Barbara Lee joins up with Ron Paul

[ProSense]

50. Congresswoman Barbara Lee: It's Finally Over!

It's Finally Over!

by Congresswoman Barbara Lee

This holiday season, our nation can relish the return of our brave men and women in uniform from Iraq. One-hundred five months after the infamously non-existent weapons of mass destruction issue was used by President George W. Bush to justify an invasion of Iraq, we are marking the end of a massively costly endeavor that should have never happened in the first place.

Some have called the war in Iraq a “mistake,” but that label does not do justice to the sacrifices our nation’s warriors have made over the past eight years. Far from a mistake or an accident, the Bush administration deliberately manipulated the media, Congress, and the American public into entering a war with a country that posed no immediate threat to our own. This decision so far has cost over $800 billion and the lives of 4,483 service men and women.

Congress has had countless opportunities to end this war and save the lives of many thousands of Americans and Iraqis. When on October 10, 2002 the House considered a measure to authorize the war in Iraq, I offered an amendment to the bill that would have allowed the United Nations to resolve the claim that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction. Unfortunately, under the threat of a non-existent smoking gun and an evoked mushroom cloud, the Bush administration convinced enough of my colleagues in Congress to vote down the amendment, choosing military invasion over diplomacy.

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It was not always popular to speak out against the war. We saw the tide shift decidedly in favor of ending the war and this shift culminated in Barack Obama’s election, based in no small part on his promise to end the war in Iraq. Yet even as late as this fall, the true end of the Iraq war was in doubt. We pushed to ensure that the White House lived up to its commitment to end the war and it was a victory for the movement that President Obama fulfilled his campaign promise.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/15/1045615/-Its-Finally-Over!