Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich Votes Against Funding For Iraq War

Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich was one of the few Democrats to vote against the supplemental spending bill that passed by the House yesterday. The House bill provided $100 billion in new spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the bill also contained a binding provision calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by Septemer, 2008.

Kucinich and other progressive Democrats voted against the bill and called for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Kucinich has voted against funding for the war every time the issue has appeared before Congress. He is also the only presidential candidate who voted against the bill authorizing the use of force against Iraq in 2002 (Barack Obama opposed the war from the start, but was not serving in the U.S. Senate at the time). 

 Kucinich had this to say about yesterday's vote in the House (or view the video of his comments):

"Congress has just voted to give President Bush the money he needs to keep the war going through the end of his term.

So where do we go from here? Well, this is the moment that all of us must come together, in communities across the United States, to insist that our nation take a new direction -- now -- in Iraq.

We must go into the town squares. We must meet in libraries, and on university campuses across the country, to cause the policies of the United States to merge from right from the grassroots, and be heard in Washington.

Unfortunately Washington has not listened. Washington has said More War.

You're the ones who must stand for peace. And join with me in this effort to just Change America.

It's not satisfactory that Congress has voted to keep the war going.

Congress had the power to end this war.

And you and I know that.

And now we have to forge a whole new relationship with the American people leading the way, not waiting for Congress to act.

We must act. And we must act from our streets, we must act from our neighborhoods, we must act from our town halls. And it's the power of the people now that's going to have to transform the American government.

It's a sad day when Washington, having recognized that we're standing on a mountain of lies, and proceeding to prosecute a war against a people that did not attack us.

It's a sad day when America will know that there will be more troop casualties and more civilian casualties, and a greater drain on our resources, when we need money for education, health care, and so many other things in this country.

Where do we go from here? We go to where America has always gone, and that is the strength of a powerful civic response. And you must be part of that.

I join with you, as I have never wavered in my efforts for peace, in my determination to point out that war is not the way, in my insistence that this is the time that we have to take a new direction.

Just know that there are those of us who continue to take that stand in Washington.

But now you need to take a stand.

So please, join, together, all over the country.

And I'll be there with you.

Thank you very much."