President Bush has recklessly squandered more than 200 years of American leadership, good will, and prosperity. If that is what he was aiming for when he took office, then he can claim "Mission Accomplished."
-Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), April 30, 2008
The Senate passed FY 2009 Defense Appropriations bill the Senate last Tuesday by a vote of 88-8. The margin of passage tells me two things: 1) it was a largely bipartisan bill; 2) a few people had serious objections to its content, and these objections were based on immutable principles.
Among these eight senators were 5 Republicans, 2 Democrats, and 1 socialist (Go Vermont!).
I'm sure the senators opposed the bill for different ideological reasons. Some probably had a beef with a particular part of the legislation that couldn't be resolved on the floor.
But the presence of one name struck me more than the others.
Allard (R-CO)
Byrd (D-WV)
Coburn (R-OK)
DeMint (R-SC)
Feingold (D-WI)
Graham (R-SC)
Sanders (I-VT)
Vitter (R-LA)
Why did Byrd vote No? This is one man who takes his legislative responsibility more seriously than the other 99 of them combined. In search of a telling reason, I went over to his website. Right below his response to RoboCheney's insulting comments about West Virginia, I found his explanation.
It was over four months old, but the words still hold true. No doubt they echoed in his head as he voted against funding for our irresponsible military adventures abroad.
His words excerpted below:
Byrd Delivers Floor Speech on Eve of 'Mission Accomplished' Anniversary (PDF)
Calls for a "New Chapter in our Nation's History" that Rejects Bush Administration's Reckless and Arrogant Foreign Policy
The President’s declaration of "Mission Accomplished" and the "end of major combat operations" proved wildly premature and dangerously naïve. The complete lack of foresight and planning by the President for what lay ahead became tragically clear in short order. Our nation continues to pay the price every single day. More than 97% of the more than 4000 Americans killed in Iraq lost their lives after the President’s flashy declaration of victory.
...
President Bush has said that history will judge him on his decision to go to war in Iraq. I say that history is already delivering its verdict. It is evident in the strains of the long and multiple deployments that are wearing down our mighty military, and in the suffering of the American people as they bury their fallen heroes. It is evident in the fear and distrust with which the rest of the world views us, and in the instability wracking the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan as a result of the Bush policies.
President Bush has recklessly squandered more than 200 years of American leadership, good will, and prosperity. If that is what he was aiming for when he took office, then he can claim "Mission Accomplished." That is his legacy. As we write the next chapter in our nation’s history, let us commit to building a new legacy that restores the promise of America, both at home and around the world.
And for good measure (H/T Brave New Films):
Let's make sure the American people remember Iraq, just in time for the foreign policy debate tonight. Let's remind them of Bush's murderous mismanagement, McCain's shortsightedness, and the Republicans' numerous exercises in deception. Let's remind them of a brave, prescient voice that warned us about the dangers of committing to a potentially violent, open-ended, unnecessary war...
What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.
What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income - to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression. That's what I'm opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.
-State Sen. Barack Obama, 2002