Bill Pascrell: “the Wall Street Journal accused us of trying to micromanage this war. Well, this President has not listened to the…”

“the Wall Street Journal accused us of trying to micromanage this war. Well, this President has not listened to the generals. He hasn't listened to the American people. And he hasn't listened to the Iraqi people. He has micromanaged this failure. Four and a half years ago, Madam Speaker, on this floor I stood in this Chamber, along with 295 of my colleagues, to support the resolution authorizing the President to attack Iraq. I regret that vote deeply. And I told my constituents in my district 1 years ago that I made a mistake. Down the street they make no mistakes. They are infallible. I did so because the premise on which we authorized this war was false, the military plan for victory has been weak, and more than 5 years later, this war has made our Nation less safe. We stand ready to vote on a different resolution that could take a significant step towards remedying the historic mistake we made in October of 2002. The troop escalation advocated by President Bush will only widen our involvement in this conflict and put more brave American troops in the middle of a vicious civil war. Voting in favor of the President's escalation plan is an historic error, and I stress the historic nature of this debate because I am a firm believer that history is telling of the future. The history of this war shows that this President cannot form the right policy for victory.”