Held for 12 hours to give Blue Jersey an exclusive.
George W. Bush said tonight that "success in this war is often measured by the things that did not happen." What he apparently doesn't understand is that failure is also measured by that same yardstick.
President Bush said we would be welcomed as liberating heroes, and that didn't happen. President Bush said that we would find remnants of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs, and that didn't happen. President Bush said that Iraqis would set aside sectarian differences to create a civil society, and that didn't happen. President Bush said that if we just "toughed it out" that the insurgency would be defeated and peace would reign, and that didn't happen, either. Now the same person who has been wrong about every other thing that has happened in Iraq is telling us that everything will be fine if we just send a few more thousand American soldiers to serve as targets for sectarian militias.
The President's "new strategy" is limited to a few new lines of rhetoric to describe his failed "stay the course" policy. Oh, and sending 21,500 more American soldiers into harm's way without any clear idea of what they are supposed to achieve or how they would achieve it. One definition of insanity is to try the same thing over and over and hope for different results.
Democrats will not sit by idly and allow this to happen. I specifically requested a seat on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee so I could be sure that someone would hold the Bush Administration responsible for conducting our military affairs in a way that brings honor to our servicemembers and greater security to the American people. My fellow Democrats and I will use all of the parliamentary procedures at our displosal to ensure that President Bush does not waste our resources - including our most precious resource: the lives of our fighting men and women.