Walsh urges caution regarding U.S. troops in Iraq

The following remarks about Iraq were made by Sen. John Walsh on the floor of the U.S. Senate on June 18, 2014.

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I rise today not only as a Senator from Montana but as a veteran of the long and difficult war in Iraq.

Like most Americans, the increasing instability in Iraq and the disintegration of the country along sectarian boundaries has me deeply concerned.

The heinous advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and their systematic execution of Iraqi soldiers and the murder of innocent civilians gives pause to people everywhere.

I stand here today as a veteran and as a father whose son has deployed multiple times. We fought in the war that Washington began based on false information, a war that ended and from which we must move on.

I led an infantry battalion of more than 700 of Montana’s finest into combat. Our area of operation was just north of Tikrit — from Baiji to Kirkuk, the very same area being fought over today.

It was late 2004 and the country had fallen into a bitter sectarian conflict. A conflict that unfolded after the dismantling of the Ba’athist-led Army and fueled by ancient divides between the Shias and the Sunnis. Those same disputes are again boiling over in Iraq today.

From the end of 2004 to late 2005, my unit fought to hold ground, secure roads and build infrastructure. We worked with local sheiks and key leaders to forge a path to peace. We helped return Iraq’s government to its people.

While there, we oversaw two successful elections and watched with hope and great satisfaction as the Iraqis ratified their constitution.

It was during this time that I also dispatched a team from my battalion to focus solely on training and assisting members of the newly formed Iraqi Army.

During our unit’s entire deployment in Iraq while fighting the insurgency, we faced rocket attacks, snipers and IED attacks almost daily.

Four of my men were killed in action. There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t think of those men and their families : SFS Robbie McNary from Lewistown, killed on March 31, 2005; SSG Kevin Davis of Lebanon, Ore., killed on April 8, 2005; SSG Timothy Kiser from Theama, Calif., killed on April 28, 2005; and SGT Travis Arndt from Bozeman, killed on Sept. 21, 2005.

Scores of others were injured. And one of my soldiers died by suicide six months after returning home to Montana, a victim of the invisible wounds of war.

Nearly 4,500 Americans were killed in Iraq. Among them, 28 Montana heroes. Some 32,000 Americans were wounded.

The war cost us more than $2 trillion, most of which Congress put on a credit card and have left for our grandchildren to pay.

Because this nation failed to prepare for new veterans returning home, we now have a crisis of care within our Veterans Administration system, a system that is overwhelmed after more than a decade of war.

Today we are seeing 22 veterans die by suicide each day.

These are the true costs of war.

Montanans understand this.

Americans understand this.

And because I work for Montanans and I’m listening to them, I call on President Obama to use extreme caution when considering options to deal with the sectarian violence we are seeing take place in Iraq today.

America cannot afford another Iraq. Financially or the human cost. We did our job there.

Some are suggesting we make an open-ended commitment to Iraq to keep American troops on the ground indefinitely. Sending thousands of America’s young men and women back to Iraq to step into the middle of a civil war is not the solution.

To my fellow members of Congress, I urge temperance as we navigate this difficult terrain.

Because I know that the foreign policy failures made in Washington fall disproportionately on the backs of young men and women from small towns across Montana and America.

I’ve seen war up close. And like too many American families, I’ve seen the costs of war up close. On families. On communities.

It is now time for the Iraqis to secure and defend their own nation. The embrace of their own self-determination is the only path to a true and everlasting peace in Iraq.