Anna Eshoo: “It has been a long and painful 4-year journey for the people of our country since this administration acted preemptively…”

“It has been a long and painful 4-year journey for the people of our country since this administration acted preemptively and unilaterally to invade and occupy Iraq, policies which I believe then and I still believe today would not and could not stand because they simply are not in our national character. We were told Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. None were found. We were told there was yellow cake. It was a falsehood. We were told that there were trailers containing the evidence of deadly chemicals. We were told the mission was accomplished. We endured national and international shame when the horrific pictures depicting Abu Ghraib appeared. We learned that our troops were not sufficiently equipped. We mourned with our constituents as the death toll of American troops mounted and continued to mount. Just think, 137 casualties in November of 2004, then the deadliest month overall. Today, over 3,000 precious U.S. lives have been lost, with thousands maimed and injured and God knows how many innocent Iraqi lives lost. We witnessed the world community's total support on 9/11, and we have witnessed the diminishment of America's credibility around the world because of the Iraq war.”