Today marks the 15th anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War and occupation. In case you've forgotten what happened, or were just 4 years old or so and not paying attention when it did, the rationale for that authorization was fabricated at the highest reaches of U.S. leadership in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks.
First came the lies—so many, it was impossible to keep up with them. Then came the shock and awe, the crudely invented Iraqi jubilation, the extraordinary renditions, the secret prisons, the indefinite detentions, the relentless torture, the deluge of unaccounted-for cash, the no-bid contracts, the flaccid media, the spectacle of "mission accomplished," the lousy armor, the occupation ...
The endless flow of blood.
Deiniah Stewart places a rose at the grave site of a loved one at Section 60 on Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, Monday, May 27, 2013. Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are buried in Section 60.
There is now a long list of the dead who would not be dead were it not for this war of choice initiated out of bravado, rancid ideology, and doctored "evidence." Thousands of dead Americans and allied troops. And, at the very least, 120,000 dead Iraqis—and more likely several hundred thousand.
Not that Saddam Hussein's dictatorship had anything to do with that attack. But September 11 was a handy justification. Add to it the menace of weapons of mass destruction that Hussein was said to have stashed in abundance, and war fever spread easily. Take a poll today and it will probably show a hefty percentage of Americans still believe the Iraqi leader collaborated with the hijackers.
In the year-long run-up to the war that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had wanted to undertake first instead of Afghanistan, a great effort was made to prove that Hussein, once a helpmate of the CIA, was still making or trying to make chemical and biological weapons, as well as nukes. Ignored was the work of Hans Blix, the chief U.N. inspector looking for, but not finding evidence of, nukes being made in Iraq. Indeed, ignored was all the countervailing evidence.
Then came the spectacle of Codpiece George, strutting on the deck of an aircraft carrier like the fighter pilot he never was, smirking beneath a "Mission Accomplished" banner. And two months later came the spectacle of Rumsfeld, as the casualties rose, demanding that a slightly awakened media stop telling everyone that an insurgency was growing in Iraq. Pure nonsense, no insurgents, he said. There was Dan Senor, speaking for the Provisional Coalition Authority in Iraq, saying in public that everything was hunky-dory while saying in private that a disaster was unfolding. There was looting, feuding, and ethnic cleansing, the thievery of both professionals and amateurs.
There were the unpublicized flights of American bodies into Dover Air Force Base.
Deaths in any war are terrible enough. Deaths in a war of choice, a concocted war, an illegal “preventive” war, count as nothing short of murder. The list of the maimed, the widowed, the orphaned, the psychologically ruined adds to the horror.
Before George W. Bush was voted 5-4 by the Supreme Court into the presidency, those who would soon lie us into this war were already plotting their justification for sinking deeper military and economic roots into the Middle East—petropolitics and neo-imperialist sophistry interlaced with arrogant disdain for Iraqis and Americans alike. When they stepped into office together with the mediocrity they had chosen to elevate and manipulate, terrorism gave them no worries, as Richard Clarke later explained to us. They focused, as former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill later informed us, on finding the right excuse to persuade the American people to go to war with Hussein. This they perceived and planned as a prelude for going to war with some of his neighbors. Less than nine months later, the excuse dropped into their laps in the form of Osama bin Laden's kamikaze crews in the skies of New York, D.C., and Pennsylvania.
Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division and Iraqi Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 19th Brigade, 5th Division, detonate firebombs with the intention of burning the underbrush.
From that terrible day forward, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and their compatriot rogues engineered the invasion with eager nods from Bush. They saw the chance to carry out their invasion plan and moved every obstacle—most especially the truth—out of their way to make it happen.
It didn't have to be that way. They could have been blocked. Due diligence and some spinal fortitude in Congress might have stopped the war in its tracks. But in October 2002, the Senate and the House voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution. Five months and one week later, the pre-invasion bombs began falling on Baghdad.
The blame for this is widespread. But when remembering how we got into Iraq in the first place, we typically forget those who voted against the formal authorization to do what certain high muckety-mucks wanted done at that nervous and angry moment in our history.
