[Peace-discuss] Democrats to Bush: Time to end Iraq war

[Stuart Levy]

On Fri, Jan 05, 2007 at 03:43:27PM -0600, Chas. 'Mark' Bee wrote:
> "The American people demonstrated in the November elections that they do 
> not believe your current Iraq policy will lead to success and that we need 
> a change of direction for the sake of our troops," the letter said....
> 
> Democrats to Bush: Time to end Iraq war
> 
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070105/pl_afp/usiraqbushcongress2
> 
> WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Congress's new Democratic leaders warned 
> President George W. Bush that surging more troops into Iraq would fail and 
> it was time to end the war, days before his expected unveiling of a new US 
> strategy.
> 
> New Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and new House of Representatives 
> Speaker Nancy Pelosi flexed political muscles acquired by grabbing control 
> of Congress in November's elections, cranking up pressure on the White 
> House.
> 
> Bush, widely expected to send more troops into Iraq in a last-ditch effort 
> to rescue the violence-wracked nation, also faced new pressure from the 
> opposite political flank, as hawkish senators John McCain and Joseph 
> Lieberman urged him not to admit defeat.
> 
> Pelosi and Reid called on Bush to start a phased redeployment of US forces 
> within four to six months.
> "After nearly four years of combat, tens of thousands of US casualties and 
> over 300 billion dollars, it is time to bring the war to a close," the two 
> leaders wrote.
> 
> "The American people demonstrated in the November elections that they do 
> not believe your current Iraq policy will lead to success and that we need 
> a change of direction for the sake of our troops," the letter said.
> 
> "Surging forces is a strategy that you have already tried and that has 
> already failed..... 

Yes, this is encouraging.  Though note that we have been getting mixed
messages from Democrats in the recent past.  Let's press them to stick
to this line, if not a stronger one.   "[S]tarting in four to six months"
is far better than Bush is pushing, but it isn't quite a timetable.
And we (and the Iraqis) need to hear about non-funding for permanent bases.

I was *very* encouraged to hear Durbin on NPR yesterday listing other approaches
that the House+Senate could use to limit our future involvement in Iraq,
short of the straightforward purse-strings option (cutting off all funding
for the war, which I expect couldn't survive a Senate filibuster).
Others outside of Congress have been talking along these lines too, but for
the #2 Dem in the Senate to be saying this gives me real hope.

Let's hope too that he's encouraged by the bundle of postcards.

I too am disappointed that withdrawing from Iraq wasn't one of the issues
slated for the first 100 hours, but I don't feel betrayed, yet.

   Stuart Levy