For Trying to Stop Wars in Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Says Bernie Sanders, 'I Make No Apologies'

Bernie Sanders reaffirmed on Saturday that he makes “no apologies” for his opposition to the Iraq war—and a possible future one in Iran—and took a jab at one of the Iraq war’s star cheerleaders.

The Democratic presidential candidate was in Vermont for his 2020 campaign’s first rally in his adopted home state, and spoke to a crowd of at least 1,500 on the steps of the state capitol.

Sanders’s speech followed efforts by some corporate media outlets to portray his anti-war stance as worthy of apology, a narrative he shot down in a short video last week.

“Yes, as a young man, along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others, I marched against the war in Vietnam,” Sanders said Saturday in Montpelier. “I make no apologies for having opposed that war.”

“As a member of the House of Representatives,” he added, “I helped lead he opposition to the war in Iraq.” That war, said Sanders, “turned out to be the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of our country and has led to the destabilization of that entire region with more war, more death, and more suffering.”

“I make no apology for leading the effort against the war in Iraq,” he said.

Sanders pointed also to his recent action as a U.S. senator introducing a War Powers resolution to stop U.S. military support for “the horrific Saudi-led intervention in Yemen.”

“I make no apologies to anyone for trying to end that horrible war,” said Sanders.