On this 15th anniversary of the beginning of the war and its series of atrocities, the 156 Congress members and senators who voted against the AUMF deserve to be remembered and lauded. This isn't meant as praise for everything they ever did before or since, but merely acknowledgment that, on this, they were right when so many were very, very wrong.
Before the vote, many good speeches were given in opposition to the resolution those Congress members opposed. On the day of the Senate vote, Oct. 11, 2002, the single post appearing on the 5-month-old Daily Kos was given over to the entire speech that Democartic Rep. Pete Stark of California had given in the House before its vote on the AUMF on Oct. 10. You can read an excerpt from that speech below. But first, here’s the roster of those men and women who voted not to give G.W. Bush the green light for shooting up a country that had nothing to do with 9/11:
In the Senate:
Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Robert Byrd (D-WV), Jon Corzine (D-NJ), Kent Conrad D-ND), Mark Dayton (D-MN), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Bob Graham (D-FL), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Carl Levin (D-MI), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Patty Murray (D-WA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Paul Wellstone (D-MN), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Jim Jeffords (I-VT).
In the House:
Neil Abercrombie (D-HI 1st), Tom Allen (D-ME 11st), Joe Baca (D-CA 42nd), Brian Baird (D-WA 3th), John Baldacci (D-ME 2nd), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI 2nd), Xavier Becerra (D-CA 30th), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR 3rd), David Bonoir (D-MI 10th), Robert Brady (D-PA 1st), Corrine Brown (D-FL 3rd), Sherrod Brown (D-OH 13th), Lois Capps (D-CA 22nd), Michael E. Capuano (D-MA 8th), Ben Cardin (D-MD 3rd), Julia Carson (D-IN 10th), William Lacy Clay, Jr. (D-MO 1st), Eva Clayton (D-NC 1st), James Clyburn (D-SC 6st), Gary Condit (D-CA 18th), John Conyers (D-MI 14st), Jerry Costello (D-IL 12th), William Coyne (D-PA 14th), Elijah Cummings (D-MD 7st).
Susan Davis (D-CA 49th), Danny K. Davis (D-IL 7th), Peter DeFazio (D-OR 4th), Diana DeGette (D-CO 1st), William Delahunt (D-MA 10th), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT 3rd), John Dingell (D-MI) 15th, Lloyd Doggett (D-TX 25th), Mike Doyle (D-PA 18th), John James Duncan, Jr. (R-TN 2nd)Anna Eshoo (D-CA 14th), Lane Evans (D-IL 17th), Sam Farr (D-CA 17th), Chaka Fattah (D-PA 2nd), Bob Filner (D-CA 50th), Barney Frank (D-MA 4th), Charlie Gonzalez (D-TX 20th), Luis Gutierrez (D-IL 4th), Alcee Hastings (D-FL 23rd), Earl F. Hilliard (D-AL 7th), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY 22nd), Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX 15th), Rush Holt (D-NJ 12th), Mike Honda (D-CA 15th), Darlene Hooley (D-OR 5th), John Hostettler (R-IN 8th), Amo Houghton (R-NY 29th).
Jay Inslee (D-WA 1st), Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL 2nd), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX 18th), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX 30th), Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH 11th), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH 9th), Dale E. Kildee (D-MI 5th), Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-MI 13th), Jerry Kleczka (D-WI 4th), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH 10th), John LaFalce (D-NY 29th), James R. Langevin (D-RI 2nd), Rick Larsen (D-WA 2nd), John Larson (D-CT 1st), Jim Leach (R-IA 1st), Barbara Lee (D-CA 9th), Sander Levin (D-MI 12th), John Lewis (D-GA 5th), William Lipinski (D-IL 3rd), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA 16th).
