Robert Byrd: Iraq War Speech - Part 1 (2003)

March 13, 2003 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.... Watch the full speech: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/10/robert-byrd-iraq-war-speech-2003....

In the 107th Congress, Byrd suffered some legislative setbacks, particularly with respect to debates on homeland security. Byrd opposed the 2002 law creating the Department of Homeland Security, saying it ceded too much authority to the executive branch. He led a filibuster against the resolution granting President George W. Bush broad power to wage a "preemptive" war against Iraq, but he could not get a majority of his own party to vote against cloture and against the resolution. He also led the opposition to Bush's bid to win back the power to negotiate trade deals that Congress cannot amend, but lost overwhelmingly. In the 108th Congress, however, Byrd won his party's top seat on the new Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.

Byrd was one of the Senate's most outspoken critics of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He appeared on March 7, 2003 on CNN's Larry King Live to discuss his U.S. Senate floor speeches against the Iraq War Resolution in 2002.

In a speech on March 13 he stated,
" If the United States leads the charge to war in the Persian Gulf, we may get lucky and achieve a rapid victory. But then we will face a second war: a war to win the peace in Iraq. This war will last many years and will surely cost hundreds of billions of dollars. In light of this enormous task, it would be a great mistake to expect that this will be a replay of the 1991 war. The stakes are much higher in this conflict. "

On March 19, 2003, when Bush ordered the invasion after receiving U.S. Congress approval, Byrd said,
" Today I weep for my country. I have watched the events of recent months with a heavy, heavy heart. No more is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent peacekeeper. The image of America has changed. Around the globe, our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions are questioned. Instead of reasoning with those with whom we disagree, we demand obedience or threaten recrimination. "

Byrd also criticized Bush for his speech declaring the "end of major combat operations" in Iraq, which Bush made on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. Byrd stated on the Senate floor,
" I do question the motives of a deskbound president who assumes the garb of a warrior for the purposes of a speech. "

On October 17, 2003, Byrd delivered a speech expressing his concerns about the future of the nation and his unequivocal antipathy to Bush's policies. Referencing the Hans Christian Andersen children's tale The Emperor's New Clothes, Byrd said of the president: "the emperor has no clothes." Byrd further lamented the "sheep-like" behavior of the "cowed Members of this Senate" and called on them to oppose the continuation of a "war based on falsehoods."

Byrd accused the Bush administration of stifling dissent:
" The right to ask questions, debate, and dissent is under attack. The drums of war are beaten ever louder in an attempt to drown out those who speak of our predicament in stark terms. Even in the Senate, our history and tradition of being the world's greatest deliberative body is being snubbed. This huge spending bill—$87 billion—has been rushed through this chamber in just one month. There were just three open hearings by the Senate Appropriations Committee on $87 billion—$87 for every minute since Jesus Christ was born—$87 billion without a single outside witness called to challenge the administration's line. "

In July 2004, Byrd released the book Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency about the Bush presidency and the war in Iraq.

Of the more than 17,000 votes he has cast as a senator, Byrd said he was proudest of his vote against the Iraq war resolution. Byrd also voted to tie a timetable for troop withdrawal to war funding.

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[briancatinthehat]

Our Cicero is gone. Now the republic will fail as it did before...

[WinkyMaeve]

Rest In Peace sir, you were a proud strong man.

[drgonzo767]

@emncaity Byrd grew up, that is the simple truth. A real man is not afraid to confront his beliefs and change them if he finds fault with himself. And yes, the white nigger remark was an unfortunate way to make a valid point, and is common with older people in the South. On the pork, I think a lot of people have NO IDEA how isolated and in need of infrastructure WV still is. WV has given much to this nation in raw resources, and deserved every cent Byrd steered there for schools, roads, etc.

[babyboy19841984]

RIP Sen Byrd! you will be miss!

[docnona64]

A great American. Superior in his intellect, patriotism, fidelity to what is right.

[Patrickemin]

One courageous man in the USA, that's not a lot...

[drgonzo767]

Although a man of faults, as Byrd was the first to admit, this shows him as a great statesman, as the Senate was meant to be populated with. Tell me any of those left in that body are even capable of such thought and eloquence, and I will tell you that you are full of shit. Democrat or Republican, this nation would be better served with 100 Byrds than what we now have.

[emncaity]

Hardly anybody in the sound-byte era will listen to this whole thing (all four parts)--but those who do will hear what amounts to biblical-style prophecy. How is it possible to be any more right than this?

[emncaity]

@billpatton1

...Ask some of those out-of-work coal miners or minimum-wage retail clerks how good it was to get jobs working on public projects that left both them and the state better off.

His accounting will be just fine. My dad gets more credit for being nonracist than I do; he grew up in rural Texas in and after the Depression, while I grew up in a racially mixed neighborhood in L.A. (Lynwood) just east of Watts and just north of Compton. Easy for me to be nonracist; not so easy for him.

[emncaity]

@billpatton1

...It's not like he threw it around every day. He was a Klan member out of unbridled ambition, then--as a white senator from a Southern state--renounced them and their views. Yes, I know he famously made the "white n----r" comment--a term used widely in the South by people who are invariably making an _antiracist_ argument that behavior doesn't fall along racial lines.

As for "pork," that's what senators and representatives do. Pork is in the eye of the beholder...