A Message On Iraq

Dear Friend:

We should immediately end the War in Iraq that the Bush Administration should never have started.

American troops and Iraqi civilians are dying in a Shiite-Sunni civil war. The United States is spending billions in Iraq while education, health care, and other domestic needs go unmet here at home. All the while, the war diminishes our standing in the world.

I can’t help but be reminded of our experience in Vietnam – particularly when the President proposes to escalate the war and conservative activists clamor for military strikes against Iran.

Last month, Congress took an important first step to end this madness. Along with more than 240 of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle, I voted for a resolution expressing disapproval of the President’s proposal to deploy an additional 21,500 combat troops to Iraq.

Our bipartisan protest, however, fell on deaf ears. The President brushed aside our criticism, much as he has refused to acknowledge the will of the American people since November.

The President’s refusal to change course in Iraq leaves Congress no choice but to exercise the “power of the purse” and withhold all funding for a war that has now lasted four long years.

We must fully support the troops the President's policies have unwisely put in harm’s way. The best way for us to do so is to bring them home. In Congress, I will work with my colleagues in the Progressive and Out of Iraq Caucuses to do just that and end this senseless and tragic conflict.

I hope to see you at my town meetings on Saturday, March 17th.

Sincerely,

 
Pete Stark

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