The People's House Votes for a New Direction in Iraq
Saturday, April 28, 2007 at 08:48AM by Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter
America is at a crossroads. Congress has sent President Bush a bill calling for him to end the war in Iraq. The President has threatened to veto the bill and to continue the war without restrictions or apparent end.
Four years ago, Mr. Bush stood on the deck of the U.S.S. Lincoln and declared "Mission Accomplished." Since then, more than 3,300 American soldiers have died and 25,000 have been maimed or injured. Tens or even hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have perished.
From the beginning, the President has hidden the true cost of the war by failing to include it in his budget. Every year, he has come to Congress asking for "emergency" supplemental spending. Every year, Congress has provided the money with no strings attached - even as the situation in Iraqhas spiraled out of control.
We have now borrowed and spent hundreds of billions to pay for the President's war. Our children and grandchildren will have to repay this debt to foreign lenders like Communist China. There is no end in sight -and no accountability.
Now there is a chance for all that to change.
This week, the House and Senate passed the final version of a supplemental spending bill that would effectively begin the end of the President's war in Iraq. It fully provides for the needs of our soldiers while they are on the ground and creates a responsible plan for bringing them home.
The legislation will force the President to prove that his escalation has been effective. If he cannot show that Iraq is making meaningful progress toward achieving military and political goals, he must begin redeploying troops by July 1st. At the latest, redeployment must begin by October 1st, with a goal of completion within six months.
The President may say that a timetable is unnecessary - but after four long years I don't think the American people would agree.
The bill provides substantial increases in funding to protect and care for our soldiers. It includes money for the purchase of Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles, which - had they been available earlier - might have saved the lives and limbs of many of our soldiers. It also provides special funding for soldiers who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and from brain injuries.
The President can call this "pork" - but I don't think our soldiers would agree.
In addition, the legislation requires the President to honor the terms of our soldiers' enlistments. It forces him to guarantee that they are healthy and adequately trained before they are sent into the field. It requires that the Department of Defense follow its own guidelines regarding the length of rotations and the rest period before redeployment.
The President may say that this ties his hands - but I don't think our military families would agree.
The legislation adds $1.8 billion for veterans' health care. It allocates $20 million to address the problems at Walter Reed Army MedicalCenter. It provides additional money for treatment of veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The President may say that this funding is unnecessary - but I don't think most veterans would agree.
Mr. Bush says to "stay the course." Yet General Anthony Zinni, former commander of U.S.troops in the Middle East, says that "the course has been a total failure," and that it "is headed over Niagara Falls." General Wesley Clark, former Supreme Commander of NATO Forces in Europe, says that the war has been a "hopeless spiraling failure."
Our soldiers have served bravely and honorably in Iraq. Theywere given a mission and they achieved it - over four years ago. Now they are trapped in the middle of a religious and civil war. It will be manyyears before America truly realizes the magnitude of their sacrifice. Their families know already.
While they serve, our soldiers cannot speak for themselves. But we can speak up for them. That is our duty.
Congress has taken a bold step to protect our soldiers and our country. This legislation reflects the will of the American people - to begin the end of the tragic war in Iraq. With his signature, the President can help move us in a new direction.
It is now up to him to do what is right.
Reader Comments (83)
So voting against the war effectively ends it? Maybe you should tell Moqtada al-Sadr. And maybe you should tell Al-Qaeda. Maybe with all your wishful thinking you can end war everywhere in the world since voting against war makes peace, right?
When there are a mountain of dead Iraqis and the entire Middle East is embroiled in a massive war, potentially nuclear, we will all be reminded of what a danger extreme naivete is. We already experienced it from an extremely naive Republican president, and thank you Carol for showing that Democrats can be equally naive, and equally dangerous.
You say "It is now up to him to do what is right."
I hope for all of our sakes that his measure of right and wrong is a little more complex and is a little more responsible than yours. I hope that he concerns himself with regional security, something you obviously haven't done. I hope he concerns himself with the lives of the millions of Iraqis whose destiny we inherited when we invaded their country, again something you readily overlook. And I hope he considers the lives of our military that will have to go back over to the Middle East to fix the mess that one more intellectually feeble and ethically childish politician created.
This is a perfect example of 100% hypocrisy.
Thank you for this excellent piece Carol as well as forcing Bush to make a true exit strategy rather than eternal quagmire that would decrease our position in the world.
If you were to channel all these intelligent comments into your wikipedia edits, boy the world would be a much more wonderful place. Think about it.
She is not PROPOSING ANYTHING. She knows this will get vetoed and she is making a statement about how the world would work in her dreams. This is not a proposal, it is a political statement. All she offers us is more blame going to George W. Bush (Thank you congresswomen, we forgot who got us into this mess) and a plan to leave our mess behind us to get horrifically worse.
We have started a new plan with the troop surge, and from what I have seen IT DESERVES OUR FULL EFFORT. Not half an effort. Not a whiney, child in the back seat complaining effort. This deserves the support of our entire nation because frankly, at the moment, it is our only hope.