James H. Maloney (D-CT 5th), Robert Matsui (D-CA 5th), Karen McCarthy (D-MO 3rd), Betty McCollum (D-MN 4th), Jim McDermott (D-WA 7th), James McGovern (D-MA 3rd), Cynthia McKinney (D-GA 4th), Carrie P. Meek (D-FL 17th), Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY 6th), Bob Menendez (D-NJ 6th), Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-CA 37th), George Miller (D-CA 7th), Alan Mollohan (D-WV 1st), Jim Moran (D-VA 8th), Connie Morella (R-MD 8th), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY 8th), Grace Napolitano (D-CA 34th), Richard E. Neal (D-MA 2nd), James Oberstar (D-MN 8th), David Obey (D-WI7th), John Olver (D-MA 1st), Major Owens (D-NY 11th), Frank Pallone (D-NJ 6th), Ed Pastor (D-AZ 2nd), Ron Paul (R-TX 14th).
Donald Payne (D-NJ 10th), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA 8th), David Price (D-NC 4th), Nick Rahall (D-WV 3rd), Charles Rangel (D-NY 15th), Silvestre Reyes (D-TX 16th), Lynn Nancy Rivers (D-MI 13th), Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX 23rd), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA 33rd), Bobby Rush (D-IL 1st), Martin Olav Sabo (D-MN 5th), Loretta Sanchez (D-CA 46th), Bernie Sanders (I-VT At Large), Thomas C. Sawyer (D-OH 13th), Janice D. Schakowsky (D-IL 9th), Robert C. Scott (D-VA 3rd), José E. Serrano (D-NY 16th, Louise Slaughter (D-NY 28th), Vic Snyder (D-AR 2nd), Hilda Solis (D-CA 31st).
Pete Stark (D-CA 13th), Ted Strickland (D-OH 6th), Bart Stupak (D-MI 1st), Mike Thompson (D-CA 1st), Bennie Thompson (D-MS 2nd), John Tierney (D-MA 6th), Edolphus Towns (D-NY 10th), Mark Udall (D-CO 2nd), Tom Udall (D-NM 3rd), Nydia Velazquez (D-NY 12th), Peter Visclosky (D-IN 1st), Maxine Waters (D-CA 35th), Diane Watson (D-CA 32nd), Mel Watt (D-NC 12th), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA 6th), David Wu (D-OR 1st).
An excerpt from Rep. Pete Stark’s speech opposed to the authorization to use force in Iraq:
Pete Stark
It sets a precedent for our nation—or any nation—to exercise brute force anywhere in the world without regard to international law or international consensus.
Congress must not walk in lockstep behind a President who has been so callous to proceed without reservation, as if war was of no real consequence.
You know, three years ago in December, Molly Ivins, an observer of Texas politics, wrote: "For an upper-class white boy, Bush comes on way too hard. At a guess, to make up for being an upper-class white boy."
"Somebody," she said, "should be worrying about how all this could affect his handling of future encounters with some Saddam Hussein." How prophetic, Ms. Ivins.
Let us not forget that our President—our Commander in Chief—has no experience with, or knowledge of, war. In fact, he admits that he was at best ambivalent about the Vietnam War. He skirted his own military service and then failed to serve out his time in the National Guard. And, he reported years later that at the height of that conflict in 1968 he didn’t notice "any heavy stuff going on."
So we have a President who thinks foreign territory is the opponent’s dugout and Kashmir is a sweater.
What is most unconscionable is that there is not a shred of evidence to justify the certain loss of life. Do the generalized threats and half-truths of this Administration give any one of us in Congress the confidence to tell a mother or father or family that the loss of their child or loved one was in the name of a just cause?
Is the President’s need for revenge for the threat once posed to his father enough to justify the death of any American?
I submit the answer to these questions is no.
Aside from the wisdom of going to war as Bush wants, I am troubled by who pays for his capricious adventure into world domination. ...
The questions before the Members of this House and to all Americans are immense, but there are clear answers. America is not currently confronted by a genuine, proven, imminent threat from Iraq. The call for war is wrong.
And what greatly saddens me at this point in our history is my fear that this entire spectacle has not been planned for the well being of the world, but for the short-term political interest of our President.
Now, I am also greatly disturbed that many Democratic leaders have also put political calculation ahead of the President’s accountability to truth and reason by supporting this resolution.
But, I conclude that the only answer is to vote no on the resolution before us.”
To Congressman Stark, and the other 155, wherever you are: thank you.
