President Offering Excuses, Not Reasons, for Invading Iraq

Pelosi: 'President Offering Excuses, Not Reasons, for Invading Iraq'

Washington, D.C.-House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on President Bush's speech to the United Nations:

"Eighteen months ago, President Bush launched an invasion of Iraq that he justified on the assertion that Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction posed an imminent threat to the United States. But at the United Nations today, with no weapons of mass destruction having been found in Iraq, the President justified the invasion by asserting that Saddam posed a 'grave and gathering danger' to the United States.

"The President has dramatically shifted his rationale and is now saying that a desire by Saddam to acquire weapons of mass destruction in the future was a sufficient reason to invade Iraq. That is an enormous change from what he told the American people at the time of the war. The President is now offering excuses, not reasons.

"Throughout our history, the United States has resorted to the use of force only as a last resort. The President's reckless and dangerous policy turns that doctrine on its head, and its implications are staggering.

"This was a war of choice and the President chose its timing, giving him a greater responsibility to plan thoroughly. Unbelievably and unconscionably, he still sent our men and women into harm's way without the proper equipment."