Harry Reid in Decision Points, by Pres. George W. Bush

On War & Peace: OpEd: 2003 Iraq vote unmistakably authorized war

Senators Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Harry Reid would later claim that they were not voting to authorize war but only to continue diplomacy. They must not have read the resolution. Its language was unmistakable: "The President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the US as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to defend the national security of the US against the continuing threat posed by Iraq; and enforce all relevant UN Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq." Source: Decision Points, by Pres. George W. Bush, p.240-241 Nov 9, 2010

On War & Peace: 2007: War is lost; surge not accomplishing anything

The new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives passed a nonbinding resolution that declared," Congress disapproves of the decision of Pres. George W. Bush announced on Jan. 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional US combat troops to Iraq."

After a day of heavy violence in April, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) declared, "This war is lost, the surge is not accomplishing anything." The majority leader of the US Senate had just used his platform to tell 145,000 American troops and their families that they were fighting for a lost cause. He had written off the surge as a failure before all of the additional troops had even arrived. It was one of the most irresponsible acts I witnessed in my eight years in Washington.

On May 1, Congress sent me a war-funding bill mandating a troop withdrawal deadline later in the year. Setting an arbitrary pullout date would allow our enemies to wait us out and would undermine our ability to win over the local leaders. I vetoed the bill.

Source: Decision Points, by Pres. George W. Bush, p.382 Nov 9, 2010

The above quotations are from Decision Points, by George W. Bush . Click here for other excerpts from Decision Points, by George W. Bush . Click here for other excerpts by Harry Reid. Click here for a profile of Harry Reid.
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Page last updated: Aug 18, 2011