Barbara Lee Addresses Anti-War Rally In DC
(Washington, DC) – On Saturday, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) addressed tens of thousands of Americans gathered in Washington DC to call for an end to the war in Iraq. The following are excerpts from the text of her remarks:
“My friends, it is past time to bring an end to this unjust, unnecessary war in Iraq. It has claimed the lives of tens of thousands, it has cost us hundreds of billions, and it has made our country and the world less safe. As the daughter veteran, let me tell you we must support our troops, and the best way we can support them is by bringing them home.
…
“The human cost of this war has been terrible. It has undermined our nation’s standing and made the world less safe, but this war is also sowing destruction right here at home.
“Hurricane Katrina has shown the world what you and I have long known: that America should be fighting poverty at home, not an unnecessary war in Iraq.
“So we must end this war, and we must ensure that the most vulnerable among us do not continue to be collateral damage.
“Who do you think will pay the price for the $250 billion dollars we have spent in Iraq thus far? Will it be Bush’s wealthy friends, with their tax cuts? Will it be the oil companies, with their price gouging? Of course not. The cost of this war will fall on those who can least afford it.
“Look at the record: The Bush administration has deserted the 45 million Americans without health insurance. They have abandoned 37 million people to poverty, here in the richest nation in the world. They’ve ignored Osama bin Laden, but they’re going to cut Medicaid and food stamps to pay for this war in Iraq. I ask you, is that what America should look like?”
Lee, the most senior Democratic woman on the House International Relations Committee and Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, voted against authorizing the President to use force in Iraq and offered a substitute measure that would have required renewed weapons inspections and diplomacy. She has authored a bill, H.Con.Res. 197, to make it US policy not to have permanent military bases in Iraq. She has also led efforts to demand answers to the questions raised by leaked British memos as to whether the Bush administration “fixed” intelligence in order to justify the invasion of Iraq, and introduced a bill to renounce the doctrine of preemptive war.
###