Jay Inslee: “I appreciate Mr. Larson's leadership on this. I wanted to talk about three hard realities in Iraq. It is very easy…”

“I appreciate Mr. Larson's leadership on this. I wanted to talk about three hard realities in Iraq. It is very easy, tempting when we are in the middle of a struggle, as our Armed Forces are, to forget harsh realities and to become emboldened by the rhetoric that is associated with war. But I think it is very important for us, when our sons and daughters and husbands and wives are there, to just take a very cold, harsh, realistic look at what is really going on in Iraq. This is not a moment for rose-colored glasses. It is a moment for reality. And I want to talk about the three realities in Iraq today, because basically the debate over Iraq is really twofold. One side says that we should just keep doing what we are doing. We will just trust the President to make the decisions as he has made them in Iraq. We won't question them. We won't ask to accelerate them. We won't question the strategy. Congress will just sit back and let George Bush decide what to do in Iraq. Others of us take a different approach that says the status quo is inadequate, that we cannot expect to keep doing the same thing in Iraq and expect a different result. So we believe we need some changes in Iraq. And I want to talk about some three realities about why we need a change, why the status quo is unacceptable, unacceptable in Iraq. Number one, the security situation.…”