By Sophia Chang
“There's a lack of joy in Mudville,” he said of Washington, D.C., noting that many elected officials in Congress feel misled about the reasons why America invaded Iraq last year.
“I voted for the war,” Ackerman said on a recent visit to the TimesLedger offices, speaking of the 2002 congressional resolution that gave President George Bush the power to use force if Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein did not turn over what were believed to be the country's weapons of mass destruction.
“I would vote the same way again, based on legitimate reasons, not fake ones,” said Ackerman, who is the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia in the House Committee on International Relations. “The vote was to empower the president as a last resort, and I would vote that way again.”
On March 19, 2003, the eve of the American invasion, Ackerman issued a statement in which he said, “… for 12 years Saddam Hussein has defied the world and refused to disarm. … Saddam Hussein is a maniacal killer, a tyrant and a thug. He cares nothing for peace, nothing for world opinion and nothing for the Iraqi people. At this hour, however, we can finally say he has thumbed his nose at the world for the very last time. His time is up and soon his regime will be a sad and bitter chapter in the memory of a reborn Iraqi nation.”
Ackerman said he supported the use of force in Iraq but opposed the United States going in without the backing of the United Nations.
“I would not have voted to invade Iraq. I voted to send the U.N. in. Everybody believed it because we were the only ones with the info,” he said.
Many members of Congress were shown what he called the “smoking gun picture” of suspicious activity in Iraq that “proves without a doubt there was a nuclear program in Iraq,” he said.
“They made Iraq seem part of the war on terrorism, but the war on Iraq took attention and resources away from the war on terrorism, which is a real war,” he said.
“The evidence was all bad CIA evidence,” Ackerman said of the administration's case for war. But he said he still supports the current administration. “I don't want Bush to fail. His failure is the country's failure.
“We have squandered the good will and nature towards our country,” he said, due in part to Bush administration's “John Wayne, do-what-you-need-to-do mentality.” He insisted that he was not being unpatriotic. “If you criticize the government, it doesn't mean that you're unpatriotic.”
Ackerman pointed to the $87 billion that was budgeted for the war, with an additional $25 billion emergency supplement. “But there's no plan to win the peace,” he said.
“How do you plan for the peace?” he asked. “You say to yourself, 'We're right,' and pray for God to help us.”
Reach reporter Sophia Chang by e-mail at news@timesledger.com, or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
