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The following letter from Reps. Maxine Waters, Lynne Woolsey, and Barbara Lee was sent to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the House Leadership today:
Dear Madame Speaker, Majority Leader, Majority Whip, Democratic Caucus Chairman, and Democratic Caucus Vice-Chairman:
As leaders of the Progressive Caucus and Out of Iraq Caucus, we write to urge you not to include funding for the continued military occupation of Iraq in any Fiscal Year 2008 omnibus spending bill unless it requires these funds to be used solely for fully-funding the safe and timely redeployment of our troops and military contractors from Iraq within a specified timeline. Should legislation come to the House floor that does not strictly limit funding to protecting our troops and a timeline for commencing and completing their complete redeployment out of Iraq, we will not be able to support such a bill. (See attached official position of the Progressive Caucus on Iraq plus related letter to President Bush co-signed by 92 House Members.)
After almost five years, nearly 4000 lives of our brave service men and women, and approximately half-a-trillion dollars spent, it is past time for the US occupation of Iraq to end.
The basic reality is that the only way to end the violence against US forces and bring stability to Iraq and the region is to declare that forces will be redeployed from Iraq as soon and safely as is possible and that we have no designs to have an indefinite military presence there. In fact, over the last year, the President has signed provisions into law four times that state the US will not have a long-term military presence in Iraq.
Additionally, the American public is ahead of Congress on this point. More than half of those polled in recent weeks want US troops home as soon as possible (USA Today/Gallup) with nearly 60 percent wanting the engagement to end on a specified timeline (Pew).
Instead of providing the President a blank check--or worse, lowering the bar on conditions--we urge you to build on the $50 billion down payment on redeployment (H.R. 4156) that the House passed on November 14 and adhere to the assurances we were given by House Democratic leaders at that time that no more votes would be taken this session to provide additional funding for U.S. military operation in Iraq. It is critical that we keep faith with the clear majority of Americans who voted us into the majority last year to end the disastrous U.S. military intervention in Iraq, use the momentum we have gained to end our occupation of Iraq and bring our troops and military contractors home, and strictly fence any additional appropriated funds accordingly.
Sincerely,
Lynn Woolsey
Co-Chair, Progressive Caucus
Barbara Lee
Co-Chair, Progressive Caucus
Maxine Waters
Chair, Out of Iraq Caucus
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