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The conduct of President Bush's war of choice has been plagued with incompetent civilian leadership decisions that have cost many lives and rendered the war on and occupation of Iraq a strategic policy disaster for the United States.

The American people have decided that it was a mistake to choose to go to war in Iraq.

I think the Iraq War is not particularly tailored to American interests.

We cannot undo the past in this misguided war in Iraq.

The United States prefers that Iraq meet its obligations voluntarily, yet we are prepared for the alternative.

It's not a choice between war and peace. It's a choice between war and endless war. It's not appeasement. I think it's better even to call it American self-interest.

Rather, it is through conciliation and compromise that we are building a fair Iraq, a just state for all its peoples.

We believe that an Iraqi founding national assembly, freely elected, must decide the future of Iraq.

American policy seems to be wed to a perpetual state of war. Why? History shows that the world will always be in flux or turmoil, with different peoples competing for visibility and power. The U.S. cannot fix the fate of every nation.

We in this Congress have a choice. The American people have a right to exercise a choice on this issue, as to whether our men and women will continue to fight and die in a war based on deception and fantasy, or to start bringing the troops home.