Pete Sessions: “any American I know should be, and is, vitally interested in what is happening in Iraq and what our policy should be.…”

“any American I know should be, and is, vitally interested in what is happening in Iraq and what our policy should be. There is no doubt that good people can disagree about how we should handle this important and difficult situation. Nobody's patriotism should be questioned in this process. But I would urge that these disagreements that might be expressed be expressed in ways that minimize the negative impact on what may be, and will be the decided policy of the United States. In other words, we need to be sure that as we conduct this debate--we have a policy in this country, and we need to make sure that we execute it in a way that most likely will provide us a method of success. Let me recap the history of how we got here because I think it is important. By more than a three-fourths vote, 77 Senators in this body authorized the use of military force in Iraq. The initial invasion and removal of Saddam Hussein went well, surprisingly well--better than most would ever have expected. But the postinvasion situation has been much more difficult than expected. My personal view, for what it is worth--and it may not be worth much--is that we underestimated the difficulties of establishing a functioning democracy in an undeveloped nation that had deep sectarian divides, that had no history of law or democracy, and that had been traumatized by years of oppression in a war.”