Gordon Harold Smith in Against the Tide, by Lincoln Chafee


On War & Peace: 2006: Withdrew support for Iraq War

In 2006, the White House may have been mired in denial but the Iraq Study Group confronted the war head-on and grappled with it. Its report was unflinching from the very first sentence: "The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating."

Some Republicans, driven by both politics and conscience, started to rebel. Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon withdrew his support for President Bush's Iraq war.

On the Senate floor, he said "I, for one, am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs, day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal." But the defections were too few. Lawmakers continued to "support the troops" by writing the president a blank check.

Source: Against the Tide, by Sen. Lincoln Chafee, p.235-236 Apr 1, 2008

The above quotations are from Against the Tide
How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President

by Lincoln Chafee.
Click here for other excerpts from Against the Tide
How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President

by Lincoln Chafee
.
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