Ed Markey: “the President had a historic opportunity in 2003. He had the support of the Congress. He had the support of the United…”

“the President had a historic opportunity in 2003. He had the support of the Congress. He had the support of the United Nations. We had inspectors in Iraq. It was determined that they had no weapons of mass destruction, and yet the President decided to invade. Just think what would have happened if instead of on that day an invasion began, the President said, Let's keep this international coalition together. Let's move to Iran with the coalition. Let's ensure that they do not have a nuclear weapon. Now the new President of Iran is stating that the United States and the world will not get in the way of Iran and nuclear weapons. The United States is more in danger, Israel is more in danger, the world is more in danger, because of the bad decision President Bush made on that day in 2003 when he invaded Iraq. Instead, we are on the brink of a nuclear Iran and North Korea, and we are in a quagmire in Iraq as we referee an insurgency that will breakout into civil war as soon as the United States leaves. This is a historic mess. The President had a chance for a Nobel Peace Prize. Instead, he is going to go down in history as someone who completely mismanaged nuclear nonproliferation and the politics of Iraq. ____________________”