The following is the Senate transcript from Senator Hillary Clinton, who is partnering with Senator Byrd in a proposed bill to force the President to, in effect, ask Congress to continue to authorize the "war" in Iraq. At the end of the transcript, I will give you five reasons why this is not a good idea. Yes, I know this may be troubling to my fellow liberals, but hear me out before jumping on the "get out of Iraq bandwagon." Yes, I was against it going in. Yes, I think the intel was deliberately doctored to go into this unnecessary police action. Yes, I think Bush and Cheney had this planned out, and seized on 911 as their golden ticket to get into the middle east. Just hear me out....
SENATOR CLINTON: "Madam President, I rise to join my colleague and friend, Senator Byrd, to announce our intention to introduce legislation which proposes that October 11, 2007 -- the five year anniversary of the original resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq -- as the expiration date for that resolution. As Senator Byrd pointed out, the October 11, 2002, authorization to use force has run its course, and it is time to reverse the failed policies of President Bush and to end this war as soon as possible. Earlier this week, President Bush vetoed legislation reflecting the will of the Congress and the American people that would have provided needed funding for our troops while also changing course in Iraq and beginning to bring our troops home. I believe this fall is the time to review the Iraq war authorization and to have a full national debate so the people can be heard. I supported the Byrd amendment on October 10, 2002, which would have limited the original authorization to one year and I believe a full reconsideration of the terms and conditions of that authorization is overdue. This bill would require the president to do just that. The American people have called for change, the facts on the ground demand change, the Congress has passed legislation to require change. It is time to sunset the authorization for the war in Iraq. If the president will not bring himself to accept reality, it is time for Congress to bring reality to him. I urge my colleagues to join Senator Byrd and me in supporting this effort to require a new authorization resolution, or to refuse to do so, for these new times and these new conditions that we and our troops are facing every single day. Madam President, I yield the floor. "
5 Reasons We Should Stay In Iraq and Finish The Job
We owe it to the Iraqi people. They are depending on us not to leave them high and dry and in a far worse condition than they were in before Bush got us into this mess.
We have our reputations at stake. We can't leave with our tails between our legs with another Vietnamese embarrassment. At least the world will know that when we go after something (or someone) we do not stop until we are victorious. We have resolve.
We owe it to our fallen soldiers. If we leave now, all of our fallen soldiers (and the many more fallen peace seeking Iraqi citizens) will have died for nothing.
Leaving Iraq now will leave a dying carcass of a country that will be easy pickings for the neighboring Shia countries to devour. And absolutely devastate the Sunni population that we already screwed over last time when they could have toppled Hussein themselves with our help, but we turned our backs on them, and stood by while Saddam gassed them to death as a punishment.
If we leave now, the rest of the World will realize that we are no longer a super power, and will not partner with us when we need them to. Although their lack of support for the Bush effort was simply good judgement in hindsight, next time it becomes necessary to enlist their support (for something really serious, and not some personal agenda from the U S administration) they will think twice. We have already shown ourselves to be weak in fighting ground wars number one, and we will look like quitters when the going gets tough, number two. Not the kind of country you want to unilaterally support in a time of war, or look up to for protection, is it?
How to stabilize Iraq so we can leave
Good Lord help me, but the only one one offering up any semblance of a concrete plan for stabilizing this country is that nut job Tommy Thompson, and I agree in principle with it.
So what does that say about me, you ask?
Divide the country into 18 (?) separate and unique regions (by religious beliefs) who will elect their own legislative bodies and sit in an Iraqi senate.
Additionally, they will receive 1/18th of the oil revenue so they can set up local governments and police / reservist peace keeping bodies. This will allow us, not to leave, but back away from active peace keeping / policing activities within the hot spots.
Some regions will be more effective at keeping the peace than others. The peaceful regions will see an influx of the good people (doctors, etc.) that left in droves when all this started playing out.
Local religious leaders will focus their attentions on improving their region, rather than on killing, and getting our forces out. All citizens will step up to protect their region and take back some pride in each individual sector, be they Sunni, Shia, Kurd, etc.
This will separate the warring factions of this "civil war", and neighboring countries will step in and help out individual regions with revenue as well (Saudis will help Sunni's, others will help out the Kurd's, the Shia, etc.).
Although it would be naive to assume there will be an immediate "balance of local powers", at least it would be a step in the right direction, and the local citizenship would have some hope that they have a voice in the government of the country they love so much.
2 comments:
Tough medicine,
It appears that the current crop of democrats are cowtailing more on the resentment of the Bush administration. Senator Reid blundered saying the war is lost. 20/20 hindsight correctly should of stated that President Bush has lost. We need a clear candidate that will speak on the fix instead of the out. Senator Biden has been consistent in response and resolution for years. Senator Clinton is pandering for votes. Senator Obama says he is proud of his initial stand against occupation, OK so what? As a citizen I would like to listen less on who and how is responsible for the mess. It is time for agreement and its upsetting that are potential leadership poll numbers first for reaction and quickly washing hands to the mistake. On the other hand now is a good reason to leave. Now we have certainly more death and sadly in the middle of a civil war that will not change for years to come. The question is how much suffering is enough? I think mandatory draft or community service would help in getting our young men and woman more involved, this is the voice seldom heard who ultimately is and will pay the highest cost.
Just to make a point, or two… the first being a correction of Mark.
Mark, we are not in the middle of a civil war. While Iraq could fall into a civil war, currently Iraq is not in one. One political party would have to drop out of the government and declare itself either the rightful government or to declare a portion of the country a new country. Like in our Civil War. All parties are still in the government trying to work it out. Most of the killing over there is Al Qaeda killing Muslims and Arabs as well as our military personnel.
This brings me to point two. This is the first time in history that people are killing their own people and countrymen for the express purpose of trying to get us out of a country. This didn’t happen in Germany, Japan, or even Vietnam.
I will have to admit this is quite a quandary, one that neither a Democrat nor Republican President could have foreseen.
Tough times we are in. Let us just praise both the President and the military for the least amount of soldiers killed in any war in our country’s history. It would have been a bit lower if the President had listened to Colin Powell.
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