Sammy's getting his groove....
U.S. residents: Call your congresscritter and demand support for this bill.
For Immediate Release
January 11, 2007
FARR INTRODUCES BILL TO FORCE WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ
Washington, D.C. – Following the president’s speech announcing his
intention to escalate our involvement in Iraq, Congressman Sam Farr
(CA-17) today introduced legislation to repeal the Authorization for Use
of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (Public Law 107–243)
and to require the withdrawal of our armed forces from Iraq.
“The president’s call last night to escalate the Iraq war flies in the
face of the voters who clearly called for a change in our Iraq policy
last November. I have long opposed the Administration’s war in Iraq and
today I am introducing a bill to repeal the Authorization for Use of
Military Force Against Iraq and force the president withdraw our troops
from Iraq. Too many troops have died, too many have been wounded, and
Iraq has descended into a violent civil war. Our men and women in
uniform have served valiantly, but the solution to the crisis in Iraq is
political and will not be reached by keeping our troops in harm’s way,”
said Farr.
Farr’s legislation simply reads:
SECTION 1. REPEAL OF PUBLIC LAW 107–243.
The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of
2002 (Public Law 107–243; 50 U.S.C.1541 note) is hereby repealed.
SEC. 2. WITHDRAWAL OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES FROM IRAQ.
The President of the United States shall provide for the withdrawal of
units and members of the United States Armed Forces deployed in Iraq as
part of Operation Iraqi Freedom in a safe and orderly manner.
“The longer this war drags on, the clearer it becomes that it is the
wrong war at the wrong time for the wrong reasons. Trying to make up for
the fact that the Administration insisted on going into Iraq with too
few troops more than three years ago by escalating our involvement now
is not a ‘new strategy.’ There is a way forward, but that way is through
withdrawing, not sending more troops,” added Farr.
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http://farr.house.gov/issues2.cfm?id406&feed=rss
Also, International A.N.S.W.E.R. had something to say about GWB's strategy:
March 17 2007 Washington, That’s The ANSWER…
The ANSWER Coalition Responds to Bush’s War Speech of January 10, 2007
<http://leighm.net/blog/2007/01/11/thatstheanswer/>
The ANSWER Coalition Responds to Bush’s
War Speech of January 10, 2007
ANSWER Coalition Statement:
Unwilling to accept the failure of his war of aggression in Iraq, his
“war of choice,” Bush announced tonight a plan that will succeed only in
sending thousands of Iraqis and U.S. soldiers to their graves in the
next year.
What Bush is really proposing is using thousands of additional U.S.
soldiers in a planned reign of terror in the streets and neighborhoods
of Baghdad against those who want the U.S. to leave.
Bush chose to use a euphemism about the planned reign of terror when he
stated that one of the past “mistakes” of the U.S. military operation in
Baghdad was that, “there were too many restrictions on the troops we did
have.” The blood will flow just as Bush promises but this plan will fail
just as badly as every announced initiative since Bush arrogantly
taunted the Iraqi resistance with his infamous “Bring em on” speech back
in 2003.
Bush gave the people of the United States a warning that they should
expect the coming year will be “bloody and violent,” with “television
screens filled with images of death and suffering.”
He tried to innoculate himself from responsibility for this carnage
although his plan makes it inevitable.
Bush’s aspiration to salvage his “legacy” and his place in history isn’t
worth one more life. Every mother and father of a U.S. soldier, every
person who has a loved one in the U.S. armed forces should make it clear
that the lives of their family members are too precious to be sacrificed
for such an ignoble cause.
For the last six years, Bush has provided huge tax breaks for the
billionaires and multimillionaires of this country. But it will not be
their children who will be sent to fight and die in Iraq. The privileged
ultra-rich, Bush’s real “base,” are shielded from the horrors of the war.
The deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis since March 2003 (see
Lancet medical journal 10/06), proves beyond a reasonable doubt that
Bush’s claim that his invasion was for the liberation of the Iraqi
people is a complete and utter lie.
“Clearing and holding neighborhoods in Iraq” is not the duty or right of
members of the U.S. military. The people who live in those neighborhoods
lived in peace before the arrival of the occupation forces. The
occupation is illegal and the order to stiffen the occupation is illegal
too. U.S. soldiers have the right and duty to disobey illegal orders.
Neither one more Iraqi nor one more soldier should die so that the
politicians, who inaugurated a criminal “pre-emptive” invasion of a
country that posed zero threat to the people of the United States, can
postpone the verdict of history.