We must create a more secure Iraq so that our diplomacy will even work in the region. Saudi Arabia is barely listening to us on regional affairs. We must create a more secure Iraq before making deals, because the diplomatic efforts Carol Shea-Porter would get us into as we have already telegraphed our departure date would most surely mark the beginning of a regional war.
Could you put down the cider and go and ask Carol to come and refute my claims? She wrote this guest blog, obviously welcomed comments, and I would like to know what her plans are for the genocide that all parties agree will accompany a withdrawal from Iraq.
Bang-up job he did in the Balkans. We still have the people responsible for the 1995 Srebrenica genocide sipping tea in cafes. Troops still separate the different factions and the country is divided according to ethnic considerations.
There were no "mass graves" containing hundreds of thousands of civilians. But Dutch peacekeepers did allow almost 8,000 civilians to be murdered right under their noses.
We had no business whatsoever going into Bosnia, we were never attacked by anyone in the Balkans. There was no international stability at stake as in cut off oil supplies. Nothing!
And yet we tout the leader of that failed mission as an example of how to pull off a win against a well funded Islamo-facist gorilla army in the Middle East?
Shea-Porter-Swett's talking points expose the fact that liberal Democrats are using a war for political gain and our troops as pawns.
Who will she blame when after her precious surrender in Iraq, Afghanistan becomes the hot point? Why not set a surrender date for there as well while your at it.
She should stick with voting lock step with her pal Rep. William Jefferson.
...or does it even matter now that it's not politically helpful?
Shea-Porter's answer to everything is the same old Blame America First and Always talking points.
Remember Democrat talking points BEFORE the US sent troops to Iraq?
We were, along with her trusty United Nations, "murdering" 5,000 Iraqi childern a month with sanctions that denied medicine to Iraq. Sanctions were part of UN diplomacy if I remember correctly.
The peace moms were going over to Iraq with medicine and acting as human shields against US agression.
That was all our fault then. Everything is our fault now. You can't win with the America hating demogogues.
But we still need to have adults protect our country and run our military even if Shea-porter isn't up to the task.
Neither is her mentor, General Wesley "His Kosovo war is still going" Clark.
Waiting Carol...
While you are at it, please tell me how we will protect our energy interests, our diplomatic interests of Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, etc.?
How will we keep Iran from creating a nuclear bomb Carol when we have already abandoned any position of power we could have used against them.
How will we deal with skyrocketing oil prices that will result from your policies?
Who is going to tell our people in uniform when they are home in the states and unpacked and relaxing for a moment that they need to pack right back up again and go back to Iraq.
"...and by the way, it is a hundred times worse than when you left it."
I want answers Carol.
I would say the same for most of your recent posts on here, particularly the ones where you are afraid of comments.
Is all this criticism of Carol due in any case from sour grapes from the Congressional Primary?
I know you're a good person at heart, but your rhetoric here along with your recent choice isn't making it easy not to verbally respond here about how the voters of New Hampshire made the right choices last fall.
This is about human lives. I never cared whether I got elected or whether I embarassed myself in front of the state or country. I knew that human lives were at stake and they still are. I will keep doing what I think will help to save lives, to bring security to the region, and to get us out of this mess, even if it includes telling a congresswoman how brainless her scheme is.
About the other post, I am actually trying to take a break from all this and enjoy my family so I didn't want to have to respond to comments, but what Carol and her buddies are doing in Congress is not only wrong, not only idiotic, but it is very dangerous to the lives of the people who are fighting in Iraq. Although a new plan is in place with a new general in charge, and although our president has signaled that he won't sign any legislation if it has timetables for withdrawal, Carol and her genius friends couldn't help telegraphing to Moqtada al-Sadr and all the militant groups that a bloodfest is coming and all they have to do is wait.
They have to look up to see Jane Fonda, that is how small this is.
I want answers congresswoman.
Pick your battles. Don't be defending this crap to me. You are better than that.
Even though I am a Republican now... technically I am still part of your constituency...which means I too deserve some answers. Just a reminder...still waiting...
I would defend "this crap" even if it weren't advocated by someone who I respect. You're one of those people I respect as well, but if you attack someone else who I respect like I said before, I have to respond.
Also, Carol is probably too busy to read all of these comments, if you'd like an answer (you aren't "technically" part of her constituency, you are part of her constituency), it'd probably be best to contact her office directly
All of the contact info for her offices is at http://shea-porter.house.gov/
Thanks for your concern. Although none of this is any of your business since you are already happy with this lunacy, I have already sent a polite letter to my congresswoman and got no reply. I don't care because I didn't really want a reply, I just wanted to politely share my opinion. But after taking a few shots over the bow and our representative still not acknowledging reality I feel it is time for some clear responses from Congresswoman Shea-Porter.
There is no need to defend her Andy. She is the one with the well thought out plan. I am the one who should be nervous as I am squaring off against the genius of geniuses with regards to Iraq.
If you really trust the wisdom of your beloved Carol, and if you want to be a good sycophant maybe you should be warning me that she is going to turn me into toast.
Come on Carol, tear me apart with your Iraq wisdom. Explain to me why the lives of millions of Iraqis just don't matter.