KENNEDY REMARKS ON 4TH ANNIVERSARY OF “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED”

On May 1, 2003, four years ago today, President Bush dressed up in a flight suit, flew out to the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, and stood below a “Mission Accomplished” banner declaring an end to major combat operations in Iraq.

Three thousand one hundred ninety six-American soldiers have been killed since the President took that arrogant and premature victory lap, including sixty-nine from Massachusetts. For them, for their families and loved ones, and for the nation, the mission was far from accomplished, and still is.

Today, our military is bogged down in the quagmire of Iraq’s civil war, with no end in sight.

The Administration insists that we are making progress in Iraq, and that its so-called surge must continue.

On April 20, President Bush spoke about “initial signs of progress on the ground.”

Just last week, he said, “As the General will tell the folks on Capitol Hill, there’s been some progress. There’ been some horrific bombings, of course. There’s also a decline in sectarian violence.”

In fact, there has been precious little progress. The only thing surging is the violence.

More than 100 American troops were killed in April, and 80 American soldiers were killed in January, February, and March of this year.

Sectarian violence in Baghdad continues unabated. According to a report on April 25 by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, “civilian casualties of the daily violence between January and March remained high concentrated in and around Baghdad.” The violence is so serious that the Iraqi Government has refused to provide mortality figures to the United Nations.

Attacks within the international zone are increasing.

Violence is spreading out of Baghdad and peaking elsewhere in Iraq, such as in Diyala province.
Insurgents are using new and deadlier bombs, including chlorine gas bombs.

Iraqis are demonstrating in the streets against our occupation and demanding that Americans go home.

General Petraeus has proposed to divide Baghdad into “gated communities” based on sectarian lines.

Past reconstruction projects touted as signs of success are crumbling and failing to provide the health care, education, and other essential services so desperately needed by the Iraqi people.

Shiite leader Sadr has withdrawn six members from Prime Minister Maliki’s cabinet, and the largest Sunni bloc of members is now threatening to withdraw as well.

We know that Prime Minister Maliki has made little progress on political reconciliation – despite the arrival of the tens of thousands of additional American troops that the Administration claimed were necessary for such progress.

Meanwhile, respect for American in the world continues to plunge to all-time lows. We continue to alienate our friends in other nationas, and Al Qaeda and other enemies gain new support and new recruits for their terrorist attacks.

Despite all this, President Bush stubbornly clings to the false hope that success is just around the corner and the mission will be accomplished.

We’ve heard it all before. Ending the rule of Saddam Hussein was supposed to lessen violence and bring a new wave of democracy to the Middle East. It hasn’t.

Saddam Hussein’s capture was supposed to quell the violence. It didn’t.

Three elections and the drafting of the constitution were supposed to be the breakthrough. They weren’t.

The “surge” was supposed to bring the stability essential to political reconciliation and economic reconstruction. It hasn’t and it won’t.

Only the Iraqi people can save Iraq. It is time for them to do so. American military force cannot solve the problems of the Iraqi people. It is time for the President to put the Iraqis on notice that our military will begin to withdraw.

No one in the Administration can honestly tell the American people that we are making progress in Iraq. It’s time the President listened to the Iraq Study Group, Congress, and the American people, and worked with us to bring our troops home.

The President is wrong to veto the Iraq spending bill and reject its needed timeline for the orderly, responsible, and safe withdrawal of our forces from Iraq. He was wrong to lead us into the war, wrong to conduct it so poorly, wrong to refuse to change course.

We cannot continue business as usual in Iraq. It is time for America to end its participation in the brutal civil war.

The message from the American people couldn’t be louder or clearer. Instead of defying the will of the American people, President Bush should listen to their plea and begin working with Congress to bring this tragic war to an end.

–Jill McCarthy