Re: What is the lesson of the Iraq war?

Description: Who attacked us on 9/11?

Transcript:

Well the overarching lesson was don’t go to war unless you’re imminently threatened. That’s don’t commit American troops to battle unless you have also a plan about how you’re going to bring the American troops back, and bring them back victoriously. We . . . And also the lesson is from the 9/11, is who attacked us in 9/11? And shouldn’t we give focus and attention on who attacked us, which was Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, rather than diverting our focus and attention off into a . . . into a different direction. This is the great foreign policy disaster of our time. And the final point I would make is that we are effectively outsourcing our national security and our foreign policy to Iraqi politicians. We are making an open-ended commitment that Americans are gonna stay there until they get their act together. I do not believe that we ought to commit American servicemen to have them lose their lives, shed their blood in the streets of Baghdad. I don’t think we ought to have an open-endedness in terms of the American tax payer ‘til the Iraqi politicians decide that they want to have reconciliation. Every military leader that has appeared before our committee . . . I’m on the Arms Services Committee and I’ve listened carefully to all of them – General Petraeus, General Casey, I’ve listened to them all. General Nash. I’ve listened to General _________ from Massachusetts – highly decorated Marine. And every one of them say that there’s not the military solution. You have to have military and reconciliation. We have not . . . The military has done everything it’s been asked to do for the last four and a half years. They’ve done it bravely. They’ve done it with courage. They’ve done it with valor. They deserve a policy that recognizes their courage and valor, and this administration does not have one.