The comments of Senator Dick Durban and others crossed the line. They were picked up by the Arab press and used as propaganda against America. They instilled fear in Iraqis that, if they cooperated with Americans, if they turned in the terrorists in their neighborhoods, six months down the line, a year down the line, the Democratic party would pull the plug on funding just as Democrats pulled the plug on our allies in Vietnam after most of our military had left the country and they would be slaughtered wholesale just as the South Vietnamese were slaughered.
That has prolonged this war. This has added to the death toll.
In addition, in 1998, Democrats voted for regime change in Iraq and Clinton signed the bill. In 2002 Democrats voted for the war. Over and over from 1996 until late December of 2002, top Democrats warned Saddam was working on weapons of mass destruction. Hillary Clinton said in 2002 Saddam and Al Qaeda were cooperating. Then, after losing the 2002 midterms, after Ramsey Clark and Brian Becker had gone to Egypt and consulted with the Iraqi ambassador to the Arab league, after those two and other radicals had organized the first anti-war protest, Democrats in January of 2003, did a 180. They called Bush a liar for saying exactly what they had been saying about weapons of mass destruction. This wasn't reasoned opposition to the war. This was a rank political move to get an issue for the next election.
This could have been over or much further along than it is a long time ago had Democrats not pulled these political stunts.
They did a disservice to the men and women serving in Iraq. They did engage in political opportunism. They have dragged this out.
