Lynn C. Woolsey: “In April of the year 2004, my staff came to me with a memo, asking if I wanted to give a Special Order speech on some…”

“In April of the year 2004, my staff came to me with a memo, asking if I wanted to give a Special Order speech on some issue of which I can't remember the subject. My answer at that time was, no, I didn't want to speak on that issue, but I did want to deliver a 5-minute speech that day and every day thereafter, when it was possible, to express my opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to express my belief that there is a smarter way to achieve our national security goals. So, Madam Speaker, since that day, I've stood here in this spot to say over and over again that these wars are eroding our spiritual core, bankrupting us morally and fiscally, teaching our children that warfare is the new normal. I have delivered these speeches as a member of the majority and the minority, when the President was a member of my party and when he was not, and today, I am doing it for the 400th time. When I began, the war in Iraq was still quite popular, as was the President who launched it, but we spoke out anyway, refusing to bend on principle because we knew that we did not belong there. My colleagues Representative Barbara Lee and Representative Maxine Waters and I called ourselves the ``Triad.'' We started the Out of Iraq Caucus, and we forced the first House vote to bring our troops home. Along the way, I visited Iraq, and my opinion was confirmed against that very war, but at the same time, it increased my admiration for our troops.…”