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.
88 Democrats and Texas Republican Ron Paul
The left is returning to Cuba?
Imperial endeavor? How utterly cute. I guess these 89 moonbats forgot that their boy Slick Willy signed into U.S. Law the IRAQ LIBERATION ACT of 1998 making it official U.S. policy to overthrow the Saddam regime and replace it with a democratic form of government.
It' a bit scary when someone such as myself knows more about what is going on than those who are supposed to be leaders of the USA.
Imperial endeavor? How utterly cute. I guess these 89 moonbats forgot that their boy Slick Willy signed into U.S. Law the IRAQ LIBERATION ACT of 1998 making it official U.S. policy to overthrow the Saddam regime and replace it with a democratic form of government.
It' a bit scary when someone such as myself knows more about what is going on than those who are supposed to be leaders of the USA.
Next up, water is wet and fire is hot...
We need to clean our own house first.
Let’s get a real Conservative who supports our troops in Paul’s seat.
We need to clean our own house first.
Let’s get a real Conservative who supports our troops in Paul’s seat.
Looks like a DU thread over there.
Lincoln arrested a seditious congressman.
I haven't paid *any* attention to that race because I just assumed that Tsongas would win in a gallop.However I heard a news report yesterday on one of Boston's major radio stations that the race was "neck and neck" which stunned me.If he wins today no Freeper should count on seeing any more posts from me because I'm likely to die of a stroke or heart attack.
life is good when your on the soros payroll.
” Go pound sand.”
I’ll second that. The bigger the grains the better. Clean themselves out real good before they reinsert their heads.
I have been following it pretty closely...I gave him a donation and would have liked to help on the campaign, but...family illnesses and death made that out of the question.
A good sign: I drive through Concord, MA every day, and every so often I see the POS antiwar protesters...the other day, there were Ogonowski supporters and signs out, but now Tsongas signs. It was nice to see.
Ron Paul would rather find the money to fund shrimp projects
They're not men, and they don't belong in this country. But your right, they are trying to kill us from within.
He’s trying to bring them home. As a Congressman, he has no other way of doing so other than voting to cut funding. Also, before spouting the usual crap about Ron Paul “not supporting the troops”, consider that Ron Paul has raised more from the military then all of the other Republican candidates.
Lets de-fund the war on poverty.
And also arrested senators...here's one sent packing:
Vallandigham, the Notorious
Clement Vallandigham, a notorious anti-Union zealot from Ohio was banished from his own country by Abraham Lincoln. He would not go peacefully though, nor could he remain long away from the war that fueled his hatred. Eventually, he would die in as bizarre a fashion as he had lived.
Clement Laird Vallandigham, a former Ohio Congressman from Dayton, Ohio was largely responsible for a growing and vocal opposition to the Civil War. The reportedly handsome young lawyer, son of a Presbyterian minister, was the undisputed leader of the Copperheads ("Peace Democrats") in the Northwest. He was also a notorious, thinly-veiled, Southern sympathizer who made speeches, to anyone who would listen, calling the war, "wicked and cruel," and which was quite obvious to all. Then however, Vallandigham strayed beyond the realm of reality and suggested that the Republicans only wanted to end slavery to further their quest for a dictatorship. The government had little tolerance for such reckless and inflammatory remarks. Unfortunately for Vallandigham, "treason" was then a clay-like concept that would be molded to suit the needs of the war effort.
On May 5, 1863, a Company of the 115th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, dispatched to Dayton, Ohio by special train, broke into Vallandigham's house at 3:00 A.M. and arrested him. The former Congressman was taken from his home in a nightshirt and quickly transported to Cincinnati where he would be tried by a military commission the following day on charges of "treasonable utterances." Riots broke out in Dayton in response to the arrest, with fires destroying an entire city block. Troops from Columbus and and Cincinnati were brought in and martial law declared. Vallandigham was soon convicted of aiding the Confederates, and on May 19, 1863 President Lincoln ordered Secretary of War Stanton to see to it that Vallandigham was banished to "beyond the military lines of the United States and not be permitted to return, under threat of arrest."
Federal troops in Tennessee turned Vallandigham over to the Confederate Army on May 25, 1863. In June, President Davis of the Confederate States, having no use for Vallandigham, orders him to Wilmington, North Carolina to be guarded as an "alien enemy." That same month. Peace Democrats in Ohio nominate the the exiled and incarcerated Vallandigham for Governor. A committee of the Democratic convention demanded that President Lincoln reverse his ordered exile of Vallandigham. Lincoln refused. "Must I," Lincoln lamented, "shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wiley agitator who induces him to desert?" In October, Vallandigham, now exiled by the Confederate States to Canada, would be defeated for the Ohio Governorship by Democrat John Brough from Marietta.
On June 14, 1864, one year after being exiled, Clement Vallandigham slips back into the country and arrives in Ohio wearing a feeble disguise that fails to deceive the Federal agents watching him. Soon, he will be appointed National Commander of the radical "Sons of Liberty," a secret anti-war organization also known as the "Knights of the Golden Circle." Throughout the summer of 1864 Vallandigham will conspire with the Confederate agents in a bizarre plot to effect the release of 20,000 prisoners of war in Ohio, Illinois and Indiana.
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