Tom Hayhurst on IRAQ and our security

For Immediate Release: November 4, 2006
Contact: Peter Clerkin
(260) 436-2011

Statement of Third District Congressional candidate Dr. Tom Hayhurst on the issues of keeping America safe and bringing the Iraq War to an honorable conclusion:

What Mark Souder has been trying to do for the past month is change the subject. You and I know the real subject, the main concern we all share, is Iraq. We are concerned about our leaders' failure to fight a competent war and to keep America safe. We know the loss of life is hollow, if we don't face the facts and develop a sound plan. One hundred deaths in October alone. Nearly 3,000 deaths in total. Our President continues to stay the course and just yesterday the Vice President proclaimed "full speed ahead" on Iraq. The only place full speed ahead on Iraq will take America is straight off the cliff to nowhere.

My opponent has spent the last month talking about illegal immigration. He wants you to forget about Iraq and how vulnerable America still is. He has lied about his own record of strong support for amnesty for illegals just to get elected. He has no plan of his own to deal with this problem. And he has used every dirty trick in
the book personally or through his party leaders to try and get you to forget their failures in Iraq and failure to secure America. But I know Hoosiers are smarter than that. You can see through their fog of misinformation.

It is time for new leadership, for new eyes and minds and hearts with fresh and honest perspectives to deal with the crucial issues of our time. The election on November 7 is about who will best find an honorable end to this questionable war gone bad. Who will have the courage and know-how to do it and do it right? Who
will actually work to keep America safe, not just talk about it? I will do those things when I am in Congress.

Will we be the America that bloodies a country and then abandons it? Will we be the America that refuses to admit our mistakes and then fails to make them right? Will we be the America that puts politics ahead of people and the security of our great nation? I say no, and again I say no. In Congress, I will be a firm voice on the side of an honest assessment of Iraq followed by determined action to address the reality of this war gone bad, to find an honorable conclusion to it, and to find a resolution that leaves America safer.

I will not accept an administration that would leave America less secure for its own political gain. My opponent is part of the team responsible for the mess we are in. You cannot expect to get new wine from an old bottle. You cannot expect to get new ideas from leaders who are more concerned about rationalizing their past mistakes than keeping America safe.

Mark Souder is part of the team that has failed America in Iraq. Mark Souder is part of the team that failed America when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit. That team told us all by their actions: If disaster befalls you, you are on your own. I can’t and won’t accept that kind of incompetence.

Now five years after 9/11 our leaders have yet to implement the wise, bipartisan recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. America is less safe today. Our borders and our ports are still sieves, keeping us at risk and worsening illegal immigration. And the Homeland Security Department is a mess.

Mark Souder had the chance to seek the leadership of the House Homeland Security Committee. He ran away from it. He had the chance to really do something to protect northeast Indiana and America, but he chose to hide from an opportunity to lead. He ducked and ran yet again.

Northeast Indiana needs a real leader, someone of courage, someone who stood to serve his country in the military when the opportunity came, someone unafraid to fight the difficult battles, someone who will put the people before political opportunity, someone who will be both tough and smart, someone who will keep his word. I pledge that I will be that voice for you in Congress.