Congresswoman Brown Opposes President's Plan
for Iraq Troop Increase

(Washington, DC) - Congresswoman Corrine Brown made the following statement:

"I stand in wholehearted opposition to the President's plan to send an additional 20,000 troops to Iraq.  Before making further decisions regarding the war in Iraq, particularly if he is considering thousands more soldiers in harm's way, the President needs to consult with Congress, hold hearings and engage in substantive discussion.

Moreover, even the Joint Chiefs of Staff were worried that sending troops would merely set our military up for failure, without an outlet.  They were also concerned about 'U.S. troops fighting in a political vacuum if the administration did not complement the military plan with political and economic changes,' (Washington Post, January 10th).  Certainly, as we have seen throughout the Iraq war, an increase in troops could very well produce the opposite of its intended effect, and merely inspire radical groups to participate in acts of random violence and terror.

Nowhere was the American public's call for a New Direction clearer than in the war in Iraq.  Just recently, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group report concluded, as I have said from the outset, that President Bush's Iraq policy 'is grave,' and that it is in desperate need of change.  I have been stridently opposed to the Iraq war from the outset and voted against the War Resolution, House Joint Resolution 114, which 'authorized the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq,' when it came before the House of Representatives on October 8th, 2002.  I have argued from the beginning of this conflict that the President intentionally misled the American public by supplying them with spurious grounds for going to war.  That said, I certainly do not support the President's calls for an increase in troops in Iraq."
 

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