Merkley: Does Gordon Smith Believe the Mission Was Accomplished
Five Years After Bush's "Mission Accomplished" Speech, Smith Still Calls Military Mission Success
Tomorrow marks the 5th anniversary of President Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, when he declared major combat operations complete in Iraq. Republican Gordon Smith agreed with the President and maintains to this day that the military mission in Iraq was accomplished.
After six Republican senators lost their seats in the November 2006 election, Smith gave a speech on the Senate floor where he called the start of the war a mistake, but refused to take any position on the continuation of the war. Or, more precisely, he took every position, calling on the President to either dramatically increase the number of troops, stay the course, or cut and run.
Smith also restated that the mission was accomplished:
Lest anyone thinks I believe we have failed militarily, please understand I believe when President Bush stood in front of "mission accomplished" on an aircraft carrier that, in purely military terms, the mission was accomplished in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
--Gordon Smith, Congressional Record, 12/7/06, p. S-11451
"More 3,900 American service members have died and nearly 30,000 have been wounded since George Bush and Gordon Smith first declared that our mission was accomplished," said House Speaker Jeff Merkley. "Gordon Smith was wrong to support the invasion of Iraq with no plan, wrong five years ago when he said 'Mission Accomplished', wrong in 2006 when he maintained that our mission was accomplished, and wrong today to continue this war and insist that American troops police Iraq's religious civil war."
Since May 1, 2003
3,913 American service members died in Iraq. [iCasualties.org, as of 4/21/08]
29,256 American service members wounded in Iraq. [iCasualties.org, as of 4/15/08]
$555.3 billion (at least) of American taxpayer dollars spent on the war. [Brookings, 4/24/08]
$2.00 per gallon increase in the price of gas [Energy Information Administration, as of 4/21/08]
$90 per barrel increase in the price of oil [Energy Information Administration, as of 4/24/08]
Posted April 30, 2008
Press
Jeff Merkley was born in the small town of Myrtle Creek, Oregon, the son of a sawmill worker. He's fought hard for working families in Oregon and he's ready to help lead America.
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