Iran

IRAN -- (Senate - February 16, 2007)

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, before I begin discussing the war in Iraq, I wish to say a few words about another issue that is perhaps even more important and that is the constitutional issues at the very heart of this entire debate.

Let me be very frank: I am not a great fan of the Bush administration. And of the many grave concerns I have about President Bush and his actions, at the top of that list is that the President seems not to understand what the Constitution of the United States is all about. Whether it is the consistent attack on our constitutional rights which his administration has pursued for a number of years or his ``signing statements' which attempt to circumvent legislation passed by Congress, the President appears to believe he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants to. That, in my view, is not what the United States of America is all about, and it is not what our Constitution provides for.

In that regard, I wish to inform my colleagues in the Senate that I have submitted a resolution, similar to one introduced by Congressman DeFazio in the House, that makes it very clear the President does not have the constitutional authority to start a war against Iran without the express authority of the Congress. There are many people in my State of Vermont--and there are people all over this country--who are deeply worried that the President may take us into a war in Iran and that he is currently laying the groundwork for that war in exactly the same way he led us into the war in Iraq.

So let me be very clear: If President Bush were to start a war in Iran without receiving the authority to do so from Congress, he would not only be creating, in my view, an international disaster, he would also be creating a major constitutional crisis. I hope very much he does not do that.

President Bush fails to understand the power to declare war under the Constitution is given to the Congress, not the President. My resolution, S. Con. Res. 13, is very simple. It states clearly that it is ``the sense of Congress that the President should not initiate military action against Iran without first obtaining authorization from Congress.' I hope my colleagues will give strong support to this resolution.

Mr. President, in my State of Vermont and all across this Nation, the American people are increasingly concerned about the war in Iraq. As others have stated more eloquently than I, the American people want real debate in Washington, in the Senate, on this issue that is worrying people all across our Nation. More importantly, not only do they want debate, they want action, and they want action now.

Frankly, I have a hard time understanding why some of my colleagues would try, through parliamentary maneuvers, to prevent a vote on what is at best a very modest proposal. This issue is not complicated in terms of what will be taking place tomorrow on this floor. It seems to me that if you support President Bush's escalation of the war in Iraq--and there are many who do--then vote against the resolution. That is your right. On the other hand, if you don't believe that an escalation of this war is a sensible idea--and I certainly do not--then vote for the Reid resolution. But at the very least, there should be a vote. Let the American people know how we stand.

Let me be clear in giving you my perspective on this war: In my view, President Bush's war in Iraq has been a disaster. It is a war we were misled into and a war many of us believe we never should have gotten into in the first place, a war I voted against as a Member of the House. This is a war the administration was unprepared to fight. The administration has shown little understanding of the enemy or the historical context in which we found ourselves.

Who will ever forget President Bush declaring ``mission accomplished' aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln when, in fact, the mission had barely begun. Who will forget Vice President Cheney telling us that the insurgency was ``in its last throes' just before some of the bloodiest months of the war. Who will forget those Bush advisors who predicted the war would be a cakewalk, nothing to worry about, and that we would be greeted in Iraq as liberators.

This war in Iraq has come at a very high price in so many ways. This is a war that has cost us terribly in American blood. As of today, we have lost over 3,100 brave American soldiers. In my own small State of Vermont, we have lost 25. Twenty-three thousand more Americans have been wounded, and tens of thousands will be coming home with posttraumatic stress disorder which will impact their lives forever. This is a war which, with the President's proposed increase in funding, will cost us some $500 billion, with the price tag going up by $8 billion every month. This cost is going to add to the huge national debt we are leaving to our children and our grandchildren and it is going to make it that much more difficult for us to fund health care, education, environmental protection, affordable housing, childcare, and the pressing needs of the middle class and working families of our country which have been so long neglected. Yes, for more military spending; no, for the needs of ordinary Americans who are struggling so hard to keep their heads above water.

This increased expense for the war will make it that much harder for us to fund the needs of our veterans whose numbers are increasing as a result of this war. This is a war which has caused unimaginable horror for the people of Iraq. People who suffered so long under the brutality of the Saddam Hussein dictatorship are suffering even more today. There are estimates that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed or wounded and almost 2 million have been forced to flee their own country, some 8 percent of their entire population. While civil war tears neighborhoods apart, children are without schools, people are without electricity, health care, and other basic necessities of life. The doctors and nurses, teachers and administrators who have provided the professional infrastructure for the people of Iraq are now long gone.

This is a war which has lowered our standing in the international community to an all-time low in our lifetimes, with leaders in democratic countries hesitant to work with us because of the lack of respect their citizens have for our President. Long-time friends and allies are simply wondering: What is going on in the United States of America, that great country? This is a war which has stretched both our Active-Duty military to the breaking point as well as our National Guard and Reserve forces.

