Sen. Tester's speech on Iraq

I know we’d all probably rather be camping or fishing n spending time with our families and enjoying the Montana summer.

But, today, it is important as Americans to take some time to remember the men and women in uniform fighting on our behalf around the world that don’t have that choice n and haven’t for some time.

I think it’s important that we take time out of our day n to consider theirs.

Particularly as we celebrate Independence Day, I want to thank everyone who has served our country. Many of you are here today, many more are currently serving around the globe.

Without the sacrifices and commitments made by our men and women in uniform, this country would be a very different place. We owe our freedom to our troops, past and present.

And that’s why I’m here to speak to you today.

The war in Iraq has dominated this country’s dialogue and conscience for five long years.

More than 3,500 brave American soldiers, airmen and Marines, including 20 Montanans have made the ultimate sacrifice. These men and women will not come home.

They are our friends. Our neighbors. Our brothers, our sisters. Our parents. Our children.

The Iraq war is costing you and this country more than two billion dollars every week n that’s one-hundred thousand dollars every minute of every hour of every day.

Like many of you, one of the most difficult things for me is the struggle in my heart. I balance two seemingly contradictory ideas. I stand here today proud to support our men and woman in service. And I stand here today proud to say that I adamantly oppose this war. And I believe my neighbors across this state and this country stand with me, struggle with me, in supporting the brave American troops fighting a war I so adamantly oppose.

I lie awake trying to think of ways to give our troops the resources they need to be safe and successful in Iraq. But all the while, trying to bring them home to their families, friends and communities.

Let me be clear about this: the men and women fighting this war have my full and unconditional support as a Montanan, an American and a U.S. Senator. They have performed their jobs with honor and distinction in the most difficult conditions imaginable.

I have supported them since the beginning and I will continue to support them in the field and n just as importantly n after they come home. Something that our nation is falling behind on doing.

For more than two years, I have been asking the president to develop a plan to get us out of Iraq.

I am disappointed to report to you that I no longer believe that President Bush will use any of his remaining 567 days in office to do so.

Think of this n we were told in 2003 that we were invading Iraq for the following three reasons:

1) To find and destroy weapons of mass destruction

2) To topple Saddam Hussein’s regime

3) And to give the Iraqi people the chance to establish their own government

While certainly no weapons of mass destruction were found, ANY infrastructure that may have been in place to create such weapons has been destroyed.

Saddam Hussein’s government has been dissolved and an evil dictator has been captured and killed.

The Iraqi people have voted on several occasions on their government, their constitution, and their future.

Our work in Iraq is done.

It’s time for American troops to stop refereeing a centuries-old civil war and come home after a job well done.

The president has not come up with a plan to bring the troops home. Instead, he jeopardized their funding, their equipment and their training by vetoing legislation that would have funded those vital needs, and begun the process of getting them home.

The president uses our fighting men and women as pawns in a political game that is dividing our own people at home. That is unacceptable.

President Bush’s intention is clear n to leave our troops in the middle of a bloody civil war until he leaves office.

Today, I am announcing that I can no longer give the President the benefit of the doubt that he will end the Iraq war.

I am going to take a moment today to share with you my thoughts on a possible three-point plan that I hope will bring the war in Iraq closer to an end, make our troops safer around the world and refocus our efforts on those terrorists who attacked our nation on September 11th.

First, we must protect the mental and physical health of our troops. We all know a neighbor or a friend whose son or daughter has been deployed two, three or even four times, with seemingly no time to rest at home.

I will support legislation currently authored by my friend Senator Jim Webb of Virginia that deals with readiness. Senator Webb is a Marine, a Vietnam veteran who was awarded the Navy Cross, the Silver Star Medal, two Bronze Star Medals, and two Purple Hearts.

I trust his judgment and counsel and believe me when I say he knows this stuff cold.

I could read his bill to you, but the basics are this:

If you’re going to send a unit to war, make damn sure they’re well-trained, well-rested and ready for the fight.

It’s very simple. More and longer deployments of units with less time to rest and recuperate between means we’re going to see more casualties in Iraq and more cases of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and suicide at home.

Let’s think twice before we let the president send a unit to this war or any of the world’s hot spots without the proper training and time between deployments.

The strength and long-term health of our armed forces is at stake.

This war has taken its toll on our readiness n if we don’t start now to rebuild and fortify our troops, we will not be able to effectively go after the bad guys that continue to threaten our national security.

Second, we must redouble our efforts in Afghanistan. Afghanistan threatens to slide back from the progress that was made there immediately following the attacks of September 11th.

But the war in Afghanistan is rapidly and dangerously becoming the forgotten war, and our lack of effort there helps to explain the rise of al-Qaeda in a nuclear and highly volatile Pakistan.

The link between the 9-11 attacks and the current war in Iraq does not exist, period. Never has.

Reports confirm that our invasion of Iraq has created more terrorists than it has eliminated. Yet, the terrorist who plotted the most deadly attack on U.S. soil, Osama bin Laden, remains at large and ignored by this administration.

The last few days in England and Scotland are a grim reminder that the threat of world terrorism is still very real. While we pour our resources into policing violence in Iraq, extremists are busy plotting ways to target us n and our allies.

It’s that kind of terrorism n and that kind of extremism n we need to set our sights on. We need to do it with the full might and vigilance of our military and other security forces. And we must do it while working to regain the trust of so many allies that have become wary of us, under the President’s leadership.

