"Mr. Speaker, in the years since we enacted our attack against Iraq, the threat from Iran has only grown more difficult, and our capacity to meet that threat actually has diminished. It is one of the reasons many of us opposed that action against Iraq"
About this Quote
Blumenauer’s line lands like a budget memo that suddenly reveals itself as an indictment. Framed in the ritual language of the House floor ("Mr. Speaker"), it’s not trying to win a poetic battle; it’s trying to pin accountability to the lapels of colleagues who once treated Iraq as a shortcut to regional security. The specific intent is retroactive clarity: to argue that the Iraq War was not merely costly, but strategically perverse - it took the very problem it purported to simplify (Iran’s influence) and made it harder.
The subtext is a two-part rebuke. First, it punctures the post-9/11 fantasy that American power is inexhaustible. "Capacity" isn’t just military hardware; it’s political bandwidth, alliance credibility, intelligence focus, and public tolerance for another conflict. Second, it reframes "threat" as something shaped by U.S. choices, not just Iranian behavior. By pairing a "grown" threat with a "diminished" capacity, he’s describing a self-inflicted imbalance: we spent down our leverage and handed Tehran strategic breathing room.
Context matters: Democrats like Blumenauer who opposed the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force often argued the war would destabilize Iraq, empower Iran-aligned actors, and trap the U.S. in an occupation that would crowd out other priorities. Years later, this sentence functions as both warning and vindication - a reminder that foreign policy isn’t graded on intentions, but on the map you leave behind.
The subtext is a two-part rebuke. First, it punctures the post-9/11 fantasy that American power is inexhaustible. "Capacity" isn’t just military hardware; it’s political bandwidth, alliance credibility, intelligence focus, and public tolerance for another conflict. Second, it reframes "threat" as something shaped by U.S. choices, not just Iranian behavior. By pairing a "grown" threat with a "diminished" capacity, he’s describing a self-inflicted imbalance: we spent down our leverage and handed Tehran strategic breathing room.
Context matters: Democrats like Blumenauer who opposed the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force often argued the war would destabilize Iraq, empower Iran-aligned actors, and trap the U.S. in an occupation that would crowd out other priorities. Years later, this sentence functions as both warning and vindication - a reminder that foreign policy isn’t graded on intentions, but on the map you leave behind.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
More Quotes by Earl
Add to List
