Jim Himes Statement on the 5 Year Anniversary of the War in Iraq
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Stamford, CT - Affordable housing executive and businessman Jim Himes, the Democratic candidate for Congress in the Fourth Congressional District, released the following statement regarding the 5 year anniversary of President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq:
"I will go home tonight to my wife and two daughters, acutely aware of the unfathomable and unrelenting loss felt by the thousands of American children, husbands, and wives who will go home tonight without the person most dear to them. On this fifth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, we will also remember the tens of thousands of lives shattered by injury and dislocation, as well the ruined world of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis on whose behalf we traded despotism for murderous chaos.
"This war has primarily been shouldered by our brave troops and their families, but it has also severely damaged our military readiness, eroded our reputation and credibility around the globe, made our country less safe from terrorism, and cost taxpayers in our district alone an astounding $3 billion.
"Tonight, we will reflect with profound appreciation on the sacrifice of the men and women who have lost their lives in this war and on the courage of our troops who remain in harm’s way. Tomorrow, we must awake with a renewed determination to seek solutions rather than talk in terms of victory or surrender, to bring our troops home instead of continuing to ask them to referee an Iraqi civil war, and to hold accountable those whose mendacity, neglect, or incompetence have wrought such damage to our nation."
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