Pete Stark: “Today is a sad day. Decades ago, I ran for Congress because I opposed the War in Vietnam. After arriving in Washington…”

“Today is a sad day. Decades ago, I ran for Congress because I opposed the War in Vietnam. After arriving in Washington, I carried out the will of my constituents, repeatedly voting to stop funding the death of American troops and Vietnamese civilians. More than 4 years ago, I voted against the original resolution authorizing the President to take unprecedented preemptive military action against Iraq. In the years since, I have consistently opposed the President at every turn, always voting to deny him the funding he requested to continue his failed War in Iraq. Last November, the American people delivered a loud and clear message to their representatives in Washington. In electing a Democratic House and Senate, the public demanded a new direction in Iraq. Today, however, we're staying the course. The supplemental before us includes no deadlines for troop withdrawal and no enforceable benchmarks for holding President Bush accountable. In other words, there is no way I--or the overwhelming majority of my constituents--would ever support it. We can't go on like this, killing our troops and Iraqi civilians--and wasting tens of billions of dollars that would be better spent on vital domestic priorities like education and health care. You know who supports this bill? President Bush and Republicans in Congress who refuse to acknowledge either the Shiite-Sunni civil war or our lack of progress in Iraq.”