Dear Gregory,
After nearly five years of a painful war in Iraq, there aren't any good solutions. President Bush has refused to do the tough diplomatic and political work required to end the war, putting everything on the shoulders of our military, and the Republicans in Congress have been with him every step of the way.
Make no mistake -- this is now a Republican war and the Republicans have walked away from every effort to responsibly end it.
Everyone agrees there must be a political solution. The Biden-Brownback- Boxer amendment pushes to the forefront a political solution in Iraq where each region would be given significant control over its own laws and administration. The Senate is scheduled to vote on this Biden-Brownback-Boxer amendment as early as Tuesday morning, and I need your help to encourage my Senate colleagues to support it.
I love Barbara. She is one of the greatest Senators in Congress. But this call to action is a little silly as she wants to blame the Republians only and doesn't acknowledge that since the 2006 election this is now the Democrat's war as they are the majority in Congress. There is a fundamental detachment from reality by the Democrats in Congress if they think that they can convince the American Public that this is not a Democratic Congressional war.
So, with the Biden-Brownback-Boxer amendment she is dead wrong. Here's my response.
Hon. Barbara Boxer,
I love you Barbara, but this amendment is wrong. The Congress of the USA is not in a position to tell Iraqis what to do -- even if it is the best thing to do.
Congress should make no law regarding the sovereignty of another nation.
Please, just leave Iraq now. Please, filibuster every single bill before the Senate until we start leaving. Shut down the government from doing a single piece of business until the order is given to remove ALL the troops, even the troops in the giant military bases in the desert.
Last night I heard a talk from a civilian attorney who went to Iraq to defend a soldier in a court martial trial who was suffering from PTSD yet had been sent back for another tour and got himself into trouble when he had discharged his weapon on base. Apparently there is enough fragging going on now in Iraq that it is reminding the Brass a little too much of Vietnam, so they wanted to make an example of this poor soldier who had nothing even remotely to do with fragging and who should never have been sent back for another tour, but who was an easy target for the officers to take out their frustration on.
The attorney told of the surreal experience of going to a giant military base in the desert built from the ground up that looks like it could be a town in the California desert near Barstow.
The base has streets with curbs, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Subway, Baskin-Robbins, swimming pools (outdoor and indoor), a stadium (used at night because it is too hot in the day), etc. It's like a movie set of a little USA town plopped down in Iraq. But a movie more like "The Confederate States of America" since all the service "help" are brown faces from the Philippines or India. There is not an Iraqi to be seen. The US Military is simply practicing serfdom-racism under the heading of "maintaining security."
This is exactly what is wrong with the "occupation." The Iraqis are watching not only foreign troops come in as invaders, but they see foreign workers being imported in to get the benefits of occupation service jobs. When the US invaded and occupied Japan not a single contract went to US companies. The Japanese companies got the contracts and the Japanese people got the jobs. That was how the US made friends with the people they were occupying.
The US military, the President, and Congress, and yes, even my hero Barbara Boxer and virtually all of Democrats in the Senate and way too many Democrats in the House, just don't get it that the US can't come in and dictate to the Iraqis how they will govern themselves, all the while not giving them the financial and security benefits of occupation, and also building US military bases as permanent US towns dotting Iraq.
What part of that failed picture don't they see?
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