“Looking back to March 19^th 2003, I never imagined that four years later, the United States would still have nearly 150,000 troops deployed in Iraq, going door-to-door, caught in the cross-fire of a sectarian civil-war.  I never imaged that four years later, more than 3,000 of our brave young men and women would have sacrificed their lives, tens of thousands more sustained life-altering injuries, and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians would have been killed.

“The President’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was an enormous mistake.  I regret my vote in October 2002 giving the President the authority to do so.  It was a terrible mistake.  I will continue to stand up for what I believe is a necessary change in course in Iraq and in American strategy.  I will continue to fight to reverse the President’s failed policy which has made us less safe, which has created a safe-haven for extremists and terrorists in Iraq, and which has undermined the moral and political standing of the United States around the world.

“Most important, I will continue to stand up for our brave men and women in uniform.  I will continue to fight for increased funding for body armor and other critical needs.  I will continue to fight for funding for our military personnel to keep them safe and effective and to ensure they are not forgotten if they come home injured and in need of care.

“And I will continue to call for meaningful actions in this Congress to redirect funding away from major combat operations, while ensuring that we have the means and tools necessary to continue vital training and equipping of Iraqi security forces, counter-terrorism operations, and the diplomatic, political and economic offensive and strategies that are the key elements of finding a solution to the crisis in Iraq and in the wider region.”

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