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Just received this email from Senator Leahy--after just seeing Senator Leahy on CNN Your World Today kicking butt regarding the Bush adminisration's renditions to Syria and their professing not to know these people will be tortured there.
Dear________
We are about to pass a significant milestone. Later today, the U.S. House of Representatives will take an important first step toward ending the war in Iraq. I commend the strong bipartisan majority that will stand up and say "no" to President Bush's plan to escalate the war in Iraq.
Of course, this non-binding resolution by the House is only a first step -- but sending a clear message against an escalation of troops is better than years of the silence of a rubberstamp Republican Congress.
That's why I also support binding legislation by Senator Obama and Senator Feingold to begin a phased redeployment of our troops out of Iraq. It is not our role to choose sides in a civil war, and it is not our troops' role to die trying to force these warring factions to settle their age-old differences.
Unfortunately, Republican leaders are preventing us from having this crucial debate here in the Senate. Last week and again yesterday, Majority Leader Harry Reid tried to provide the Senate with an opportunity to debate a bipartisan resolution on Iraq. But Republican Senators continue to block our efforts, insisting on a separate vote that offers nothing more than political cover. Instead of a debate on the President's policy, they want the debate to be about who "supports" the troops.
As has so often been the case when anyone asks questions, expresses reservations, or stands up to oppose the President's failed policy in Iraq, his defenders accuse them of being unpatriotic or of not supporting the troops. That is wrong.
As one who for years has fought for veterans benefits, for fair treatment for the National Guard, for armor for our troops who were sent into battle unprepared, and for replacing the depleted stocks of essential equipment that our troops need and depend on, this absurd accusation has worn thin.
Clearly, the American people want Congress to debate and vote on the Bush Administration's policy in Iraq. The costs of this misadventure have been catastrophic. More than 3,000 Americans killed, and more than 20,000 wounded. Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have lost their lives. We're on a trajectory of spending $1 trillion, throwing money out the door at a rate of more than $2 billion each week to fund this war. Our international reputation and the influence it brings, including among our allies, has been badly tarnished and diminished.
And where are we now, after all of that? We are in the midst of a civil war among religious and ethnic factions, an insurgency that shows no sign of diminishing, and out-of-control organized crime. Our presence is only stoking al Qaeda's involvement in Iraq. It is hard to say that we have made any real progress toward the larger objectives of bringing democracy to Iraq or the Middle East. It is time we face the grim reality, and it is time we deal with it. Our soldiers' lives are in the balance.
It is time to begin an orderly withdrawal from Iraq. We must join with other countries in the region -- those whose input this Administration has often ignored -- and seek to stabilize the region through sustained, high level diplomacy.
If the President cannot face the reality that even members of his own party increasingly have come to accept, then it is our responsibility -- our patriotic duty, our moral duty -- to act.
Keeping our troops in Iraq is not making us safer. We should begin bringing our troops home. Congress has it in its power to force the President to change course. That is what the American people want, and that is what we should be debating. And with your continued help, that's what we will do.
Sincerely,
Patrick Leahy
U.S. Senator
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