Posted on 08/22/2007 5:15:26 PM PDT by mdittmar
Washington, D.C. – In a letter today to President George W. Bush, Third District Representative Walter B. Jones (R-NC), along with Reps. Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), Ron Paul (R-TX), John Duncan (R-TN), Howard Coble (R-NC), Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), Phil English (R-PA) and Steven LaTourette (R-OH) applauded the President’s consideration of alternatives to the current U.S. policy in Iraq and urged the President not to include an escalation or “surge” of U.S. military forces as part of that new strategy.
The text of the letter is below.
Dear Mr. President:
We fully support your consideration of alternatives to the current U.S. policy in Iraq and eagerly await your announcement of a new U.S. strategy. We respectively urge you not to include an escalation or “surge” of U.S. military forces as part of that new strategy.
As members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have indicated in published reports, even a short-term escalation of the number of U.S. troops in Iraq could create larger problems in the long-term. It would increase Iraqi dependence on our forces, deplete our strategic reserve and force extended tours of duty for soldiers and Marines who are scheduled to return to their families. Hostile militias could respond by simply melting back into society until the surge is ended. The Pentagon has warned that an escalation of our troop levels in Iraq could lead to an increase in al-Qaeda attacks, provide more targets for Sunni insurgents and fuel the jihadist appeals for foreign fighters to attack U.S. soldiers.
Former Secretary of State and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Colin Powell, recently characterized our Army as “about broken”, warning against an escalation of the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. According to a recent Military Times poll, nearly three-quarters of our servicemen and women think that our military is stretched too thin to be effective.
We have already seen the results of a surge of U.S. forces in Baghdad. Last August we increased the number of troops there by 12,000 as part of “Operation Together Forward”. Since then the level of violence and the loss of American and Iraqi lives has increased significantly. According to the Pentagon, there were an average of almost 960 attacks per month against Americans and Iraqis since the surge began. This is the highest level of attacks recorded by the Pentagon since it began issuing quarterly assessment reports in 2005. Clearly, the escalation of U.S. troops in Baghdad failed to meet its mission. There is no evidence that expanding this approach even further would lead to a different result.
Mr. President, we applaud your re-assessment of U.S. strategy in Iraq. However, we urge you to reject any recommendation for either a short or long term increase in the number of U.S. troops. We are persuaded by all available evidence that an escalation of U.S. troop levels is not the way forward in Iraq.
“screwed the pooch” moment for them, eh?
Nice to see a list of who I won’t be voting for...
They will probably say that may be what they said but that is not what they meant.
Talk about egg on face, this is it big-time.
Ron Paul (R-TX)
Surprised to see Bartlett on there, but the rest are losers. Latourette needs to go for sure.
“January 10, 2007”
Must have been sent via US Postal Service.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/08/the_worms_turn.html
August 22, 2007
The worms turn
Clarice Feldman
The Baathists who until recently had joined forces with Al Qaeda have now switched and offered to join the Coalition forces in Iraq to fight Al Qaeda:
The leader of Iraq’s banned Baath party, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, has decided to join efforts by the Iraqi authorities to fight al-Qaeda, one of the party’s former top officials, Abu Wisam al-Jashaami, told pan-Arab daily Al Hayat.
“Al Douri has decided to sever ties with al-Qaeda and sign up to the programme of the national resistance, which includes routing Islamist terrorists and opening up dialogue with the Baghdad government and foreign forces,” al-Jashaami said.
Al-Douri has decided to deal directly with US forces in Iraq, according to al-Jashaami. He figures in the 55-card deck of “most wanted” officials from the former Iraqi regime issued by the US government.
Recent weeks have seen a first step in this direction, when Baathist fighters cooperated with Iraqi government forces in hunting down al-Qaeda operatives in the volatile Diyala province and in several districts of the capital, Baghdad.
hat tip: Laurie Mylroie
~~~~
FReeper thread
Has Maliki Ended the Insurgency?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1884998/posts
Latourette used to be my congressman when I lived in Ohio. If I still lived there, I would consider running against him.
Nice to see my Congresscritters aren’t that stupid. I can’t stand RINOs.
HAaaaahahahaha!
Nice catch:)
I thought my congressman was conservative, but he recently showed me that hewas not, although he did not vote for this surrender bill.
And that list is growing, especially among conservatives.
RINOS? Jones, Paul, and Duncan are three of the most anti-big government members of the House.
Paul the traitor strikes again. Has he apologized for blaming the USA for 9-11 yet?
For Heaven’s sake, why is 8 month old news being posted as “news?”
This is from JANUARY.
My Dad worked for the US Postal Service for 30 years.
Put 5 kids through school,worked 2 more jobs when the money was tight.
Was a Aviation Machinists Mate in WW11, oh,and about the date,FR has a long memory.
Isn’t that special. Idiots.
If I lived in Ohio I’d vote for you ;)
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