding.

(...)

For these reasons, I cannot in good conscience vote for the resolution.

http://secure.cppax.org/Iraq/index.jsp?put=congPos/olver10-9-02.html

Major Owens

What could this Nation do with the energy, the brainpower, and the billions of dollars being invested in the great deadly blunder in Iraq? That is what it is, a great deadly blunder. That is what we have done in Iraq. We have put all of our energy, all of our money, all of our effort into a place where we will not increase the safety of the American people; we will not fight terrorism appropriately. Part of this 87 billion dollars could be better used to fund a Department of Peace and to strengthen support for achieving and maintaining world peace.

http://www.house.gov/owens/sp101603.htm

Donald Payne

Some of his most important work has been conducted on the House International Relations Committee where he urged committee Democrats to oppose the Iraq War Resolution committee vote. He said that the war was "ill- conceived and could have been avoided through diplomacy."

http://64.177.207.201/pages/8_545.html

Nick Rahall

TEXT OF A MESSAGE TO THE IRAQI NATIONAL ASSEMBLY FROM REP. NICK RAHALL (D- WV)

Ours is a humanitarian mission. I come, not as the Secretary of State, and not as a weapons inspector, but as a member of Congress concerned with peace. Basically, I want America and Iraq to give peace a chance.

http://www.c-span.org/iraq/rahall.asp

Charles Rangel

The Harlem Democrat charged that top Bush officials "made up mind to go into Iraq long before 9/ 11. And every one of the players who made this decision - they were part of this plan to do it. From Rumsfeld to Cheney, Wolfowitz, Bolton, every one of them - Perle - plan to put our kids in harm's way long before 9/11."

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/6/8/124621.shtml

Janice Schakowsky

"This war has robbed the United States of any moral authority it had as a leader around the world," U.S. Rep Jan Schakowsky told the packed house.

http://janschakowsky.org/index.asp?Type=B_PR&SEC=%7B2D6C6F6A-E1E3-494F-87D7-2C6B61815DA2%7D&DE=%7B75FC26F4-2FD3-4E09-ACE2-7CACAC1D9D51%7D

Bobby Scott

Furthermore, no case has been made that there is an imminent threat to the US. So why is it essential for the President to have the authority to attack Iraq now? If the President discovers that the US is in imminent danger, he is already authorized to defend the nation, and no one would expect him to wait for a Congressional Resolution. So what is different now? If the argument is that the urgency was created a year ago on September 11th, the evidence supporting the connection between 9/11 and Iraq is at best tenuous. So what is the urgency to authorize force right before the election?

http://www.house.gov/scott/remarks_iraq_war_resolution.htm

Jose Serrano

"One president said `I did not have sex with that woman' and he got impeaced, said Representative Jose E. Serrano, Democrat of New York. Another president lied to the American people, to Congress, and to the United Nations about weapons of mass destruction, bombed a country and killed many people, in the process we lost some of our own brave folks. And he's some sort of hero. What gives?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/062103I.shtml

John Tierney

Unlike the war in Afghanistan, which I supported because of its direct link to 9/11, the war in Iraq has been the wrong war fought for the wrong reasons. The occupation of Iraq, about which we were so ill-informed, and for which we were so unprepared, has come at an intolerable and unjustifiable expense to our service men and women, our nation, and to the people of Iraq. It has put our troops’ lives in peril in Iraq and has made the world less, not more, safe. It has alienated the United States from its friends and allies at a time when we need them most. It has diverted our attention from greater threats of terrorism and has drained our financial capacity to meet critical needs at home today and for as long as we must live down and pay for the enormous national debt it has helped run up.

http://www.johntierney.com/issues_details.asp?id=2

And there are more Congresmen and women in the newly formed Caucus and this just one statement by some of them. Many of them have been fighting since the beginning. I wish them lots of luck in their combined effort :toast:

[DrDebug]

1. Kick

Sigh. Why do I have to kick my story? I know others have made this remark as well, but it'll be the last I'll dedicate so much time to watch it just drop to page 3 and see Bush.Is.The.Worst.President n/t getting more attention! Just something to think about...