Hawaii delegation criticizes Iraq war
Hawaii's U.S. Democratic Reps. Neil Abercrombie and Mazie Hirono spoke out in protest of the war in Iraq yesterday during a three-day marathon debate in the U.S. House on a resolution critical of President Bush's troop buildup.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats said approval on the nonbinding measure would mark the first step in an effort by the new Democratic-controlled Congress to force Bush to change course in a war that has killed more than 3,100 U.S. troops.
Abercrombie called Bush's troop increase "purely political."
"This surge has little to no chance of making a strategic difference in the outcome of the war. It is simply a tactical convulsion by an administration that cannot and will not admit its authorship of the greatest strategic foreign policy folly in our nation's history," Abercrombie said.
This U.S. war in Iraq, Abercrombie said, was a choice and not an immediate need for America.
"It is a catastrophe conceived in ideological zeal, cloaked in misinformation and administered with breathtaking incompetence. It is an outrage that we have not had a single policy in Iraq worthy of our men and women in uniform," Abercrombie said in a floor speech.
Hirono said the war has already lasted longer than World War II.
"We owe it to all the brave men and women who have already sacrificed so much -- over 3,000 of them who made the ultimate sacrifice -- to steer our country on a course that will bring our troops home safely, take care of them and their families when they return and end this war," Hirono said.
The final House vote is expected today.