Haley Stevens: “I have found the overheated rhetoric on Iraq over the last few days at best disappointing and at worst misleading…”

“I have found the overheated rhetoric on Iraq over the last few days at best disappointing and at worst misleading, harshly partisan, and motivated by election year politics. I have simply had enough of this. I have come to the floor to ask my Senate colleagues to restore the level of debate that this institution demands. I urge the Senate to not play politics with Iraq. Do not seek to gain some slim, fleeting advantage at the ballot box by making our country appear divided, and by making reckless accusations. Our troops in Iraq deserve better than this. They deserve much better. If there is debate, let it be reasoned and measured, and focused on the way forward in this war on terrorism. When our forces are deployed and in the field, they deserve nothing less than our absolute, unwavering commitment to their success. Nothing less. I take strong issue with three particular themes: First, the analogy that Iraq is somehow like Vietnam. This analogy is wrong, and simply inflammatory; second, that the President was wrong when he made his speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln a year ago on May 1; and third, that somehow our action to remove the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein was in any regard 'unprovoked.' That is simply and plainly not true. Iraq is not Vietnam. It is wildly irresponsible--even reckless--to compare the situation in Iraq to the war in Vietnam.”