U.S. Needs to Get Out of Iraq
Kucinich gave the following speech in Congress on May 10, 2005:
"Mr. Speaker, the administration is closing defense bases here at home and building new bases in Iraq. There is no money to maintain some defense installations here, but there is $270 billion and counting for establishing a permanent presence in Iraq. The Armed Forces ranks are depleted. Enlistment is falling off. So the administration is hard at work privatizing the war, having hired about 20,000 so-called contractors, mercenaries, to do work that used to be done by the military.
"A member of the new private army in Iraq may make as much as 10 times more than what an enlisted soldier makes, and private companies making billions from the Iraq war will no doubt be quick to make political contributions to make sure the war keeps going. Our Reservist and National Guard units are fortifying a mission to which they should have never been called.
"Iraq has turned into a tragedy. What is even more tragic is the thinking that says: Well, we are there; now we need to stay and finish the job.
"Mr. Speaker, we need to get out. The sooner, the better. And we need to hold accountable those whose lies sent our soldiers there at the cost of many American lives and the lives of innocent Iraqis."
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