Sherrod Brown: “Thank you, Mr. Lantos and Mr. Murtha. Prior to the 2003 invasion, I introduced legislation that would have required the…”

“Thank you, Mr. Lantos and Mr. Murtha. Prior to the 2003 invasion, I introduced legislation that would have required the President to report to Congress on the possible consequences. It would have required the administration to provide a full accounting of the implications for homeland security, the war on terrorism, and regional stability in the Middle East. It would have required the administration to tell us the steps that our country and our allies would take to protect United States soldiers, including providing them adequate body armor. It would have required the President to estimate the full cost associated with military action against Iraq. And it would have required the President to provide an exit strategy, a plan for achieving long-term social, economic, and political stabilization of a postwar Iraq so that we and the troops could tell when we had crossed the finish line. The administration has still not provided answers to the questions many of us asked before the war. Three years later, the Iraq war has cost more than 2,500 American lives and nearly $300 billion, with no end and no plan in sight. Secretary Condoleezza Rice said this war could last for 10 more years. Today's resolution presents a false choice: Support the administration's flawed war policies or concede defeat on the war on terror. We are asked to support Iraq's new Prime Minister in the amnesty, the amnesty he will offer to the insurgents who have attacked and killed U.S. troops.…”