Lynn C. Woolsey: “yesterday I had the honor to visit a group of folks gathered on the Mall as part of Camp Democracy, a nonpartisan camp…”

“yesterday I had the honor to visit a group of folks gathered on the Mall as part of Camp Democracy, a nonpartisan camp for peace, for democracy and for the restoration of rule of law. Those who gathered are relentlessly working to promote peace and justice. They bring great passion to our shared struggle. They have led one of the most important and powerful grassroots movements in recent memory, and because of the pressure they have applied and the eloquence with which they have made the case, the immorality of the Bush Iraq policy has been exposed. Mr. Speaker, in a few months, our troops will have been in Iraq for as long as their grandfathers fought in World War II. But unlike the struggle against Nazism, this has been an unmitigated disaster, a national tragedy and a moral outrage. More than 2,650 soldiers of our own are dead, nearly 20,000 wounded by the Pentagon's own count and countless more psychologically traumatized. And for what? So we could make the world a more dangerous place and increase the terrorist threat? So we could create more jihadists and inspire more hatred for Americans among Muslim extremists? So we could foment a bloody civil war and rip a nation apart at its seams, killing tens of thousands of innocent civilians for the cause of their so-called liberation? Like the people at Camp Democracy, I have been speaking out against this war and this occupation even before they began.…”