27 House Members Introduce Resolution Calling For Withdrawl From Iraq

[Itsthetruth]

News Release
February 9, 2005

Woolsey Calls For Hearings:
Support Troops By Bringing Them Home

Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma) today called for the House International Relations Committee to have hearings on her resolution, H.Con.Res. 35, for President Bush to begin the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Rep. Woolsey led 27 Members of Congress in sponsoring the resolution. Earlier this month, Woolsey led 15 Members of Congress in sending a letter to President Bush requesting the return of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Rep. Woolsey’s H.Con.Res. 35 calls for the President to:

1. Develop and implement a plan to begin the immediate
withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq;

2. Develop and implement a plan for the reconstruction
of Iraq’s civil and economic infrastructure;

3. Convene an emergency meeting of Iraq’s leadership,
Iraq’s neighbors, the United Nations, and the Arab League
to create an international peacekeeping force in Iraq and
to replace U.S. military forces with Iraqi police and
National Guard forces to ensure Iraq's security; and

4. Take all necessary steps to provide the Iraqi people
the opportunity to completely control their internal affairs.

The following are Rep. Woolsey’s words as written for today’s press conference on Capitol Hill:

“Everyone who loves freedom was moved by the courage of millions of Iraqis braving death to cast a ballot on January 30. The Iraqi elections, however, do not justify this war - neither the lies used to sell it, nor the incompetence with which it has been managed.

“The elections won’t bring back the dead or heal the wounded. They won’t reimburse the American taxpayers billions of dollars. And the elections won’t stop the vicious insurgency that is terrorizing Iraqi communities.

“But the elections do demonstrate that Iraqis are prepared to manage their own affairs. That is why I believe now is the time to develop and implement a plan to bring our soldiers home and end the U.S. military presence in Iraq as soon as possible.

“I have written a letter to the President urging him to do so; together with 27 co-sponsors, I have introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives calling for a plan to end this military misadventure. And today, I’m calling on the House International Relations Committee to start hearings on the matter.

“The Bush Administration spared no superlative in talking about the significance of the Iraqi elections. Such a momentous, watershed event would seem to demand a shift in our thinking about Iraq.

“But not for President Bush. He is now emboldened. He sees this as a mandate to keep our soldiers there as long as he wants. He and his surrogates are even engaging in a little provocative saber-rattling in the direction of Iran. But the Iraq elections didn’t vindicate the doctrine of pre-emptive war; they demonstrated that Iraqis can and should take control of their own destinies.

“Leaving will not defeat the insurgency, but staying will only intensify it. What is fueling the insurgency - and what gave rise to it in the first place -- is our continued military presence in Iraq. Our troops, whom the Administration assured us would be embraced as liberators, are a focal point of anti-American extremism.

“Let me be clear: I am not advocating a cut and run strategy. It would be irresponsible for the United States to abandon the Iraqi people. We must play a role in facilitating their transition to stable democracy. We ought to work with Iraq, the Arab League and the United Nations to create an international peacekeeping force that would keep Iraq secure.

“Some of the money we are spending on this military campaign could be diverted to infrastructure projects that will improve Iraqis’ lives - road construction, new schools, water processing plants and more. Up to this point, Iraqi economic development has been scandalously mismanaged by the Bush Administration, as billions of dollars appropriated by Congress have not actually been put to work on the ground. All future investments must be made with the needs of Iraqis - not U.S. government contractors and other war profiteers -- being paramount.

“I believe a focus on development and humanitarian aid in Iraq would be a model for a radically new approach to national security. We need what I call SMART Security, which stands for Sensible, Multilateral, American Response to Terrorism.

“Instead of resorting to the military option and spending needlessly on weapons systems, the SMART Security plan I proposed last year calls for building multilateral partnerships that enable us to foil terrorists and stop WMD proliferation. And it addresses the conditions that lead to terrorism in the first place - poverty, hopelessness, despair. Instead of troops, we should send scientists, educators, urban planners and constitutional experts to the troubled regions of the world.

“It’s time for the U.S. to be Iraq’s ally and partner, not its occupier. It’s time to give Iraq back to its own people. And it’s time to truly support our troops - by bringing them home.”

Supporting Woolsey’s resolution, H.Con.Res. 35, are: U.S. Representatives Xavier Becerra, John Conyers, Danny Davis, Lane Evans, Sam Farr, Raul Grijalva, Maurice Hinchey, Michael Honda, Carolyn Kilpatrick, Dennis Kucinich, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Barbara Lee, John Lewis, Jim McDermott, Cynthia McKinney, Gwen Moore, Grace Napolitano, Major Owens, Ed Pastor, Donald Payne, Charlie Rangel, Jan Schakowsky, Jose Serrano, Pete Stark, Maxine Waters, and Diane Watson.

http://www.woolsey.house.gov/newsarticle.asp?RecordID=391

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Woo hoo!

or at least planting some WMD right quick!

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[gratuitous]

10. It's gotta start somewhere

And you can't get to a 218 member majority until you have 27 sign on. I wish it was more, too, but the number will go nowhere but up from 27.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[FreedomAngel82]

12. At least someone is trying!

I give them the props. Who all was involved in this? Anybody know? Brave souls. I'm glad they started. They understand this.

[Itsthetruth]

3. This Is The Full Text Of The Anti-War Resolution

Text of H.Con.Res. 35

HCON 35 IH


109th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. CON. RES. 35
Expressing the sense of Congress that the President should develop and implement a plan to begin the immediate withdrawal of United States Armed Forces from Iraq.


IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

January 26, 2005
Ms. WOOLSEY (for herself, Ms. LEE, Mr. OWENS, Mr. STARK, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Mr. PASTOR, Mr. FARR, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. BECERRA, Mr. KUCINICH, Ms. KILPATRICK of Michigan, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Ms. MCKINNEY, Mr. EVANS, Mr. SERRANO, Ms. WATERS, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. RANGEL, Ms. WATSON, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, and Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of Congress that the President should develop and implement a plan to begin the immediate withdrawal of United States Armed Forces from Iraq.

Whereas the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (Public Law 107-243) was passed by Congress on October 11, 2002, and signed into law by the President on October 16, 2002;

Whereas Public Law 107-243 specifically cited Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction and its harboring of members of the al Qaeda terrorist organization as the foundation for the use of United States military force against Iraq;

Whereas the Iraq Survey Group, led by American weapons inspector David Kay, was enlisted by the President to search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq;

Whereas on October 2, 2003, David Kay wrote, in a statement prepared for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Committee on Appropriations (Subcommittee on Defense), and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that the Iraq Survey Group found no evidence that Iraq had stockpiled unconventional weapons before the United States-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003;

Whereas on October 6, 2004, Charles Duelfer, whom the President chose to complete the work of the Iraq Survey Group, stated that the 1991 Persian Gulf War and subsequent United Nations inspections destroyed Iraq's illicit weapons capability and that the Iraq Survey Group found no evidence of concerted efforts by Iraq to restart an illicit weapons program;

Whereas on January 12, 2005, the President officially declared an end to the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq;

Whereas more than 1,350 members of the United States Armed Forces have been killed as part of the ongoing combat operations in Iraq;

Whereas the Department of Defense has estimated that at least 10,300 members of the Armed Forces have been wounded as part of the ongoing combat operations in Iraq;

Whereas various estimates place the number of unarmed, innocent Iraqi civilians killed as part of the ongoing combat operations in Iraq between 15,000 to 17,000 individuals, and possibly much higher;

Whereas more than $230,000,000,000 has been appropriated by Congress to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, nearly $160,000,000,000 of which has been allocated for military operations and reconstruction efforts in Iraq;

Whereas in 2005 the President is expected to request Congress to appropriate as much as $80,000,000,000 in additional funds for military operations and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and elsewhere;

Whereas the President's former Chief Economic Adviser, Lawrence Lindsey, was publicly criticized by high-ranking members of the Administration for suggesting that the war in Iraq might cost as much as $100,000,000,000 to $200,000,000,000;

Whereas the legitimacy of the January 30, 2005, elections in Iraq has been severely undermined by daily attacks by Iraqi insurgents, by the decision to hold such an election before the country is safe enough to ensure widespread participation, and by the fact that an occupying military force is present within the country;

Whereas dozens of Iraqi election workers have been killed, and hundreds more have quit their posts out of fear of being killed;

Whereas Iraqi insurgent forces remain capable of killing United States troops and Iraqi police and soldiers throughout Iraq almost daily;

Whereas the very presence of 150,000 Americans in Iraq has become a rallying point for dissatisfied people in the Arab world, and has both intensified the rage of the extremist Muslim terrorists and also ignited civil hostilities in Iraq that have made United States troops and Iraqi civilians substantially less safe;

Whereas the removal of the United States military from Iraq will help diminish one of the major causes of Iraq's growing insurgency;

Whereas the best way to truly support members of the United States Armed Forces stationed in Iraq is to remove them from harm's way; and

Whereas the time has come to begin a withdrawal of United States Armed Forces from Iraq before the United States becomes further embroiled in an unnecessary and dangerous international conflict: Now, therefore be it


Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that the President should--

(1) develop and implement a plan to begin the immediate withdrawal of United States Armed Forces from Iraq;

(2) develop and implement a plan for reconstructing Iraq's civil and economic infrastructure;

(3) convene an emergency meeting of Iraq's leadership, Iraq's neighbors, the United Nations, and the Arab League to create an international peacekeeping force in Iraq and to replace United States Armed Forces in Iraq with Iraqi police and Iraqi National Guard forces to ensure Iraq's security; and

(4) take all steps necessary to provide the Iraqi people with the opportunity to completely control their internal affairs.

END

[WatchWhatISay]

4. Bless them all

Hope some in the Senate will do the same

[catzies]

5. Wow, look at all the California Congresspeople. I'm so proud!

:bounce:

[ET Awful]

6. Are any of the supporters Republicans?

I'm curious, and I'm not really up on who's who in Congress unless they're someone who is pretty recognizable.

Still, it's very cool to see such a resolution even being presented.

[Hand]

7. It's the "Democratic" wing of the Democratic party!

:toast: to them! and a big :yourock:

[Steel City Slim]

8. A good First Step

Our Leaders need to speak out like that. Now it our turn to show support.

[LdyGuique]

9. Yessss!!!

A groundswell has to have a beginning.

We'll see your concern over a single human life and raise ya!

[FreedomAngel82]

13. Maybe if people

write other people in Congress we can maybe have some other people join on. :shrug:

[ghardy68]

14. What she needs

For this to Pass:
1. Truth Serum
2. 200+ republicans
3. Locks and Chains on the House & Senate
4. Donuts
5. Coffee
6. Halliburton Payoff
7. Cheney Pay off
8. Bush's Friends Pay off
9. Carlye Group Payoff
10.Coke for Bush and Jeb
11.Free Ken Lay and other Corporate Crooks
12.Visibly Crying Iraqi Citizen
I think that she might need to make some amendments to include these

:nuke: