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Thank you, Mr. President. It's a pleasure to be on the floor of the
Senate today with my friend and colleague from Indiana. I have often
felt that events around the world and particularly in Iraq would have
gone so much better if those in the position to make policy for our
country had listened to his wise council and advice.
It is not often that I find myself in disagreement with my friend but
on this occasion, I do. I rise, Mr. President, to express my
opposition to the nomination of Condoleezza Rice and her proposed
promotion to that position of Secretary of State, not because I object
to her personally-I do not. Not because I oppose the mission of
establishing freedom and democracy in Iraq-on the contrary, I support
it. But because I believe that she has been a principle architect of
policy errors that have tragically undermined our prospects for
success in this endeavor. Those in charge must be held accountable
for mistakes; we must learn from them, correct them, so that we may
succeed in Iraq.
Mr. President, if the President of the United States will not do this,
then those in the Senate must. The list of errors is lengthy and
profound and unfortunately many could have been avoided if Dr. Rice
and others had only listened to the counsel offered from both sides of
the aisle. From the beginning of this undertaking, we have had
inadequate troop strength to accomplish the mission. The mission was,
of course, not to simply realize regime change in Iraq, but instead to
recognize and accomplish nation building at its most profound. We
have violated a fundamental tenant of planning for war, which is plan
for the worst and hope for the best. Instead all too often in Iraq,
we have hoped for the best, instead we are reaping the worst.
The advice to have greater troop strength was not partisan. Our
colleagues Senator McCain, Senator Hagel and others virtually pleaded
with the Administration to provide for greater security through
greater troop strength on the ground. Those pleas, Mr. President,
fell on deaf ears. We have never had a realistic plan for the
aftermath of this conflict. The State Department made plans, they
were disregarded; the CIA warned of the potential for a growing
insurgency, their concerns were dismissed; Senator Lugar held hearings
that were prescient in this regard, pointing out the importance of
planning for the aftermath and the inadequacy of the preparation for
the aftermath before the war. The results of those hearings were
ignored.
Mr. President, this is no ordinary incompetence. Men and women are
dying as a result of these mistakes-accountability must be had. We
dismissed the Iraqi Army. In my trip to Iraq in December, one of the
top-ranking officials told me that things would be 100% better-100%
better-if we had only not dismissed the Iraqi Army, not the Generals,
not the human rights violators, not those who should be held
accountable for their own actions, but the privates, the corporals,
the sergeants, the lieutenants, the captains, those who should be on
our side providing for stability and safety in Iraq, and now
tragically are being paid to kill Americans. Because we sent them
home and said that they had no future in the Iraq that we were hoping
to build.
Likewise, we disqualified all former Baathists from serving, even in
lower levels of the bureaucracy in that country. They could've helped
us run the nation. They could've helped us reassure the Sunni
community that we wanted to incorporate them in the future of Iraq.
Instead, many of them are fighting us today as well.
All of these mistakes, Mr. President, have substantially undermined
our prospects for success and tragically so. The chaos that has
arisen from the lack of security and stability has fed this
insurgency. I asked one of our top ranking officials in Iraq in
December, which was growing more quickly, our ability to train Iraqis
to combat the insurgency or the insurgency itself? His two-answer
response: "the insurgency."
Unfortunately, Mr. President, in some regards we have even succeeded
in discrediting the very cause for which we are fighting and dying
today. I listened intently to the President's Inaugural Address on
the steps of this Capitol in which he spoke repeatedly about the need
to advocate freedom and liberty and democracy around the world, not
only because it is in our interest, but because it is in the interest
of peace and stability across the world as a whole. And in that
regard, he is right, but I couldn't help but recall the words of a
member of the Iraqi Electoral Commission, a Turkman from Kirkuk, who
finally looked at me in Baghdad and said, "Senator, you do not
understand. For too many of my people, when they hear the word
democracy, they think violence, they think disorder, they think death
and economic disintegration." It doesn't get much sadder than that,
Mr. President.
It's heartbreaking that the sacrifices that have been made, the
idealism of our troops, America's prospects for success in Iraq, our
very standing in the world have too often been undercut by ineptitude
at the highest levels of our own government. I think of a visit six
months ago with some of our colleagues to Walter Reid Army Hospital to
visit with some of the soldiers who have returned. They are
constantly on my mind. I think of their idealism, their heroism,
their perseverance in the face of an adversity that those of us who
are not there can hardly imagine. We have a moral obligation to
provide better leadership than that which has been provided in this
conflict. Too often this administration has suggested that the
refusal to admit error, to learn from error, to correct error is a
virtue-when lives or limbs are at stake, it is not.
As a former executive of our own state, I have always believed that
accountability for performance is vitally important to success. If
this president will not provide it, then it's up to those of us in the
Senate to do so. I believe with all of my heart that our country is
strongest when we stand for freedom and democracy. We are attempting
to accomplish the right thing in Iraq. We have been the authors of
much of our own misery. As a result of that, I cannot find it in my
heart or in my mind to vote for a promotion of Dr. Rice.
Accountability is important, Mr. President. I will vote no and urge my
colleagues to do the same.
Thank you and I yield the floor.
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