And unlike Iraq, we must not ask the U.S. military to shoulder the entire burden in Afghanistan by themselves. The United States can and should be leaders in the war against terrorism, but we cannot go it alone.

We have an obligation to our troops and their familes to regain the diplomatic footing we have lost and involve our allies in this effort.

We have lost focus on the War on Terrorism, we must regain it.

Finally, I am announcing today that I will support deauthorizing the 2002 use-of-force resolution.

The resolution that Congress passed in 2002 is tragically outdated.

The mission in Iraq today is not the mission that the Congress authorized five years ago. The President needs to ask Congress and the American people for approval to prosecute what seems to be a very different mission in Iraq.

Proposed legislation to deauthorize the 2002 resolution would make a few things crystal clear.

Our current mission in Iraq is over on October 11th, 2007. Let me repeat that; the war in Iraq is over on October 11th of this year.

After that, the president would have to make a new case for a new mission, one that more accurately reflects what U.S. troops are now doing in Iraq. If he cannot make that case to Congress and the American people, then our troops need to come home.

Now we understand that al-Qaeda is going to try and exploit the situation in Iraq for their own purposes. And there are measures we can take to deal with that.

We must not let Iraqi al-Qaeda units get a foothold in the country, especially in the western part of Iraq.

So I would support a no-fly zone in Iraq, which will ensure that the United States and our allies can keep reconnaissance eyes on efforts to restart terrorist training camps.

To fight the growing number of terrorist camps, we will need warships in the area, and aircraft that can reach those al-Qaeda targets. We must not hesitate to strike against al Qaeda targets.

The safety of this country and the world depends on that.

And we’ll need to continue to improve our ability to gather intelligence on the ground in Iraq.

But we will not need, and I will not support, U.S. troops policing the civil war between Sunni and Shiite militias.

And I will not support Montanans guarding bridges and disarming roadside bombs.

It’s in our national interest to fight al-Qaeda, but not this civil war.

The mission in Iraq has changed and the American people realize it. It’s time the president did as well.

In February of this year, I said the president must tell the American people what success means and how it should be quantified.

If success means free elections in Iraq, then we should have been gone two years ago.

If success means toppling Saddam Hussein, then we should have been gone three years ago.

If it means something else, then the administration needs to be honest with the American people and identify a clear and achievable outcome. At this point, that has not happened. Enough is enough.

For two years, as a state senator, a candidate for U.S. Senate, a senator-elect and a U.S. Senator, I have given the commander-in-chief the benefit of the doubt that he would tell the Congress and the American people how to define success in Iraq and how he meant to achieve it.

He has not done so.

The president refuses to support our troops by keeping them in the middle of a civil war with no end in sight. They fight every day in a war with no plan and no definition of success.

And most importantly, they are dying everyday in a war that the American people do not want to be fighting. We and our troops deserve better. They deserve the truth.

And since the president refuses to support our troops by developing a plan to bring them home, then we must n and we will.

But I cannot do this alone. I ask you, my fellow Montanans, to stand with me. This country is the best of democracies. It is a nation where every citizen has a voice. I ask you to join me in using your voice and telling your friends, your family and your neighbors that it is time to end this war and bring our troops home.

Tell them that we must stand by our soldiers and support them wholeheartedly until we can get them home. This is going to take all Americans calling, writing, and demanding that the President change course, admit a mistake, and end the war in Iraq.

Before I go, I want to talk for a few minutes about a very special group of people, many of whom are with us here today.

There are so many things that make me proud to be Montana’s U.S. Senator. It’s an amazing thing to wake up every day and go to work for 930,000 Montanans. Some who voted for me, some voted against me and some didn’t vote at all.

But nothing makes me more proud than serving on the Senate Veteran’s Affairs Committee. More than 108,000 vets call Montana their home. Only Alaska has a higher population per capita.

We couldn’t be more proud, as Montanans, that so many of our neighbors are veterans.

But as a nation, we’re not doing anywhere near an acceptable job of taking care of this country’s veterans. We’ve all heard the stories about long lines, run-down hospitals and vets who can’t get access to the quality care they deserve.

Every day, this war creates more veterans.

And each year, those same veterans, young and old, are forced to come to congress, hat in hand, and beg for funding because Washington has not made funding for veterans health care permanent and mandatory.

This war is creating a new kind of American veteran. Improvised Explosive Devices are causing previously unseen, more severe injuries. PTSD is rampant. Suicide is not only on the rise, but unchecked and undocumented.

Congress and the administration must adapt and adapt quickly.

When I first got to Washington, I was surprised to learn that the previous Congress left town without passing a bill to fund the VA. To me, that’s a slap in the face to all those who served. Great nations keep their promises to their heroes.

And I’m proud to say that one of the first votes I took was to fund the VA with a $3.6 billion increase over last year. That’s a good start, but I know more needs to be done.

It is to those 108,000 Montanans and the 24 million veterans alive today that we owe not only our freedom but the right we have as Americans not just to oppose this war but support the troops fighting in it.

And it is on behalf of those troops, and those who fought before them, that I speak to you today and I will fight in Washington tomorrow. And for every tomorrow until our troops start coming home from Iraq.

I have given the president every opportunity to prove he is committed to bring our troops home quickly and safely. The country cannot wait any longer.

Thank you.

Today (July 3rd, 2007) 11:00 am from the Steps of the State Capital

it makes me proud that i voted for him. even though he is still rockin' a flat top

Way to go John! Now get a haircut, or grow it out a bit more!