Quote from james_bond_3rd:
Listen to Webb's response:
"With respect to foreign policy, this country has patiently endured a
mismanaged war for nearly four years. Many, including myself, warned
even before the war began that it was unnecessary, that it would take
our energy and attention away from the larger war against terrorism,
and that invading and occupying Iraq would leave us strategically
vulnerable in the most violent and turbulent corner of the world.
I want to share with all of you a picture that I have carried with me
for more than 50 years. This is my father, when he was a young Air
Force captain, flying cargo planes during the Berlin Airlift. He sent
us the picture from Germany, as we waited for him, back here at home.
When I was a small boy, I used to take the picture to bed with me
every night, because for more than three years my father was deployed,
unable to live with us full-time, serving overseas or in bases where
there was no family housing. I still keep it, to remind me of the
sacrifices that my mother and others had to make, over and over again,
as my father gladly served our country. I was proud to follow in his
footsteps, serving as a Marine in Vietnam. My brother did as well,
serving as a Marine helicopter pilot. My son has joined the
tradition, now serving as an infantry Marine in Iraq.
Like so many other Americans, today and throughout our history, we
serve and have served, not for political reasons, but because we love
our country. On the political issues - those matters of war and peace,
and in some cases of life and death - we trusted the judgment of our
national leaders. We hoped that they would be right, that they would
measure with accuracy the value of our lives against the enormity of
the national interest that might call upon us to go into harm's way.
We owed them our loyalty, as Americans, and we gave it. But they owed
us - sound judgment, clear thinking, concern for our welfare, a
guarantee that the threat to our country was equal to the price we
might be called upon to pay in defending it.
The President took us into this war recklessly. He disregarded
warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War,
the chief of staff of the army, two former commanding generals of the
Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq, the director of
operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many, many others with
great integrity and long experience in national security affairs. We
are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable - and predicted
- disarray that has followed.
The war's costs to our nation have been staggering.
Financially.
The damage to our reputation around the world.
The lost opportunities to defeat the forces of international terrorism.
And especially the precious blood of our citizens who have stepped
forward to serve.
The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is
being fought; nor does the majority of our military. We need a new
direction. Not one step back from the war against international
terrorism. Not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility
of further chaos. But an immediate shift toward strong
regionally-based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off the
streets of Iraq's cities, and a formula that will in short order allow
our combat forces to leave Iraq.
...
As I look at Iraq, I recall the words of former general and soon-to-be
President Dwight Eisenhower during the dark days of the Korean War,
which had fallen into a bloody stalemate. "When comes the end?" asked
the General who had commanded our forces in Europe during World War
Two. And as soon as he became President, he brought the Korean War to
an end.
These Presidents took the right kind of action, for the benefit of the
American people and for the health of our relations around the world.
Tonight we are calling on this President to take similar action, in
both areas. If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be
showing him the way."
