Dingell On President Bush & Iraq War: "He Lied Us Into It"
DETROIT (CBSDETROIT) - The White House is making a big push to rally members of Congress and the American public behind President Barack Obama's plan for a U.S. military strike against Syria.
Congressman John Dingell, of Dearborn, wants to see classified documents before deciding.
He says he thinks President Obama doesn't want to lead the U.S. into a quagmire, saying President George W. Bush led us into a terrible mess in Iraq ...
"He lied us into it," said Dingell. "He didn't have the facts and frankly I don't think he told the truth. Now, having said these things, I think we are going to have a problem that will confront us in terms of knowing the facts - but also knowing the consequences, because this is something we have to know before we go."
Dingell, the longest serving member of Congress says we have to have an exit strategy if there is a military strike against Syria and he is still considering all the information available to him.
"He's killed a bunch of Syrians and the question is how are we going to benefit Syrian - world peace or the United States and our interests if we don't deal with this with exquisite care and deal with it the right way," said Dingell.
Dingell says he's heard every viewpoint from his constituents and considers history on these matters.
"I've been voting on these matters since the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and we made some terrible mistakes in that - I don't want to replicate that. That is one of the votes that I made when I supported Johnson and I think I made a terrible mistake," said Dingell.
That resolution gave President Johnson the authority to use military force in Southeast Asia, which led to rapid involvement in Vietnam.
Congressman John Conyers, meanwhile, says he's been thinking about what Dr. Martin Luther King would be thinking about it.
"He would not ever chose a military solution without trying negotiation, economic strategy and other ways to deal with this," said Conyers.
