Where's the plan, Secretary Rumsfeld?

[rodeodance]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Where's the plan, Secretary Rumsfeld?
Date: Tue, 07 Mar 2006 18:27:47 +0000 (GMT)
From: Barbara Boxer <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
To:


Dear xxxxx,

It's now been almost 2 weeks since the February 22nd bombing of the Askariya shrine in Samarra, a holy place for Shia Muslims. And the violence between Shia and Sunni factions continues unabated, despite Bush Administration claims to the contrary, with more than 500 Iraqis killed in just the past 13 days.

Still, our brave men and women in uniform remain in harm's way, caught in the middle of an increasingly violent religious conflict -- and the situation is in real danger of spiraling into a full-scale civil war.

More than 31,000 Americans -- including you -- have already signed my online petition to Secretary Rumsfeld, demanding a plan for protecting our troops in the increasingly likely event of an all-out civil war. But we need thousands more. Won't you invite your friends & family to join us?

Invite your friends & family to tell Secretary Rumsfeld to develop a plan for getting our troops out of the middle of an Iraqi civil war now!

You and I and millions of Americans have demanded an exit strategy, which the Bush Administration has still refused to produce. At a minimum, we've demanded a real timetable with concrete, measurable milestones so we can measure our progress towards withdrawing American troops.

Now, with full-scale civil war a real possibility, the Bush Administration must do more -- and quickly. President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld can't continue to bury their heads in the sand about the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Iraq. It's time for them to wake up to the facts and plan for the worst: how to get our troops out from the middle of a potential civil war.

That's why I wrote to Secretary Rumsfeld nearly 2 weeks ago, urging him to produce a plan for the worst-case scenario of full-scale civil war in Iraq -- and to share that plan with Congress. His response? Silence.

I guess the Secretary of Defense thinks he can ignore a legitimate inquiry from a Senator representing the largest state in the Union. So tell him he can't ignore tens of thousands of Americans.

Invite everyone you know to sign my petition to Secretary Rumsfeld now!

Given this Administration's past failure to plan for the Iraqi insurgency after the American invasion, we can't take anything for granted. It seems that the Bush Administration can only see things through rose-colored glasses. And that's clearly not acceptable with American lives on the line.

The only way we'll know that they're prepared is if they develop a plan for dealing with an Iraqi civil war -- and share that plan with the relevant committees in Congress, so the American people can be reassured that the Bush Administration is ahead of the curve, for a change.

Our brave servicemen and women deserve no less than the very best from their civilian leaders. With your help and vigilance, we'll make sure that's what they get.

Please invite your friends & family to sign my petition to Secretary Rumsfeld now -- before I deliver it to the Pentagon this week!

Thanks for your continued help and support!

In Friendship,

Barbara Boxer

P.S. Please take just a minute to invite everyone you know to join us. I want to add thousands more signatures -- but we need to do it quickly, so I can deliver our petition to the Pentagon this week.

Visit BarbaraBoxer.com

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