In a major speech on the Senate Floor, Senator Gordon Smith Drops the Bomb on Bush

This should have been said a long time ago. We knew that the Intel. was fixed around this stupid policy when the Downing Street Memos came out, if not before. Why wait until there is cover from the ISG and the incoming Democratic majority?

We need Republicans and Democrats who will always put country above party and politics, when it comes to something as serious as war.

GOP Senator Joins Call for Pullout -- Says Situation in Iraq is 'Absurd,' Perhaps Even 'Criminal':

"In a major speech in Congress on Thursday night, Sen. Gordon Smith called the current U.S. war effort 'absurd,' perhaps even 'criminal' and called for rapid pullouts. He added that he would have never voted for the conflict if he had reason to believe the intelligence the president gave the American people was inaccurate.

Citing the hundreds of billions of dollars spent and more than 2900 Americans deaths -- and saying he needed to 'speak from the heart' -- Smith said, 'I for one am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal. So either we clear and hold and build or let's go home.'

Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a Republican defeated in November, cited Smith's speech in suggesting that support for the war is crumbling. Smith's statement 'is political dynamite,' Chafee asserted.