Abercrombie wants
inquiry into Iraq war
U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who last year voted against a congressional resolution giving President Bush the authority to use force against Iraq, said an independent investigation of the war is warranted.
Speaking on the floor of the U.S. House on Monday night, Abercrombie said: "There was a pattern already being articulated publicly and in writing to set this nation on a course of imperial attack beginning with Iraq."
Abercrombie, D-Urban Honolulu, said his comments were triggered by the release of information this weekend that the United States began bombing selected targets in Baghdad and other places in Iraq last year in anticipation of a war.
According to a transcript of the Hawaii Democrat's remarks released by his Washington, D.C., office yesterday, Abercrombie said he is concerned about the philosophy, attitude and ideology of those who support the Bush administration.
Abercrombie said those connected with the Bush administration are "determined to start a war in Iraq, to include Syria and Iran, because of the policies that they feel this country should be not only espousing but pursuing in terms of world domination beginning in the Middle East."
Abercrombie is part of a group of House members called "Iraq Watch," which raises questions about Bush's policy such as the threat of the weapons of mass destruction, his office said. The threat was used to win support in Congress and in the country for the invasion of Iraq.
Antiwar groups have called for the creation of an independent, bipartisan commission patterned after one that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Their drive has been aided by disclosures by the Bush administration in recent weeks that the president's State of the Union speech in January should not have mentioned that the British had "learned" Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Africa for a nuclear weapons program.