Donald M. Payne: “as a strong opponent of the war in Iraq from the very beginning, I welcome the change in leadership at the Department of…”

“as a strong opponent of the war in Iraq from the very beginning, I welcome the change in leadership at the Department of Defense. After years of hearing shifting rationales for the preemptive military strike launched by the Bush administration, the American public deserves a realistic evaluation of the conflict which has cost thousands of American and Iraqi lives. It was sobering to hear Robert Gates, the nominee for Secretary of Defense, acknowledge yesterday that we are not winning the war in Iraq despite repeated reassurances to the contrary by the former Defense Secretary. Those of us who made the case in October of 2002 that we should not rush to war until the weapons inspectors had completed their work are deeply saddened that this unnecessary war has taken such a heavy toll and diminished the standing of the United States around the world. I look forward to examining the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group so that we can try to find our way out of this quagmire that was created by the rush to war based on faulty or, even worse, deliberately distorted intelligence.”