Congressman Serrano has opposed the Iraq war since before it began. In the lead up to the war he urged the President to be more cautious and to reach out to Congress. When the President pressed on with the ill-advised war, Congressman Serrano voted against the authorization for the use of force against Iraq. Since then he has consistently called for the immediate end of the war and voted against bills that would continue funding the war.
Now this misbegotten war has caused thousands of American deaths, unknown tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths and cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Congressman Serrano remains committed to ending the war. The problems with the war were legion at the beginning and have continued in various ways throughout the process.
Initially, the case for war was built on lies by an administration determined to go to war and willing to fit the facts to justify their actions. First, we were told that the war was about weapons of mass destruction and the links between Saddam and al Qaeda. However, time soon proved that Saddam was bluffing about the weapons and that the links to al Qaeda had been vastly exaggerated. After these reasons proved false, the administration shifted to telling us that the real reason we invaded was to bring freedom and democracy to the Iraqis—without ever clearly admitting that the original reasons were fabricated. Tragically, the problem with this lack of mission was that without one there could be no clear plan for achieving it.
Even as the administration went through the motions of seeking the approval of the United Nations and the international community, no one in the administration had a satisfactory interest in, or plan for, what would happen after Saddam’s regime collapsed. This lack of foresight meant that an insufficient number of troops were in the country and no one took charge of providing security and stability in what quickly became an anarchic country.
Since these initial mistakes there have been times when there have been tactical successes and times when there have been tactical failures. However, a lack of guiding vision has meant that successes were not followed up and failures were not efficiently addressed. Therefore, despite these tactical successes the larger strategic problem of finding a political solution remains intractable.
The costs of the war to this point have been enormous and they will continue to rise. We have failed to protect the Iraqis we claimed to be freeing and they have suffered enormously. We have lost thousands of brave men and women to the war. We have spent hundreds of billions of dollars and GAO estimates are putting the total cost at 1 to 2 trillion dollars. In addition we have lost our focus on the war in Afghanistan and instead of stopping terrorists we have created fecund ground for them in Iraq and our military is overextended and suffering from repeated deployments.
Unfortunately, the ongoing refusal of the administration to admit failure has meant that we remain focused on arguing about a ‘victory’ that has already passed us by and about the many mistakes that have been made. Instead, we must recognize the great tragedy this has been for both the American and the Iraqi people, and then think hard about what can realistically be accomplished and how we can safely bring our troops home as quickly as possible. The effects of this misguided war will continue to cost our country, our armed services and the people of Iraq for years to come. |