Morale in the military is low, and this war will have a lasting impact on the future recruitment, retention, and readiness of our Nation's Armed Forces.

This is a war which has, in many respects, lowered our capability to effectively fight the very serious threats of international terrorism and Islamic extremism. Five years after the horrific attacks of 9/11, Osama bin Laden remains free. Using the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq as their rallying cry, al-Qaida's strength around the world continues to grow. And currently the situation in Afghanistan is becoming more and more difficult.

Tragically, this administration has refused to listen to the American people who, in this last election, made it very clear they want a new direction in Iraq and they want this war wound down. This administration has refused to listen to the thoughtful suggestions of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which included two former Secretaries of State, including President Bush's own father's Secretary of State, as well as a former Presidential Chief Of Staff and a former Secretary of Defense, that it was time for a change of direction. The President didn't listen to them. This administration has refused to listen to the advice of our military leaders in Iraq who told us increasing troops from the United States would make it easier for the Iraqi Government and military to avoid their political and military responsibilities. The more troops that come in, the easier it is for the Iraqi Government to avoid making the political compromises and the tough choices they have to make.

This administration has refused to listen to the Iraqi people, who, according to a number of polls, tell us very strongly that they believe in the midst of all of the chaos and horror taking place in Iraq today, the Iraqi people say they would be safer and more secure if our troops left their country. In fact, this administration has tragically refused to listen to anybody, except that same shrinking inner circle, led by Vice President Cheney, who has been consistently wrong from day one. Those are the people the President continues to listen to.

As most everybody understands, and as the recent National Intelligence Estimate has recently confirmed, the situation in Iraq today is extremely dire. The sad truth is that now there are no good options before us; there are simply less bad options. In Iraq today, according to Secretary of Defense Bob Gates, there are now at least four separate wars being fought--four separate wars that our soldiers, who have fought with incredible bravery and skill, now find themselves in the middle of.

Let me quote Secretary Gates, who has recently stated:

I believe there are essentially four wars going on in Iraq: One is Shia on Shia, principally in the south; second is sectarian conflict, principally in Baghdad, but not solely; third is the insurgency; and fourth is al-Qaida.

The reality today, as described by the Secretary of Defense, has nothing to do with why President Bush got us into this war in the first place. In March of 2002, he told us Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that they were poised to use them against us. That was not true and certainly has no relevance to the war today. In 2002, he told us Iraq was somehow linked to al-Qaida and had some responsibility for the 9/11 attack against our country. That also turned out not to be true and certainly has no relevance today to the situation in which we find ourselves.

In the 2006 elections, the American people, in a loud and unmistakable voice, told us they no longer had confidence in the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq. In my view, they told us they wanted Congress to begin asserting its constitutional authority over this war and that they wanted us to rein in this administration. Most importantly, they told us they wanted us to begin the process of bringing our troops home as soon as possible. And as a Vermont Senator, that is exactly the effort I intend to make.

In my view, the Reid resolution before us is but a small first step at moving us forward. If it is passed--and I hope it will be--it must be followed with much stronger legislation that has real teeth in it. That is what the American people want. I have cosponsored legislation, introduced by Senator Kennedy, that would prohibit the use of funds for an escalation of U.S. military forces without a specific, new authorization from the Congress--a prohibition also included in the legislation introduced by Senator Obama, whose bill I also support.

Instead of just voicing our disapproval of President Bush's escalation of the war in a nonbinding manner, we should now be considering legislation that provides for the safe and orderly redeployment of virtually all of our troops out of Iraq within the next year, even as we continue to give support to the Iraq Government and their military for the purpose of helping them accept their political and military responsibilities. That is the legislation we should be passing.

Senator Feingold has introduced legislation requiring that our troops be redeployed from Iraq within 6 months of passage of the bill. Senator Obama has introduced similar legislation requiring that our troops be redeployed starting this May.

In my view, while I will vote for the Reid resolution tomorrow, and while I think it is terribly important that we bring together a bipartisan effort to tell the President this escalation is wrong, the bottom line is we must go forward well beyond that, and we must do that in the near future. We must exercise the constitutional responsibility we have over the power of the purse.

We are mired in a war that has now gone on longer than any American involvement--longer than American involvement in either the First World War or the Second World War. We will spend more money on this war in real dollars than we spent on either the Korean war or the Vietnam war. Our standing in the international community has declined and our ability to combat international terrorism has been seriously compromised.

It is time to say no to this ill-conceived escalation. It is time to deploy our troops out of harm's way. It is time to end this war and to bring our troops home as soon as we possibly can.

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