Chris Van Hollen: “we went to war in Iraq in an irresponsible way; we should leave Iraq in a responsible way. The Administration's slogan…”

“we went to war in Iraq in an irresponsible way; we should leave Iraq in a responsible way. The Administration's slogan of ``stay the course'' is not a strategy. More of the same is unacceptable. We must change course. The Bush Administration has tried to stifle debate here at home by shamelessly challenging the patriotism of those who question their approach. The time has come for a serious debate on this issue of utmost importance to the American people. We should bring our troops home as quickly and safely as possible. But bringing our troops home is only part of a successful strategy for leaving Iraq. We must redeploy our troops in a way that does not unleash even more bloodshed and killing in Iraq, and does not create a vacuum that will be exploited by Al Queda and terrorist elements. Our nation went to war in Iraq based on false information and gross distortions of the facts made by President Bush and others in his Administration. Before the invasion, a number of us gave speeches on the floor of this House outlining the dangers of going to war in Iraq. The Bush Administration and the Congress chose to disregard the warnings that were raised by many people who had experience on foreign policy issues regarding the Persian Gulf region. We have made many mistakes during the war, but many of the results of our invasion were predictable.…”