On the Senate floor today, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) decried the recent Kyl-Lieberman amendment on Iran that 72 of his colleagues voted for, calling it an exercise in “international verbal spitball.” Byrd warned his colleagues against “sleep-walking” into another war, saying “I hope that we can stop this war of words before it becomes a war of bombs.”

Byrd added that the Senate’s “chest-pounding” and “saber-rattling” towards Iran was “deeply troubling,” as the Iraq war has shown “all too clearly where it leads”:

It is deeply troubling to see the U.S. Senate joining the chest-pounding and saber-rattling of the Bush administration. I am no apologist for the Iranian regime, anymore than I was for Saddam Hussein, but I fear that we may become entangled in another bloody quagmire. We have been down this path before. We have seen all too clearly where it leads.

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As former Vice President Al Gore noted in his book, The Assault on Reason, Byrd made a similarly prescient speech in 2003, warning against the invasion of Iraq:

We are truly “sleepwalking through history.” In my heart of hearts I pray that this great nation and its good and trusting citizens are not in for a rudest of awakenings.

To engage in war is always to pick a wild card. And war must always be a last resort, not a first choice. I truly must question the judgment of any President who can say that a massive unprovoked military attack on a nation which is over 50% children is “in the highest moral traditions of our country”. This war is not necessary at this time. Pressure appears to be having a good result in Iraq. Our mistake was to put ourselves in a corner so quickly. Our challenge is to now find a graceful way out of a box of our own making. Perhaps there is still a way if we allow more time.

At that time, Byrd noted that the Senate was “ominously silent” and failed to question the Bush administration’s invasion plan. “There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war,” he said. Let’s hope that with Iran, the Senate wakes up before it’s too late.

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This Sunday marks the six-year anniversary of the initial U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. In an interview with ThinkProgress, Said Tayeb Jawad, the Afghanistan Ambassador to the U.S., said the military incursion “was something that the Afghan people demanded.” He explained, “Every Afghan knows that there’s no way for us to have a better life except for the assistance and partnership of the United States.”

While emphasizing his strong support for the initial invasion and a continued presence, Jawad said there have been at least two major mistakes that have contributed to the rise in violence:

1) Underinvestment in financial and military resources. “In the past five years, there was an underinvestment in building the infrastructure in Afghanistan, including the quality of life of the Afghans.” Jawad said U.S. presence “should have been very robust from the beginning” and “assistance should have been much stronger.”

2) Failing to fight terrorism in a comprehensive manner. “From the very beginning, the mission targeted was more or less at going after individual terrorists.” Jawad argued, instead, “we should have been fighting terrorism as a phenomenon, and include in our fight not only terrorist individuals but also warlords, narco-traffickers, and many others.”

While “expectations have not been met” for the past six years, Jawad said the new leadership in Congress gives him hope for the future:

My engagement with the new leadership in Congress and the Democrats in Congress indicates that they are even more committed to pursue the war in the original front of the war against terrorism and to help out Afghanistan.

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While repeatedly expressing his hope for a continued U.S. military and financial presence, Jawad said the “long-term solution is to help build the Afghan forces, the Afghan national army and the police force.” “It’s our own country,” he said “we would like to defend it ourselves. Give us the know-how, the skills, and the equipment and we will do it.”

“Afghanistan is winnable and achieving victory in Afghanistan is easy. The people are your partners. All we need to do is invest in building the capacity of the Afghans to defend their own country,” Jawad concluded.