OPEN FORUM
A fully funded 6-month withdrawal plan
Lynn Woolsey
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
(01-16) 17:59 PST -- It was Will Rogers who advised: "When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." Yet the Bush administration is grabbing for every shovel it can find. Faced with his own spectacular failure in Iraq, with violence that his own CIA director termed "satanic, President Bush has chosen to escalate the very policy that catalyzed the slaughter and mayhem in the first place. The White House finds itself in a hole and, incomprehensibly, has decided to keep digging.
It's long past time that we climb out of the hole. Today in the House of Representatives, I am introducing the Bring Our Troops Home and Sovereignty of Iraq Restoration Act, a comprehensive legislative proposal to quickly end the occupation of Iraq. It is a broad measure, capturing ideas from military and diplomatic experts and including provisions offered in previous legislative proposals. Specifically, the bill would, among other things:
-- Withdraw all U.S. troops and military contractors from Iraq within six months from the date of enactment.
-- Accelerate, during the six-month transition, training of a permanent Iraqi police force.
-- Prohibit the continued funding, except for the redeployment of troops currently in Iraq, of combat troops to Iraq.
-- Prohibit any permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq. (Despite official denials, bases are under construction, including one that includes a miniature golf course and a Pizza Hut).
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http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/16/EDG0ONJHRP11.DTLU.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, represents Marin and Sonoma counties in the U.S. House of Representatives.