Cord Byrd: “since last August, the administration has worked aggressively to convince the American public that Saddam Hussein is a…”

“since last August, the administration has worked aggressively to convince the American public that Saddam Hussein is a brutal dictator who directly threatens the United States. The President has been unambiguous, and often dangerously blunt, about his passion to use military force to destroy Saddam Hussein's regime. The Bush administration has promoted a vision of Saddam's removal from power quickly, easily, and bloodlessly. Indeed, part of the rationale for support for this war is that America's tremendous military superiority over Iraq will confine a military conflict to a relatively painless contest between the United States' awesome military forces and the relatively weak, conventional military machine of Saddam Hussein. A swift and simple military victory certainly is one possibility, but in our democratic Republic the administration also has a responsibility to inform the American people that much less pleasant scenarios are also possible and even likely. The Congress has a responsibility to explore all possible scenarios with an eye to the eventual costs of this war. We must not just accept the rosy projections so far offered by the administration. Frankly, I have seen little effort by either the administration or the Congress to inform the American taxpayer about the likely costs of this war. In both dollars and human lives, the administration has been ominously quiet about its internal calculations and estimates.”