Nancy Pelosi: “I will reiterate some of what I said in the motion to instruct. For the past 2\1/2\ years since our country has gone to…”

“I will reiterate some of what I said in the motion to instruct. For the past 2\1/2\ years since our country has gone to war, we have paid a big price for a bad policy based on faulty intelligence which was wrong, based on a false premise without proper planning and putting our young people at risk. In that period of time, that 2\1/2\ years, over 2,000 Americans have lost their lives. Every single one of them is precious to us, but, as the toll mounts, the grief does as well. Over 15,000 of our young people have lost their limbs, 15,000 have been injured, many of them permanently, many with loss of limb and sight, at a cost of over $250 billion, a quarter of a trillion dollars, to the taxpayer and just endless cost to our reputation in the world. I think it begs the question, are we safer in America because of this war? What is this war doing to the preparedness of our troops? I think that the answer to both of those is negative, and I think it calls for an examination of what the intelligence was to get us there in the first place. Was it manipulated? Why was there no plan for us to go into Iraq, a post-war plan for after the fall of Iraq, as well as an exit strategy? The American people love freedom for ourselves and for people throughout the world, but we have to examine what the cost of this war is and why even the Republican Department of Defense has said----”