16 Dems urge Bush to start pullout from Iraq

[Kadie]

16 Dems urge Bush to start pullout from Iraq
Group includes Woolsey, Stark and Lee from Bay Area
Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Thursday, January 13, 2005


Washington -- Sixteen House Democrats led by Rep. Lynn Woolsey of Petaluma called on President Bush on Wednesday to begin the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, just as some administration supporters are starting to question the wisdom of staying the course in the war.

So far, the Bush administration remains publicly unshakable in its position that the elections on Jan. 30 should proceed despite fears about safety for voters in parts of Iraq. The president and other administration officials have said U.S. forces will start withdrawing only once U.S.-trained Iraqi forces can take responsibility for more of the patrolling and the fighting. And even then, the withdrawal would be much more phased than the departure envisioned by the House Democrats in a letter sent Wednesday to the president.

Privately, however, top administration officials are in deliberations about how to proceed in Iraq, where hopes are fading that the elections on Jan. 30 for a national assembly to write a constitution will improve security.

The anti-war Democrats' letter was sent as more voices are being raised across the political spectrum in Washington discussing how the United States can begin to remove its 150,000 troops from a country where almost 1,400 Americans have been killed.

more...
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/01/13/MNGGUAPEKM1.DTL

[wtmusic]

1. Did we see this coming a mile away?

What a effin' mess.

[freedom_to_read]

2. every avalanche starts with a single pebble...

This sounds pathetic, only 16 dems have the courage to stand up and call for a withdrawal.

But it's only the beginning. These 16 brave people are laying down a path that 17 will follow, then 18, then 19...

This "mess o potamia" is going to collapes, bringing the Bush administration, the neocon GOPer, and (hopefully) the sycophantic corporate owned MSM down with it.

We need to support these politicans!

[progressiveBadger]

3. In a related story...

Bush vows to find out who created this Iraq mess and why. </fakebutreal>

[cally]

4. She's my Representative!!

Thanks Rep. Woolsey. I better call her office.

[mitchtv]

24. Lynne is the Best

I used to live in Sonoma Valley and I sure miss her. I got Mary Bonehead(Bono) now.

[freedom_to_read]

5. TEXT of the letter

January 12, 2005

The Honorable George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President,

We write to urge you to take immediate steps to begin the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.

Although the initial invasion of Iraq may have occurred with minimal troop deaths, the subsequent occupation of the country has been anything but successful. Already more than 1,300 American troops have lost their lives since the war began on March 19, 2003. At least 10,000 American troops have been injured as well, and it is impossible to know exactly how many thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians have been killed. Despite the enormity of the war’s casualties, the Iraqi insurgency continues to grow stronger with every passing day.

Iraq is no closer to becoming a stable democracy today than it was two years ago, as evidenced in recent weeks by the daily torrent of insurgent attacks on American forces and Iraqi civilian leaders. On January 4th, insurgents assassinated Ali Haidari, the governor of the Iraqi province that includes Baghdad. Just as devastating to the prospect of democracy, on December 30th, al-Jazeera satellite channel reported that all 700 electoral workers in Mosul quit their posts out of fear of being killed. Two weeks later, on January 10th, the entire 13-member electoral commission in the Anbar province, just west of Baghdad, resigned after being threatened by insurgents. If even Iraqi election officials fear for their lives, how can we possibly expect Iraqi citizens to feel safe going to the polls? How can we continue to put our own troops in harm’s way, the continued targets for Iraq’s thousands of malcontent insurgents?

It has become clear that the existence of more than 130,000 American troops stationed on Iraqi soil is infuriating to the Iraqi people - especially because Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction and did not have a connection to the tragic events of September 11th, 2001 or to the al Qaeda terrorist organization. Indeed, the very presence of Americans in Iraq is a rallying point for dissatisfied people in the Arab world. The events of the last two years have not only intensified the rage of the extremist Muslim terrorists, they have also ignited civil hostilities in Iraq that have made Americans and Iraqis substantially less safe. Therefore, by removing our troops from the country, we will remove the main focus of the insurgents’ rage.

Again, while it may be logistically difficult to immediately remove every American soldier, we urge you to take immediate action to begin the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. This is the only way to truly support our troops. Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

Rep. Lynn Woolsey
Rep. Danny Davis
Rep. Lane Evans
Rep. Sam Farr
Rep. Raul Grijalva
Rep. Alcee Hastings
Rep. Maurice Hinchey
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich
Rep. Barbara Lee
Rep. John Lewis

Write these folks and thank them for their courage!!

[ignu]

6. i just donated a few bucks

http://www.woolseyforcongress.com/

[0007]

10. I see only eleven names on that list. I thought there were sixteen?

[freedom_to_read]

11. hmmm... dunno

I just cut anbd pasted it from Woolsey's site. mebbe I left a few off.

[BR_Parkway]

16. Can Congress vote to withdraw? Or to take back the autorization

that they gave him? I know it's not likely to happen with the current RePug control, but I just wonder.

[Cocoa]

18. they can cut off funding

like they did in Central America, not that it stopped Reagan...

