On Wednesday, Congressman Harold Ford Jr. appeared on the Imus In The Morning program.Speaking on actions that took place in the Senate yesterday, Ford said it was the right thing to do. He added that there wasn't anything more important that Congress should be doing than trying to determine if all these lives and money that have been lost, in relationship to the war in Iraq, have been worth it.
The Congressman later said that that it seems to him that the President would want to know why the intelligence was wrong and would have Congress take a look at how and why the intelligence community developed the wrong information. He added, the President should be the first to want to know.
When asked if he would have still voted for the war knowing what he knows now, Ford replied no. He later added that he bought the bill Bush sold that day. Ford also said that he tries not to dwell on that question because we are past that point, and we must now figure out who we can win in Iraq.
The Congressman added he does not disagree that the Iraqis want freedom. He said the only question is, how can we squelch the insurgency. He alluded that the longer we wait and ignore the strong standing of the insurgency, the worse things will continue to become.
Ford ended by saying that the President has been hurt the most, in states like Tennessee, because he has lost the benefit of the doubt with the people. The Congressman added in closing, the the longer he (Bush) waits to acknowledges the problems that exist, the longer the pain will endure.
Below is a partial transcript of Congressman Ford's appearance on Imus In The Morning:
Imus: "Every morning I listen to Charles do the news and he had a story this morning about a roadside bomb that missed but it still killed six people, Iraqis and injured some others. There are still some people dead, no Americans this time but these Iraqis are no less valuable than Americans, no thinking person thinks that but knowing.. this leaves me to this question and I don't mean to ask you this every time you are on but knowing what you know now would you still have voted for this war?"
Rep. Harold Ford Jr.: "No. It's one of those questions that I try not to dwell on because we passed that point and we now have to figure out how we win. Saying no, I would not have been less determined to find Osama Bin Laden and destroy Al Qaeda and if the world community had been with us and we had built a coalition like the President promised he was going to before going to war in Iraq, I think we would have eventually given him the authority to do it. It's important to know that a lot of people thought Saddam had weapons and one of the reasons we were so convinced that he did have weapons is because remember America, we gave him weapons a few decades ago. So there was some confidence there but knowing what we know now it is unlikely that the Congress would have voted in the large majority that it did to give this President this authority. But all of that is academic. What do we do now? The point I thought you were going to make about the IED's is that it is becoming clear now that the roadside bombs used by the Iraqis are becoming more sophisticated and advanced and these bombs are now able to pierce, if not destroy all together, the armor on our humvees and even the armor that many of our troops are wearing. We have lost one of our highest ranking officials I think ever, if not, we have lost our highest ranking official in Iraq due to a roadside bomb, an army colonel, just two or three days ago, his life is no more important than any others life which I think illustrates this difficulty that we find ourselves in. When President Bush and my Republican friends talk about in length about how much progress we are making, I don't deny that people of Iraq want freedom. I mean I have been there three times and look forward to going back there before the end of the year. I think the only question we raise about Iraq, put aside the intelligence issues that were talked about yesterday in the Senate, but the questions that we raise about Iraq are what are we doing to quell this insurgency? Do we need a different strategy? And the President's mantra which is 'stay the course' and I happen to think that we do. I mean if the insurgency were to stand down, I think it would be far easier to bring stability and to help plant the seeds of democracy there. The longer we ignore or lie about the insurgents strong standing and their formidable position and the longer we wait to distance ourselves, Secretary Rumsfeld's comments that these insurgents are nothing but a bunch of thugs and I think dead enders he called them, these are some incredible dead enders if indeed they are dead enders."
