Since the latest redistricting of Texas, I am once again in Lloyd Doggett's district. Today he sent an email request for input on the remarks he will make during the House debate on the Iraq war next week--he will have five minutes to speak. As a Texan, I am so grateful to have this kind of representation in the House (even though I still have no representation in the Senate). I am also so grateful that the day has finally come when we have so many strong Democratic voices in both houses. Lloyd Doggett has been an outspoken critic of the war since before it started, when few politicians seemed the courage to speak out.
Below are Cong. Doggett's email and my reply. (Thanks, Maccabee, for your recent diary, which I linked to in my response to him.) Although the congressman has directed his request for input to his constituents, feel free to add your comments below. I will send him a link to this diary.
February 9, 2007
Dear [roses]:
Knowing of our shared concern about the on-going war in Iraq, I offer you this update from Washington. Next week, the House of Representatives will have a debate about the war. The Democrats will offer a resolution that rejects President Bush's misguided escalation. The Republicans will bring their own war-related measure to the House floor.
In the past, I have sent you my remarks after I have delivered them. For this speech, I expect I will receive five minutes to speak, much more than the usual one or two minutes usually allotted to Members. I seek your advice on what I should say during my floor speech. I may speak as soon as Tuesday, but it might be later in the week.
<snip>
Please let me know what you would like me to say during this
important debate.
My reply:
Dear Congressman Doggett,
It's so nice to again be one of your constitutents and thereby have true representation in the U.S. House. And I very much appreciate your request for input on your upcoming remarks on the Iraq war.
There's so much wrong with the war that I could list dozens of items, but I'll just mention a few things that don't seem to be getting as much attention as they deserve.
- I've read that not only are the troops currently in Iraq still ill-equipped, but the military does not have the equipment even for training Bush's proposed increase in troops, much less properly equipping, housing, and feeding them when they are there. For details excerpted from reliable newspapers, please see "Sir, we are running out of ammo..." here.
- The proposed escalation seems to further jeopardize our national security by squandering such a large proportion of our resources of all kinds in the Iraq war, endangering our military's ability to defend us at home--which is its real purpose. In addition, the war already is causing all sorts of military cutbacks here at home. (See above link for details.)
- The Bush administration's track record of mismanagement of funds appropriated for the Iraq war makes the proposed escalation ludicrous. What happened to the billions of dollars that the Bush administration just "lost"? Why was there no record keeping? Why has there been no accountability? How can Congress in good conscience appropriate any more funds for this same administration to spend in Iraq when it has behaved so irresponsibly already?
- No escalation of the Iraq war can be justified in the midst of the ongoing, brazen fraud, incompetence, and war profiteering. An excerpt from the New York Times regarding the fraud and incompetence:
WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 — In June, short of people to process cases of incompetence and fraud by federal contractors, officials at the General Services Administration responded with what has become the government’s reflexive answer to almost every problem.
They hired another contractor.
It did not matter that the company they chose, CACI International, had itself recently avoided a suspension from federal contracting; or that the work, delving into investigative files on other contractors, appeared to pose a conflict of interest; or that each person supplied by the company would cost taxpayers $104 an hour. Six CACI workers soon joined hundreds of other private-sector workers at the G.S.A., the government’s management agency.
Without a public debate or formal policy decision, contractors have become a virtual fourth branch of government. On the rise for decades, spending on federal contracts has soared during the Bush administration, to about $400 billion last year from $207 billion in 2000, fueled by the war in Iraq, domestic security and Hurricane Katrina, but also by a philosophy that encourages outsourcing almost everything government does....
The full article is here.
- Our country needs to redirect its resources to caring for its servicemen and women, including its veterans (especially those who have been wounded physically and psychologically); rebuilding New Orleans and addressing the needs of its residents; and aiding the citizens of Iraq who are suffering so greatly, and helping to rebuild their country (that is, really rebuilding it--not funneling money to corporations that have not done what they were paid to do).
- Last but not least: Stop the torture--now.
Congressman, thank you for your service to our country and my district. I look forward to the House debate on the war, and especially your remarks.