On Iraq: New Evidence Gordon Smith Gravely Failed Oregon and America

Bipartisan Report on Faulty Pre-War Intelligence Shows Merkley's Good Judgment, Pentagon Experience Sorely Needed in Washington

A bipartisan report released today by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence shows that Senator Gordon Smith blindly followed George Bush, failing to identify that the Administration was misrepresenting the intelligence and the threat from Iraq. Smith said that after listening to the Bush Administration at the time he "without reservations voted for military action." [Los Angeles Times, 7/14/04]

Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley served as a national security analyst in the Pentagon and for Congress, and has the experience and judgment to distinguish between a real threat to national security and a manufactured threat. Senator Ron Wyden and Representatives Darlene Hooley, Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio, and David Wu, were all able to determine that Iraq did not pose a real threat to national security.

"Gordon Smith led us into a war that should never have been authorized and never have been waged," said House Speaker Jeff Merkley "His partisan loyalties blinded him to the reality of the situation. After six of his Republican pro-war colleagues lost their reelection bids, Smith's own political concerns led him to declare that he was 'at the end of his rope.' Smith showed no independence from George Bush when it really counted and he still has no plan to bring our troops home. I opposed this war publicly from the very beginning and I will provide new leadership in Washington D.C. to bring our sons and daughters home."

Merkley is the first senate candidate in the nation to endorse A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, authored by Major General Paul Eaton (U.S. ARMY RET.) former Security Transition Commanding General, Iraq; Dr. Lawrence Korb former Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration; Brigadier General John Johns (U.S. ARMY RET.) specialist in counterinsurgency and nation-building; and Capt. Larry Seaquist (U.S. NAVY) and presented by Washington Congressional candidate Darcy Burner and other House candidates around the country.

From 2002 to 2007, Gordon Smith voted over 20 times to fund and authorize the Iraq war. Despite claiming to oppose the Iraq war in December 2006, Smith voted five times in 2007 to keep troops in Iraq. Smith supports pro-Iraq war presidential candidate John McCain. If elected, McCain has promised to have no timelines to bring troops home from Iraq and keep American soldiers in Iraq indefinitely.

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Posted June 5, 2008
Ending the Iraq War, Press