Terrible things are afoot in Iraq, and have been for many moons. Here's the letter I just sent to my Senators and Congressman.
I’m writing you today to urge you to do everything in your power to oppose the escalation of troops in Iraq which President Bush spoke of in his recent speech to the nation. The war in Iraq has descended into a civil war between opposing groups within that country. Our soldiers cannot resolve this struggle by force of arms. It is for the Iraqi people themselves to settle their differences and move forward, either as a single nation or divided into three.
I feel that because of our invasion, our country has an obligation to help the Iraqi people in this very difficult time. But I don’t think our continued military presence there is the kind of help they need. We need to increase our use of diplomacy and work with the rest of the world to resolve this conflict as well as can be done.
Most importantly, I have no confidence that this administration has the skill, knowledge, and competence to use our military effectively in the Iraq conflict. They’ve botched this thing from beginning to end. They should not be allowed to put any more of our brave soldiers in harms way.
The non-binding proposal to oppose the troop increase is a good first step and I hope you support that move. I further ask that you give your support to the legislation submitted by Senator Kennedy which prohibits our President from escalating the war without authorization from Congress.
Finally, I want to express two additional concerns about this escalation. The first is that the President’s speech contained veiled threats against Iran and Syria. I greatly fear that he might choose to widen the war to include those countries. Please do everything you can to oppose such an action.
Second, from articles I’ve read in the last two days, I understand that troops may be taken out of Afghanistan to provide some of the forces for this escalation. This seems like a terrible mistake to me. The terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 came from Afghanistan. If there’s any country where our military presence may help reduce terrorism, it’s that one.
I'm terrible afraid that Bush and company want to stick with the Iraq fiasco through the end of his presidency. I can only hope that the new Democratic Congress can stop them, or at least slow them down.
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