John Kerry on the Week of Phony Iraq Debate

It's was Phony Iraq Debate Week in Congress this week. What a show the Republican's put on -- they had a quite a script to read from courtesy of the Pentagon. There were truly some Oscar nomination worthy performances, including Senator Mitch McConnell for "Best Borrowing of Resolution" and Senators Bill Frist and John Cornyn deserve nominations for "Best Supporting Phony Debaters" for recreating the role first played by Tom Delay, in the House last November. Below is a statement from Senator John Kerry on Phony Iraq Debate Week:

“While Senate and House Republicans played political games to avoid meaningful debate on Iraq, Americans who know war is not a game prayed for the 2,500 brave troops lost in Iraq. While Don Rumsfeld arms surrogates with 74 pages of hollow talking points, Karl Rove spells out a political strategy on Iraq, and Dick Cheney dissembles with Sean Hannity, Americans are caught in the crossfire of vicious sectarian strife in Iraq.

“This has been the duck and cover Congress. For three years, Congress has sat on its hands or played political games while the war in Iraq has gone on unchecked and unending. It’s time for a Congress that shares responsibility for getting us into Iraq to take responsibility for helping to get us out and get resources refocused on the war on terror.

“Every month we are in Iraq, we lose more American lives and over $8 billion dollars. It’s time for Iraqis to stand up for Iraq.

“Since October, I have been pushing for a clear deadline in Iraq. We cannot take the heat off the Iraqi leaders to do their job and stand up for their own country, and we can’t take the heat off Washington to do the job of applying pressure in Iraq. There will be a real Iraq debate next week, and it will address the real needs of our troops, not the political needs of the Republican Party.”