Posted on 10/16/2007 2:33:12 PM PDT by mnehring
The occupation in Iraq will begin to end on the day that Democrats -- and responsible Republicans -- in Congress decide to stop meeting the demands of the Bush-Cheney administration for more money to fund their imperial endeavor along with the massive war-profiteering by administration-linked firms such as Halliburton and Blackwater.
This is a simple reality. But it remains one that most members of Congress, including many Democrats who should know better, fail to recognize.
The essential document in the current Iraq debate is a letter of commitment, now endorsed by 89 members of the House, that says the signers "will only support appropriating additional funds for U.S. military operations in Iraq during FY08 and beyond for the protection and safe redeployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq before the end of President Bush's term in office."
In an important new letter to President Bush, the 89 representatives -- 88 Democrats and Texas Republican Ron Paul -- say, "More than 3,800 of our brave soldiers have died in Iraq. More than 28,000 have been seriously wounded. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed or injured in the hostilities and more than 4 million have been displaced from their homes. Furthermore, this conflict has degenerated into a sectarian civil war and U.S. taxpayers have paid more than $500 billion, despite assurances that you and your key advisors gave our nation at the time you ordered the invasion in March, 2003 that this military intervention would cost far less and be paid from Iraqi oil revenues.
"We agree with a clear and growing majority of the American people who are opposed to continued, open-ended U.S. military operations in Iraq, and believe it is unwise and unacceptable for you to continue to unilaterally impose these staggering costs and the soaring debt on Americans currently and for generations to come."
At a time when the president is requesting an additional $50 billion to maintain his escalation of U.S. military operations in Iraq through next April, on top of the $145 billion he requested to continue military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan during the 2008 fiscal year, the letter says what all of Congress should be saying: No.
What is now the most important anti-war initiative in the Congress began in July when the following House members signed on: Rep. Lynn Woolsey ☼ (CA); Rep. Barbara Lee ☼ (CA); Rep. Maxine Waters ☼ (CA); Rep. Ellen Tauscher (CA); Rep. Rush Holt ☼ (NJ); Rep. Maurice Hinchey ☼ (NY); Rep. Diane Watson ☼ (CA); Rep. Ed Pastor (AZ); Rep. Barney Frank ☼ (MA); Rep. Danny Davis ☼ (IL); Rep. John Conyers ☼ (MI); Rep. John Hall ☼ (NY); Rep. Bob Filner (CA); Rep. Nydia Velazquez ☼ (NY); Rep. Bobby Rush ☼ (IL); Rep. Charles Rangel ☼ (NY); Rep. Ed Towns (NY); Rep. Paul Hodes ☼ (NH); Rep. William Lacy Clay ☼ (MO); Rep. Earl Blumenauer ☼ (OR); Rep. Albert Wynn ☼ (MD); Rep. Bill Delahunt (MA); Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC); Rep. G. K. Butterfield (NC); Rep. Hilda Solis ☼ (CA); Rep. Carolyn Maloney ☼ (NY); Rep. Jerrold Nadler ☼ (NY); Rep. Michael Honda (CA); Rep. Steve Cohen (TN); Rep. Phil Hare (IL); Rep. Grace Flores Napolitano (CA); Rep. Alcee Hastings ☼ (FL); Rep. James McGovern ☼ (MA); Rep. Marcy Kaptur (OH); Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL); Rep. Julia Carson ☼ (IN); Rep. Linda Sanchez ☼ (CA); Rep. Raul Grijalva ☼ (AZ); Rep. John Olver ☼ (MA); Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (TX); Rep. Jim McDermott (WA); Rep. Ed Markey (MA); Rep. Chaka Fattah ☼ (PA); Rep. Frank Pallone ☼ Jr. (NJ); Rep. Rubin Hinojosa (TX); Rep. Pete Stark (CA); Rep. Bobby Scott (VA); Rep. Jim Moran (VA); Rep. Betty McCollum ☼ (MN); Rep. Jim Oberstar (MN); Rep. Diana DeGette ☼ (CO); Rep. Stephen Lynch ☼ (MA); Rep. Artur Davis ☼ (AL); Rep. Hank Johnson (GA); Rep. Donald Payne ☼ (NJ); Rep. Emanuel Cleaver ☼ (MO); Rep. John Lewis ☼ (GA); Rep. Yvette Clarke ☼ (NY); Rep. Neil Abercrombie ☼ (HI); Rep. Gwen Moore (WI); Rep. Keith Ellison ☼ (MN); Rep. Tammy Baldwin ☼ (WI); Rep. Donna Christensen (USVI); Rep. David Scott ☼ (GA); Rep. Luis Gutierrez ☼ (IL); Lois Capps (CA); Steve Rothman (NJ); Elijah Cummings (MD); and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX).
Since Congress returned from its summer break, the following members have joined this burgeoning effort to end the occupation: Rep. Chris Murphy (CT); Rep. Jesse Jackson ☼ Jr. (IL); Rep. Corrine Brown ☼ (FL); Rep. Bennie Thompson ☼ (MS); Rep. Mel Watt (NC); Rep. Gregory Meeks ☼ (NY); Rep. David Loebsack ☼ (IA); Rep. Anthony Weiner ☼ (NY); Rep. Dennis Kucinich ☼ (OH); Rep. Peter DeFazio ☼ (OR); Rep. Sam Farr ☼ (CA); Rep. Henry Waxman ☼ (D-CA); Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA); Rep. John Tierney ☼ (D-CA); Rep. Lloyd Doggett ☼ (D-TX); Rep. Anna Eshoo ☼ (D-CA); Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones ☼ (D-OH); Rep. Richard Neal ☼ (D-MA); and Rep. Louise Slaughter ☼ (D-NY).