For their part, the Democrats in Congress are involved in a slightly
more complicated dance. They want to posture as opponents of Bush’s
escalation and so-called surge without taking responsibility for
bringing the war to a close. They could cut funding for the war which is
their exclusive Constitutional prerogative. But they will absolutely
refuse to take this responsibility. They are merely posturing for the
2008 elections hoping to take advantage of the well deserved public
disgust for Bush and the Iraq war.
The issue right now for the anti-war movement can not simply be
opposition to a surge or an escalation: the issue is the war itself. The
troops must be brought home now. As in Vietnam, that is the only
solution. Those who initiated the war and who funded the war should be
held accountable for one of the great crimes of the modern era.
Everything that Bush has said about the Iraq war has proved to be a lie.
This was always a war for Empire in a strategic area that possesses two
thirds of the world’s oil supply. He proclaimed tonight that, “failure
in Iraq would be a disaster for the United States.” If Bush fails in
Iraq the people of the United States lose nothing. It is not our Empire.
On March 17, 2007, the anniversary of the start of the criminal invasion
of Iraq, tens of thousands of people from around the country will
descend on the Pentagon in a mass demonstration to demand: U.S. Out of
Iraq Now! 2007 is the 40th anniversary of the historic 1967 anti-war
march to the Pentagon during the Vietnam War. The message of the 1967
march was “From Protest to Resistance,” and marked a turning point in
the development of a countrywide mass movement.
Thousands of organizations and individuals are mobilizing for the
upcoming March on the Pentagon. Organizing committees and transportation
centers are being established to bring people to the March on the Pentagon.
Tomorrow, January 11, there will be emergency demonstrations in scores
of cities around the country protesting Bush’s planned escalation of the
war in Iraq. A schedule of the demonstrations can be found by clicking here.
The March 17 demonstration will assemble at the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial (Constitution Gardens) at 12 noon in Washington, D.C. and march
to the Pentagon.
Go to http://www.answercoalition.org/ for more information.
There are more than 1,000 endorsers for the March on the Pentagon,
including:
Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General
Alice Walker, Pulitzer prize winning author
Cynthia McKinney, Congresswoman
Cindy Sheehan, co-founder Gold Star Families for Peace, author
Ron Kovic, Vietnam Veteran, author, Born on the 4th of July
Malik Rahim, Founder, Common Ground Collective, New Orleans
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit
Paul Haggis, Director of Crash, 2005 Academy Award for Best Picture
Elias Rashmawi, National Coordinator, National Council of Arab Americans
(NCA)
Howard Zinn, Author, A People’s History of the United States
Rev. Luis Barrios, Iglesia de San Romero - UCC
Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild
Chaplain James Yee, former Army chaplain, Guantánamo Detention Center
Mahdi Bray, Executive Director, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation
Father Roy Bourgeois, Founder, School of the Americas Watch
Leonard Weinglass, Attorney for the Cuban Five
Eric LeCompte, National Office, School of the Americas Watch
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Co-founder, Partnership for Civil Justice
Brian Becker, National Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition
Mounzer Sleiman, TV commentator and Vice Chair, National Council of Arab
Americans
Ben Dupuy, Co-Director, Haiti Progres
Juan Jose Gutierrez, Executive Director, Latino Movement USA
Calvin Gipson, Former President, San Francisco LGBT Pride Committee
Rev. Graylan Hagler, Senior Pastor, Plymouth Congregational Church,
Washington D.C
Kay Lucas, Director, Crawford Peace House, Crawford, TX
Chuck Kaufman, Co-coordinator of the Nicaragua Network
Al Garcia, Alliance for a Just & Lasting Peace in the Philippines
Macrina Cardenas, Mexico Solidarity Network
Eugene Puryear, Howard University, student leader
Gloria La Riva, Coordinator, National Committee to Free the Cuban Five
CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
Nodutdol for Korean Community Development
KAWAN: Korean Americans Against War and Neoliberalism
Justice Committee Ed Asner, Actor
Shirley Knight, Actor
Debra Sweet, National Coordinator, World Can’t Wait — Drive Out the Bush
Regime
Jennifer Harbury, Human Rights Lawyer, author
United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA)
Jim Lafferty, Director, National Lawyers Guild - Los Angeles
Iglesia de San Romero - United Church of Christ
Mimi Kennedy, Actor (Dharma & Greg)
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.answercoalition.org/ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311
Seattle: 206-568-1661
