In honor of the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War, Michigan Senator Carl Levin has released a statement in which he once again makes it clear that he is not an ally of the antiwar movement.

Mediamouse.org has been tracking Senator Levin's statements on the war for months and has exhaustively documented that he has repeatedly advanced the idea that the Iraqis--and not the US occupation--are to blame for the current situation in Iraq. In the past, he has said Iraqis are "dawdling" on making political compromises and are essentially unworthy of the United States presence.

However, his most recent statement, "Paying for Reconstruction in Iraq," may be the worst one yet. In it, Levin argues that American taxpayers have been funding Iraq's reconstruction while Iraq is getting rich off oil revenues. Levin says, "the Iraqi Government is not doing nearly enough to provide essential services and improve the quality of life of its citizens" and that it has been US taxpayer money that has funded the reconstruction. Apparently, Levin forgot that it was the United States that has destroyed Iraq via the Gulf War, sanctions, a policy of almost daily bombing raids during the 1990s, and the most recent war. Moreover, Levin also must have forgotten that the United States' reconstruction efforts have been woefully inadequate and that much of the money was misspent and possibly lost. Instead, Levin once again declares that the United States has no responsibility for the situation in Iraq and that the country's problems are caused by Iraqis themselves.

Over the weekend, Levin also likened the Iraqi people to children, saying that the United States needs to "take our hands off the training wheels."