Unfortunately, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and other key Democratic leaders have so far refused to commit to the only meaningful challenge to the Bush administration's war-without-end demands.
What Pelosi, who admitted over the weekend that the Congress has not done enough to challenge the administration's Iraq policies, needs to understand is that the time has come to stop the senseless killing and maiming of young Americans in a distant civil war. The time has come to end what is by any honest measure a colonial occupation and to allow Iraqis to decide their own destiny. The time has come to restore a measure of balance and decency to American foreign policy.
Perhaps most importantly, the time has come to ask whether those who fail to recognize the necessity of standing up to this administration -- unequivocally, consistently and without political calculation -- understand that their duty is to serve their constituents, their country and its Constitution -- as opposed to the mad whims of George Bush and Dick Cheney.
If he’s a Republican, I am Queen Victoria.
I suspect that Ron Paul was a Republican activist when you were in swaddling clothes.
You know nothing about me. Knock it off.
I have been accused of lying, so feel free to take a look for yourself:
For this past quarter:
http://query.nictusa.com/pres/2007/Q3/
And the one before:
http://query.nictusa.com/pres/2007/Q2/
If you click on a candidate, and go to “contributions by employer”, you can see how much members of the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force gave to each candidate. Ron Paul has raised more than any other Republican candidate from military members for the last two quarters.
Here’s a comiled version:
But, if you don’t trust that, feel free to dig through the FEC reports and add it up yourself.
He lost.
“and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX).” If he agrees with Sheila Jackson Lee and Maxine Waters .....UGH!!!!!!!!!
President Bush did make a bad mistake in the war on terrorism. But the mistake was not his decision to go to war in Iraq. Bush’s mistake came in his belief that this country is the same one his father fought for in WWII. It is not.
Back then, they had just come out of a vicious depression. The country was steeled by the hardship of that depression, but they still believed fervently in this country. They knew that the people had elected their leaders, so it was the people’s duty to back those leaders.
Therefore, when the war broke out the people came together, rallied behind, and stuck with their leaders, whether they had voted for them or not or whether the war was going badly or not.
And war was just as distasteful and the anguish just as great then as it is today. Often there were more casualties in one day in WWII than we have had in the entire Iraq war. But that did not matter. The people stuck with the President because it was their patriotic duty. Americans put aside their differences in WWII and worked together to win that war.
Everyone from every strata of society, from young to old pitched in. Small children pulled little wagons around to gather scrap metal for the war effort. Grade school students saved their pennies to buy stamps for war bonds to help the effort.
Men who were too old or medically 4F lied about their age or condition trying their best to join the military. Women doubled their work to keep things going at home. Harsh rationing of everything from gasoline to soap, to butter was imposed, yet there was very little complaining.
You never heard prominent people on the radio belittling the President. Interestingly enough in those days there were no fat cat actors and entertainers who ran off to visit and fawn over dictators of hostile countries and complain to them about our President. Instead, they made upbeat films and entertained our troops to help the troops’ morale. And a bunch even enlisted.
And imagine this: Teachers in schools actually started the day off with a Pledge of Allegiance, and with prayers for our country and our troops!
Back then, no newspaper would have dared point out certain weak spots in our cities where bombs could be set off to cause the maximum damage. No newspaper would have dared complain about what we were doing to catch spies.
A newspaper would have been laughed out of existence if it had complained that German or Japanese soldiers were being ‘tortured’ by being forced to wear women’s underwear, or subjected to interrogation by a woman, or being scared by a dog or did not have air conditioning.
There were a lot of things different back then. We were not subjected to a constant bombardment of pornography, perversion and promiscuity in movies or on radio. We did not have legions of crack heads, dope pushers and armed gangs roaming our streets.
No, President Bush did not make a mistake in his handling of terrorism. He made the mistake of believing that we still had the courage and fortitude of our fathers. He believed that this was still the country that our fathers fought so dearly to preserve.
It is not the same country. It is now a cross between Sodom and Gomorra and the land of Oz. We did unite for a short while after 9/11, but our attitude changed when we found out that defending our country would require some sacrifices.
We are in great danger. The terrorists are fanatic Muslims. They believe that it is okay, even their duty, to kill anyone who will not convert to Islam. It has been estimated that about one third or nearly four hundred million Muslims are sympathetic to the terrorists cause... Hitler and Tojo combined did not have nearly that many potential recruits.
So... we either win it—or lose it—and you ain’t gonna’ like losing.
America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall.
Make sure you give proper attribution to your soapbox.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1906763/posts
Your suspicion is misplaced. It should be focused on what the hell happened to Ron Paul's sanity.
“88 Democrats and Texas Republican Ron Paul”
Excuse me! Ron Paul is a Libertarian!
eeeewwww!
As a Texan, I wish they would at least leave out the "Texas" part.
He takes money from Republicans so he is wearing that hat now.
‘88 Democrats and Texas Republican Ron Paul ‘
No surprise at all.
A rose by any other name, eh?
He has sold out.
While the topic is up, how do you feel about Paul earmarking $13Million Dollars for the TransTexas Corridor (the first leg of the NAU highway)?
As a Texan, I second that.
I wish I was from Paul's district so I could vote against him.
Go, Chris Peden!
I am in John Carter’s district and couldn’t be more proud to have him represent me.
Good catch...
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