Change of Vote

Floor Speech

CHANGE OF VOTE -- (Senate - September 20, 2007)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, will the Chair please advise me when I have 2 minutes remaining?

Madam President, this room we work in, this Chamber where the Senate meets, is a Chamber that has seen a lot of history in its time. There have been moments of great pride, and, unfortunately, moments I am sure where the opposite has occurred in the history of this great Chamber.

It has been my honor to represent the wonderful State of Illinois for 10 years as a Senator. Fewer than 2,000 Americans have ever had this chance to serve as a Senator. But the men and women who have been given the opportunity are also given a responsibility far beyond the responsibility of any individual citizen.

Votes come and go. If you put me on the spot and say: Tell me all your votes from 2 weeks ago, I would be hard pressed to remember. But there are some votes you can never forget. Whether as a Member of the House of Representatives or a Member of the Senate, I have found the votes that gnaw into my conscience and keep me awake at night are votes related to war because when you vote on war, you know that at the end of the day, if you move forward, people will die. It may be the enemy, but it is likely to also include many of your own and innocent people.

So in October of 2002, just weeks before reelection, we gathered in this Chamber late at night, with the President who insisted that we vote to give him authority to go to war in Iraq. It was not that long after we had given him the authority to go after those responsible for 9/11, our current war in Afghanistan against the Taliban and al-Qaida.

But sadly before that vote, the American people were misled; misled by the President, the Vice President, the Cabinet, and the leaders of our Nation about the war in Iraq. The information given us about that war was wrong. We were told that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United States of America. That was not true. He was a bloody tyrant, ruthless with his own people. He would certainly not win the approval of anyone in this Chamber for what he had done to his nation, but he was not a threat to us.

We were told about weapons of mass destruction that beat the drums of war and had our people anxious to respond quickly to protect us. People in the White House were talking about mushroom-shaped clouds and chemical weapons and biological weapons and stockpiles and aerial photographs to prove that they all existed. It turned out none of that was true.

The most grievous sin in a democracy is to mislead the American people into a war, and that is what occurred. We were misled into a war that night with a vote in this Chamber. On that evening there were 23 of us who voted against that war. There were a variety of reasons, but most of us believed the President had not made a solid case for the war, for the invasion of Iraq, and that he had not thought through what might occur if we made that invasion.

I can recall one of my colleagues saying: It is far easier to get into a war than it is to get out. In the fifth year of this war, that certainly has been proven true.

I voted against the war that evening, 1 of 22 Democrats, less than a majority of our own, with 1 Republican. Of all the votes that I have ever cast in the House and Senate, it is the one of which I am the proudest. I have never looked back with any doubt about that vote, not one time.

Look what has happened since. Almost 3,800 of our best and brightest sons and daughters of Illinois and every State in the Union have died in Iraq. Thousands have been injured, some gravely injured. I visit their hospital rooms, I meet with their families, I watch as they struggle to make life out of a broken body, trying to regain the spirit to look forward instead of backward. It is a bitter struggle.

Today, Senator Feingold of Wisconsin gives us a clear choice. Will we continue this war or will we bring it to a close? Will we change our mission and start to bring our troops home or will we allow this war to continue?

I sincerely hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will look carefully at his amendment. He has worked long and hard on it.

He makes it clear that we are not going to pick up and leave tomorrow. We are going to redeploy in an orderly fashion. We are going to make certain our war against al-Qaida can still be waged within Iraq and wherever they raise their ugly heads. He is also going to make sure that we protect our own and make certain that we provide training assistance, limited, but training assistance to the Iraqis so they can stand up and defend their own country.

So many of our colleagues have come to the floor and said: Do not change a thing. Stick with the strategy. Well, I have been there three times now. I was just there a few weeks ago. It is a grim, sad, horrific situation in Iraq. And there is no way to sugarcoat it. No report from any general or any ambassador can change the reality of what is happening on the ground there.

To be given body armor when you go into Iraq, and a helmet, and be told: You better wear this wherever you go, tells me this is not a safe country. In the fifth year of this war, the safest area in Baghdad, in the Green Zone, they tell you: Put the body armor and helmet down at the end of the bed because when the sirens go off you have 4 to 6 seconds to put it on.

See, we cannot have rocket attacks into what we call the safest area of Baghdad. There are parts of that city where they would not even consider sending a Congressman or a Senator, just too dangerous, in the fifth year of this war with 160,000 or 170,000 of the best soldiers in the world.

This administration is in complete denial about what is occurring in Iraq. They are in complete denial about what the American people feel about this war. And they are in complete denial about the utter failure of the Iraqi Government to lead its own people forward.

The Iraqis need to make some fundamental decisions before we can celebrate democracy in Iraq. And the first question they have to resolve is, are they Iraqis first or are they members of a religious sect first? I do not think that question has been resolved. It certainly has not been resolved in parts of the Muslim world for 14 centuries, and sadly the crucible of this battle now is Iraq.

Our soldiers, our men and women in uniform, have been tossed into this bloody, deadly sectarian fight that continues by the day. The Iraqi Government finds excuse after excuse not to produce the most basic elements of governance, and as they plunder and blunder away, our soldiers die in the streets of their cities.

I have had it. Someone said to me earlier: Well, are the American people putting a lot of pressure on you about this war?

I said in response: The American people could not put more pressure on me about this war than I already feel. I feel for every one of those soldiers I sat down with for lunch in that country. I feel for all of them I see shipping out from my State and all across America. I feel for every wife and husband back home, trying to keep these kids together during a lengthy deployment.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 2 minutes remaining.

Mr. DURBIN. I feel it is time for a change. I cannot in good conscience continue to give this President a blank check for this war because I know what he is going to do with that money. He is going to continue this failed policy with no end in sight. We are going to continue to lose 100 or more soldiers every single month until he can back out of the exit of this Presidency on January 20, 2009.

I am sorry, but I can no longer be party to financing what I consider to be the worst foreign policy mistake in our history. I will support Senator Feingold. I will provide the funds for the orderly redeployment of our troops to make sure that the terrorists are fought where they should be fought and to do what we can to help the Iraqis. But in the fifth year of this war, it is time to change.

Now, I listen on the floor of the Senate while many of my colleagues want to change the subject. They want to talk about ads and newspapers about General Petraeus. Well, let me tell you something. I respect General Petraeus. But we have more important things to do than debate ads in newspapers. And instead of looking for ways to change the subject, we need to join together in a bipartisan fashion to change the war. That is why we are here. That is what we will be judged by. And the question is whether we will stand up now that we have a choice and a vote. Will we march in blind allegiance to a President who has brought us to this sad, tragic moment in our history or will we in the Senate have the courage, on a bipartisan basis, to stand up for people across America, for our soldiers and their families who need a change in policy, need a change in direction, and need to be brought home?

I yield the floor.

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