[renaissanceguy]

28. exactly what John Kerry wanted to do

but he was called a "flip flopper" for it.

http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.14741250 http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.15841168

[grasswire]

25. I didn't see Alcee Hastings...

...during the Jan. 6 proceedings.

In fact, I haven't seen much of him lately. I wonder if he is well.

[Supersedeas]

32. then too Brent Scocroft and James Baker should add their names

[Demeter]

7. Now, If It Were 16 Elephants It Might Be News

but it will take another 6 months at least for the GOP to get up enough nerve (and for things to get even worse) for that to happen.

[BR_Parkway]

20. It's starting to happen, Howard Coble R-NC is saying we should

be looking at it.

http://www.news-record.com/news/local/cobleiraq_010905.htm

Coble, a Republican from Greensboro, is one of the first members of Congress -- Republican or Democrat -- to say publicly that the United States should consider a pullout.

The 10-term congressman, head of the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, said he is "fed up with picking up the newspaper and reading that we've lost another five or 10 of our young men and women in Iraq."

<snip>

Coble said that if he had known there was no post-invasion strategy at the time of the vote on the war-powers resolution he would have "insisted that we keep our powder dry while we do some probing and planning."

Coble said he simply assumed that the administration had a post-invasion plan. "There was never any question that we could whip their butt," he said. "The question was what were we going to do after that.

"Obviously, somebody was asleep at the planning table."

[ckramer]

8. "Bring it on!" The president shouted

[Virginian]

9. He won't do what a Dem tells him to do!

On the surface, he won't do what a Dem tells him he should do. He will do it, but put a different spin on it.
I can't remember what it was, but during the campaign, Kerry said he would do such and such if elected. The Bush people changed the spin, did what ever it was and they starting saying Kerry was against it and had flip-flopped. The flip-flop as usual, was Bush.

[Thurston Howell IV]

12. It's a good start

Being congressional representatives, their position has some weight to it. It puts the idea into the mainstream. It seems like a short matter of time before the list of supporters grows signficantly, and also includes republicans as well.

Finally!

[Cocoa]

13. here it comes!

get ready for these dems to be totally marginalized.

And please, every time a whore declares that "everyone" thinks we "have to" stay in Iraq, contact that whore and tell them to do their job and report about this letter.

[Dawgs]

14. I think it's brilliant...

Dems need continue to do stuff like this and stay ahead of the game.

This takes away Bush's ability to claim a victory in Iraq. My guess is that he was going to wait until the election was over, then start pulling out. That way he could say, "see how the Iraqis are living free in a democractic society. Now we can start pulling our troops out.". Instead, the dems have taken this away from him.

They have made it an issue of safety for out troops... not a claim of victory for Bush.

[Massachusetts]

15. Coble added

"the time has come for Iraqi people to assume more responsibility."

We Invaded their country under false pretenses, bombed the crap out of them, eroded their infrastructures further, set up a puppet Gov, and in general created situation of complete disarray, and Coble puts a spin like that on this mess we made.:wtf:

[VegasWolf]

17. georgie replies, "Can't pull out now, it feels soo good!" n/t

[Canuckistanian]

26. Just like George Carlin about Vietnam

"Pull out? Doesn't sound manly to me, Bill. I say leave it in there, get the job done!"

Or Chevy Chase on SNL:

"Cuban troops pulled out of Angola today. A frustrated Angola could not be reached for comment"

[malachi]

27. Too bad Poppy didn't pull out of Babs the nite the chimp was spawned.

[FlyByNight]

19. How will the regime pursue a possible "Salvador option"...

if they start an immediate withdrawal soon? There's still lots of Iraqis to "pacify". <sarcasm off>

[DFWJock]

21. Wait...

We cant "cut and run" we havent found the WMD's yet.

[Dems4HowardDean]

22. Powell says troops will begin to pull out by the end of the year

American troops will begin leaving Iraq this year as the Iraqi army, national guard and police force take on a larger security role, says Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites).

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&u=/ap/20050112/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_3&printer=1

[ckramer]

23. This is what I'm afraid of ...

1) US army moves out of Iraq
2) The Sunni kill half of the Shia in Iraq, and enslave another half
3) The Sunni kill 90% of the Kurds
4) Iraq invades Kuwait again
5) Bush invades Iraq again because they now have a dictator called Haddam Nosame!
6) Bush cancels the election in 2008 and appoints himself forever president of the United States because of the war after war after war!

[MichiganVote]

29. Nah, that's too imaginative a tale for Bush. Nice novel though

[Deja Q]

30. Just how centrist or left are these mostly unnamed 16?

:shrug:

[Vidar]

31. Well the house dems have cojones. How about the Senate?

[despairing optimist]

33. Silver lining in the dark cloud

If Kerry had won, I don't think this would have happened. It would have given the Republicans ammo to tag the Democrats as the ones who "lost" Iraq and as "girlie men."

The fact that opposition to invading and occupying Iraq is now bipartisan bodes well for the future. It's starting to feel like a flashback to 1973, though.

[sarcasmo]

34. Title should have been, 16 Dem's show a heartbeat.

Nice to see these Democrats finally standing up.

[struggle4progress]

35. kick