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November 21, 2005

I wish Earl Blumenauer was my Congressman

Earl brings his plan for Iraq to the table:

American forces should be redeployed out of Iraq in two phases. First, let's bring the 46,000 National Guard and Reserve forces home immediately. These elements in our total force have been most overburdened by ever-increasing deployments and are most needed here in the United States.

Continued U.S. aid and military support must be tied to performance objectives for the Iraqi government and military. On that basis, the rest of the American forces should be withdrawn over the next one to two years, based on a detailed plan for the sector-by-sector transfer of security responsibility. The majority of these troops should be brought home. Others should be redeployed to Afghanistan to create a larger security footprint and help prevent the re-emergence of the Taliban. A small rapid-reaction force should be left in Kuwait that can protect against any destabilizing coups.

The administration must re-engage diplomatically by seeking a new United Nations resolution that supports international efforts to stabilize Iraq and by beginning a regional security dialogue with Iraq's neighbors. We should also work with the Arab League to facilitate a renewed effort toward a political solution within Iraq by engaging with nationalist faction leaders who might be a force for stability when U.S. troops are withdrawn.

We must also change the nature of our economic assistance. By shifting reconstruction aid to Iraq away from large projects undertaken by foreign contractors toward small, locally oriented projects run by Iraqis, we would create jobs, give Iraqis a greater investment in their success and minimize corruption and price-gouging.

President Bush's model of "go it alone, do it cheap and put it on a credit card" has not only led to grave instability in Iraq, it is crippling our ability to deal with the more serious strategic threats, from Iran and North Korea to a terrorist movement that we have inadvertently strengthened.

Imagine that. Another Democratic Congressman who actually has a plan to deal with mess in Iraq. If only the vomitous Jean Schmidt and the rest of the Republican House contingent had something more to offer than their usual pap of "traitor!" garbage.

It's apparent that the Democrats are willing and able to offer up meaningful, purposeful ideas to get us out of this debaucle.

The Republicans want to "stay the course". The problem is...there is no course. There are no clear objectives. There is no way for the troops or the American people to know when our job is done over there. We merely have an arbitrary lipservice to "supporting the troops"...which is meaningless. How can we "support the troops" when no one knows exactly what we're supporting?

Then there's the we must win the "global war on terror". Since when did we fight a war against feelings? "Terror" is an emotion. I get that it's about fighting "terrorism"...and I can support that. But thus far we have yet to see any plan from the Republicans that will actually lessen terrorist recruitment or terrorist acts.

Iraq has created a breeding ground for recruiting terrorists. It's a rallying cry for these individuals to perpetuate their disgusting acts. If we're serious about combatting terrorism we need to get out of Iraq ASAP.

It seems Blumenauer understands this. So do many other Democrats, apparently. What's taking the Republicans so long to figure it out?

Posted by Carla at November 21, 2005 04:22 PM