VIDEO: Sen. Robert Byrd on Iraq invasion - Mar. 13, 2003

[Mugsy]

I found the video of Senator Byrd's incredibly prescient speech on the floor of the Senate warning against pending the invasion of Iraq - March 13, 2003 (6 days before the invasion):

Watch video


I posted the full 40 minute video on my blog, and I encourage you to listen to the complete clip, but here are a few highlights:

• “The cost of occupying Iraq has been estimated to be between one and four Billion dollars a month!” … “That’s one to four dollars for every minute since Jesus Christ was born!” … “and these costs do not include the cost of rebuilding Iraq!”


• “What if Saddam goes on the lam?” We could be tied up in Iraq for months hunting him down.


• “It will be up to the US to support 23 million Iraqis” after we leave them without a functioning government.


• There’s the cost of reconstructing Iraq. … “Building roads just to deliver humanitarian relief.” “Providing electricity for hospitals.” “Drinking water.” “Phones.” etc.


• General Shinseki, “who refuses to back down on his estimate of three to five hundred thousand troops needed to secure Iraq. “Now there’s a man who doesn’t break & run!”


• “Gen. Barry McCaffrey estimated the occupation would take five years.”


• “We risk becoming the next Colonial Power to occupy Iraq. Those who greet us as ‘Liberators’ in 2003 may come to view us as ‘interlopers’ in 2004, 2005, 2006, and beyond.”


• “We will have to rearm and rebuild the Iraqi army so they can protect themselves from neighboring nations once they have been weakened. … The Arms Industry must be salivating at the prospect of rebuilding the Iraqi Army from scratch.”


• 4:12:55 – “Our President , back when he was Governor running for the office he now holds, said he sought an end to the peace-keeping missions in the Balkans , but we are now staring in the face of a peace-keeping mission that DWARFS that of the Balkans!” … “I am astonished that a President SO opposed to ‘Nation building’ would then LAUNCH military scenarios that so clearly culminates in that very outcome.”

I recommend watching the full video to see the senator fling his finger at the camera and warn "the viewer, the American taxpayer" that THEY will be stuck holding the bill for the reconstruction of Iraq. Senator Byrd, you will be missed.

[Rhiannon12866]

1. K&R. A prescient statement and an important reminder...

Thanks for posting. :patriot: :kick:

[Mugsy]

2. Needs kicks too.

Thanks for the votes, but w/o "kicks", the video goes unseen. :(

[Rhiannon12866]

3. You're right, that's why I kicked it...

Kicking for exposure. :kick: :fistbump:

[Rhiannon12866]

8. Kicking for the morning crowd!

Rachel Maddow also mentioned this amazing speech in her salute to Senator Byrd, said he considered it one of his proudest moments... :patriot:

[CountAllVotes]

4. Byrd at one of his finest moments!

:kick: & recommend!!

[EFerrari]

5. Sentor Byrd defended Shinseki's estimate of the cost

when the whole Pentagon was on Shinseki's neck.

Bravo, Senator. You both have been vindicated over and over.

[Mugsy]

6. Amazing

You have to stop and remind yourself that this was BEFORE the invasion when listening, and not years after.

[Rhiannon12866]

7. Byrd got it in ways that most others did not...

Though I'm sure that it gave him no great pleasure to have been right. We'll miss his experience and intelligence, among so many other things. ;( :kick: