Jan Schakowsky Quotes
Because the Bush Administration will set no timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, both chambers of Congress acted to make sure our troops will not be left in Iraq indefinitely.
Schakowsky, Jan. "Schakowsky Statement on Iraq Supplemental Vote." Press Release, Office of Representative Jan Schakowsky, 26 Apr. 2007.
During the Iraq War, the Congressman partially changed his mind the following year and called for a plan to move American troops to the periphery of the fighting. A highly decorated war hero with two Purple Hearts, he was then called a coward, by some Republican members of Congress and the Bush Administration—almost always by people who had never served in the military and often sought and obtained deferments.
He was referring to the kinds of questions and the assertions made by high administration officials prior to the Iraq War. Pillar was one of the officials responsible for the erroneous intelligence report that Iraq and Sadaam had nuclear weapons.
Scowcroft and Colin Powell had been key military and security advisors to President George W. Bush’s father when he was President. The younger Bush had no foreign policy or military experience, and he and his party assured the public that with men like Scowcroft and Powell advising him, all would be well. However, when Bush thought of invading Iraq, Scowcroft and Powell strongly advised him against it, but the younger Bush ignored the advice of these men who had served the nation so well under his father. Scowcroft’s warning could not have been more accurate.
It is noteworthy that a U. S. President had such a harsh evaluation of our major intelligence agency. Even more important in this case is that this President justified his 2003 decision to invade Iraq and start the war on the intelligence he claimed was provided to him by the CIA that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. This quotation and the President’s view was not public at the time. I all fairness to the CIA staff, many of them had provided a number of caveats and warnings about the unreliability of the information. However, the CIA Director, George Tenant, advised Bush in a way that the caveats were sublimated. See {633093} for more detail.
Janice Danoff Schakowsky is an American politician who has served as the U.S. Representative from Illinois's 9th congressional district since 1999. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
