Parmenides
05-21-2003, 04:50 PM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sen. Robert Byrd, the Senate's most outspoken critic of President Bush, on Wednesday accused him of constructing a "house of cards, built on deceit" to justify the war against Iraq.
Byrd of West Virginia, the Senate's senior Democrat who has repeatedly condemned the war to oust Saddam Hussein, accused the Bush administration of luring the American public into war by inflating threats posed by Saddam, bungling the war's aftermath and awarding reconstruction contracts "to administration cronies."
"Eventually, like it always does, the truth will emerge. And when it does, this house of cards, built on deceit, will fall," he said on the Senate floor.
While Byrd said the administration "assiduously worked to alarm the public" with threats posed by Iraq, in the war's aftermath it has become "painfully clear" the country posed no immediate threat.
Searches for its alleged weapons of mass destruction so far have "turned up only fertilizer, vacuum cleaners, conventional weapons and the occasional buried swimming pool," he said.
"Were our troops needlessly put at risk? Were countless Iraqi civilians killed and maimed when war was not really necessary? Was the American public deliberately misled? Was the world?" he asked.
Byrd also said that by putting off Iraq's move to self-government, "It is all too clear that the smiling face of the U.S. as liberator is quickly assuming the scowl of an occupier."
He said the recent resurgence of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network also showed that instead of weakening terror groups with the Iraq war, "we have given them new fuel for their fury."
Byrd criticized congressional colleagues who he said have failed to get answers from Bush on expected costs and time frames for U.S. troops to remain in Iraq, and costs for rebuilding it.
"We cower in the shadows while false statements proliferate," he said, accepting "soft answers and shaky explanations because to demand the truth is hard, or unpopular, or may be politically costly."
Byrd of West Virginia, the Senate's senior Democrat who has repeatedly condemned the war to oust Saddam Hussein, accused the Bush administration of luring the American public into war by inflating threats posed by Saddam, bungling the war's aftermath and awarding reconstruction contracts "to administration cronies."
"Eventually, like it always does, the truth will emerge. And when it does, this house of cards, built on deceit, will fall," he said on the Senate floor.
While Byrd said the administration "assiduously worked to alarm the public" with threats posed by Iraq, in the war's aftermath it has become "painfully clear" the country posed no immediate threat.
Searches for its alleged weapons of mass destruction so far have "turned up only fertilizer, vacuum cleaners, conventional weapons and the occasional buried swimming pool," he said.
"Were our troops needlessly put at risk? Were countless Iraqi civilians killed and maimed when war was not really necessary? Was the American public deliberately misled? Was the world?" he asked.
Byrd also said that by putting off Iraq's move to self-government, "It is all too clear that the smiling face of the U.S. as liberator is quickly assuming the scowl of an occupier."
He said the recent resurgence of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network also showed that instead of weakening terror groups with the Iraq war, "we have given them new fuel for their fury."
Byrd criticized congressional colleagues who he said have failed to get answers from Bush on expected costs and time frames for U.S. troops to remain in Iraq, and costs for rebuilding it.
"We cower in the shadows while false statements proliferate," he said, accepting "soft answers and shaky explanations because to demand the truth is hard, or unpopular, or may be politically costly."