Providence, R.I. – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) commented today on the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq.
“Tomorrow, March 19, marks the end of the fifth year that American troops have spent fighting in Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of brave men and women have endured month after month in a strange land, thousands of miles from home and family. Tens of thousands of them have returned home wounded. Nearly four thousand have given their lives. They and their families are in our prayers, today and every day.
“Our troops have served this nation with courage and honor, and now, it’s time to start bringing them home. President Bush took our country to war on false pretenses, without a plan to win the peace. His administration’s misjudgments and poor decisions have cost our nation trillions of dollars, sapped the strength of our armed forces, hurt our standing in the international community, and distracted us from the urgent tasks of dismantling al Qaeda and dealing with a resurgent Taliban. Meanwhile, they have done little to alleviate the human suffering of the Iraqi people.
“It’s clear this President will do nothing to end this endless war. I will continue to push, as Rhode Islanders have urged me to do, for a redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq, and I join millions of Americans working to see that our next President will seek a new direction.”
Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, visited Iraq a year ago.
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