James A. Leach: “this spring I voted against the war in Iraq for a number of reasons. Principally I was concerned that intervention would…”

“this spring I voted against the war in Iraq for a number of reasons. Principally I was concerned that intervention would prove counterproductive. But all of us must recognize that both Houses of Congress by majority vote authorized this action. Now we, collectively, have to bear the consequences of a constitutionally-sanctioned decision. We have no choice but to work together to get out of the predicament in which we have put ourselves. It may have been wrong to initiate war, but once American Armed Forces defeated Saddam's army and occupied Iraq, we became obligated to ensure that a more progressive kind of Iraqi society is created. Prior to the war, the cost of conflict was grossly underestimated by the administration. While, implicitly, cost implications were part and parcel of the decision some of us made against the war in the first place, they are no longer as credible a basis for denying American responsibility today. Great power, when it is unleashed, entails responsibility for actions contemplated and uncontemplated. I have grave concern about our inability to get Security Council sanction for the original intervention; also for a reluctance to allow greater internationalization of responsibility today. Nevertheless, the endorsement by the Security Council this afternoon of a resolution legitimizing the Coalition Provisional Authority and calling for a timetable for the drafting of a new Iraqi constitution has to be recognized as a positive step.”