Iraq made commitments after the Gulf War to completely dismantle all weapons of mass destruction, and unfortunately, Iraq has not lived up to its agreement.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
In fact, things are moving along rather well in Iraq. Nothing is perfect, of course, and freedom is messy work. The cooperation of the three major interests in Iraq has been remarkable.
Our combat mission is ending, but our commitment to Iraq's future is not.
Clearly, a stable, unified and democratic Iraq cannot be achieved militarily by the U.S.
It has been, after all, 11 years, more than a decade now, of defiance of U.N. resolutions by Saddam Hussein. Every obligation that he signed onto after the Gulf War, so that he would not be a threat to peace and security, he has ignored and flaunted.
We are not going to abandon Iraq.
We have exhausted all of our diplomatic effort to get the Iraqis to comply with their own agreements and with international law. Given that... we have got to force them to comply, and we are doing so militarily.
We were told this war would be over in a matter of weeks, and that the Iraqis would be able to finance it with oil sales. We were promised it was not a mission of nation building.
If you look beyond the short term violence and instability, you do see significant activities on the part of the Iraqi people that indicate they understand the commitment necessary to govern themselves. It's not clear how they will do it, but it never is.
I think we still have a chance if we continue with our work, if Iraq provides full cooperation, we should still be able to avoid a war.
Despite the negativity coming from the President's opponents, the United States remains fully committed to assisting the Iraqis in restoring security and rebuilding their nation.
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