WASHINGTON, April 28, 2004 -- I commend National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice for appearing today before the Democrats in the House of Representatives to explain President Bush's reasons for invading Iraq. 

Organized by Democratic Caucus Chairman Robert Menendez, the meeting was attended by the Democratic leadership, including Leader Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, as well as most of the Democratic members of the House.  I only wish that the Republican leadership and the White House had agreed to our request for a bi-partisan meeting, which would have been more beneficial to the nation during a time of conflict which has taken the lives of more than 700 U.S. troops.

In a few days we will mark the first anniversary of President Bush's declaration of the end of "major combat operations" in Iraq.  Since that time, more than 505 U.S. servicemen and women have died, for a total of 724 lives lost since the beginning of the war.   A total of 3,800 American men and women have been wounded and maimed.  Thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed.

I asked Ms. Rice whether the President's decision to go to war would have been any different if he had foreseen this level of casualties. I asked whether the absence of any perceived link between Saddam Hussein and the terrorist attacks on September 11th would have changed the President's mind, or whether he would have been discouraged from attacking had he known that no weapons of mass destruction would have been found by now. Would the President have attacked in the absence of all the reasons he presented to the American people as grounds for invasion?

After my repeated questions along these lines, the President's most intimate counselor on issues of war and peace, admitted that, yes, even he had known that none of these reasons were factual, the President would have gone to war in anyway.

So finally, I have heard the astounding admission from the highest level of the Bush Administration, that the reasons for war, which for months before the invasion had been drummed into the minds of Americans, didn't really matter at all. As Ms. Rice said in response to another question, ridding the Middle East region and the world of an evil man like Saddam Hussein was reason enough.

Never mind that President Bush himself repeatedly suggested a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, including a speech in November 2002 when he asserted that the Iraqi leader was "a threat because he is dealing with Al Qaeda." In the 2003 State of the Union, the President asserted that "Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda."

Never mind that days before the Congressional votes on the Iraq War resolution, the President had claimed in a televised address to the nation that Iraq had a fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons.

Never mind that President Bush had rejected further resort to the United Nations inspection process because he asserted that the threat from Iraq was imminent and left no choice but a preemptive strike.

Never mind that on March 16, 2002, Vice President Cheney had predicted that American troops would be welcomed as liberators after a war that would last weeks rather than months.

There is no doubt in my mind that if the Congress--and the American people--had known there was no foundation to these claims, the Iraq war resolution would have failed and those 700 Americans who lay at rest today would be alive.

But in her statement to Congressional Democrats today, Ms. Rice gave not the slightest indication of regret for the misinformation that rationalized the invasion, or even an admission that mistakes might have been made. 

Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, and Counter-Terrorism Czar Richard Clark have both reported on the Administration's obsession with deposing Saddam Hussein, even before the events of September 11th.  In our meeting today, Ms. Rice did not address that issue, though in the past, she has dismissed the assertion.

Ms. Rice made clear today, however, that the President remains unapologetic about his actions in Iraq--the lost lives and the reasons be damned.