Byrd gave this speech on Tuesday after President Bush vetoed the emergency supplemental appropriations bill, which suggested a schedule for withdrawing troops from Iraq.
[quote="Senator Robert C. Byrd"]
Four years ago, I stood in this very spot and warned against an ill-advised invasion of Iraq. Today, the situation in Iraq has spiraled out of control into a bloody, deadly sectarian civil war. Yet the president and his team continue to hold fast to their stay-the-course nonsense. While they do, thousands of brave young Americans place their lives in jeopardy every day. That reality is one that this nation and the world did not have to experience. It is a tragic reality brought on by a war of choice and an occupation that has yielded neither stability nor reconciliation.
Four years ago today, the president landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln to declare, “Mission accomplished.â€
