On the recordJanuary 26, 2021
Today we will be considering the nomination of Antony Blinken to be President Biden's Secretary of State. The problem I have with this nomination is that, for decades now, we have been at war in Afghanistan. The war is now called ``the forever war.'' People lament that it goes on so long, and people say: How could it possibly keep going on? Sixty-five to seventy percent of the American people, 65 to 70 percent of American veterans--veterans who served in the theater--say the war is enough. We should end the war in Afghanistan. How does it go on? We have got a new President. Are things going to change? Here is the problem: Why do the wars continue? Why do the wars in Syria and Libya and Somalia and Afghanistan continue? Because the more things change, the more they stay the same. Mr. Blinken has been a full-throated advocate of military intervention in the Middle East for 20 years. We are fooling ourselves if we think we are going to get a new policy. We are going to get more of the same. In his hearing, I said to him: ``The problem isn't that we don't compromise or that we don't have bipartisan consensus; the problem is we have too much bipartisan consensus for war.'' For 20 years, he has advocated for military intervention. He advocated for the Iraq war, as did the President. President Biden was also an advocate of the Iraq war.…
