Everyone who leaves this administration says the same thing....from cabinet
members to members of congress, remember Richard Clarke and all of the
others.....let's make the President responsible for his actions...vote Kerry in
November.


Senior Republican Changes Tune

Rep. Bereuter Tells Constituents Iraq War Was a Mistake

Released AUGUST 18, 2004 AP

LINCOLN, Neb. (Aug. 18) - A top Republican congressman has broken from his
party in the final days of his House career, saying he believes the U.S.
military assault on Iraq was unjustified and the situation there has
deteriorated
into "a dangerous, costly mess."

"I've reached the conclusion, retrospectively, now that the inadequate
intelligence and faulty conclusions are being revealed, that all things being
considered, it was a mistake to launch that military action," Rep. Doug Bereuter
wrote in a letter to his constituents.

"Left unresolved for now is whether intelligence was intentionally
misconstrued to justify military action," he said.

Bereuter is a senior member of the House International Relations Committee
and vice chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He is stepping down after
13 terms to become the president of the Asia Foundation effective Sept. 1.

The letter, sent to constituents who have contacted him about the war, was
reported by the Lincoln Journal Star in its Wednesday editions.

In 2002, Bereuter had spoken out in support of a House resolution authorizing
the president to go to war.

President Bush has continued to argue the war was justified because Saddam
represented a threat to the United States, his neighbors and the people of Iraq.

Most Republicans and top administration officials say the war was justified
even though no weapons of mass destruction have been found.

However, after a scathing Senate Intelligence Committee report concluded in
early July that intelligence agencies had provided false assessments of the
Iraqi threat before the war, the panel's Republican chairman - Sen. Pat Roberts
of Kansas - said Congress might not have approved the Iraq war had lawmakers
known the truth.

Roberts said that without an immediate threat that Saddam had and was trying
to get weapons of mass destruction, military action against Iraq still could
have been justified on humanitarian grounds but that the battle plan might have
been different from a full-scale invasion.

Bereuter said that in addition to "a massive failure or misinterpretation of
intelligence," the Bush administration made several other errors in going to
war.

"From the beginning of the conflict, it was doubtful that we for long would
be seen as liberators, but instead increasingly as an occupying force," he
said. "Now we are immersed in a dangerous, costly mess, and there is no easy and
quick way to end our responsibilities in Iraq without creating bigger future
problems in the region and, in general, in the Muslim world."

Bereuter said as a result of the war, "our country's reputation around the
world has never been lower and our alliances are weakened."

Bereuter declined to answer questions Wednesday about the letter. His
spokesman Alan Feyerherm said the congressman "feels the letter speaks for
itself."

Lincoln City Council member Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican, is facing off
against Democratic state Sen. Matt Connealy to replace Bereuter.

08/18/04 18:54 EDT


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