Break

The flow of blood may be ebbing, but the flood of money into the Iraq war is steadily rising, new analyses show. In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the “burn” rate of its earliest years, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and co-author Linda J. Bilmes report in a new book.

Anyone remember these statement by Paul Wolfowitz:
On the cost of rebuilding Iraq

“There’s a lot of money to pay for this that doesn’t have to be U.S. taxpayer money…We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.” (3/27/2003, House Committee on Appropriations testimony)

“The oil revenues of Iraq could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years…We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.” (3/27/2003, House Budget Committee testimony)

“Fundamentally, we have no idea what is needed unless and until we get there on the ground. This delicate moment—when we are assembling a coalition, when we are mobilizing people inside Iraq and throughout the region to help us in the event of war, and when we are still trying, through the United Nations and by other means, to achieve a peaceful solution without war—is not a good time to publish highly suspect numerical estimates and have them drive our declaratory policy.” (3/27/2003, House Budget Committee testimony)

Regarding getting other countries to help fund reconstruction after the war: “I expect we will get a lot of mitigation, but it will be easier after the fact than before the fact.” (3/27/2003, House Budget Committee testimony)

I’m really starting to like this guy.

This week - as we will forever - we remember those lost on September 11th. And this week, Washington refocuses on Iraq. But the question of Iraq is separate from September 11th - as it has always been, whatever George Bush would have us believe.

Likewise, supporting our troops and pursuing a failed war are not the same things - whatever George Bush would have us believe.

All Americans honor the incredible sacrifice of our troops. They have done everything asked of them with courage and resolve. Now we should bring them home.

They are policing a civil war, and the only way to end that civil war is for both sides, Sunni and Shia, to take responsibility to end it by agreeing to a political solution. And the only way to force them to take responsibility is to withdraw our troops - starting now.

Unfortunately, the president is pressing on with the only strategy he has ever had - more time, more troops and more war.

In January, after years of evidence that military actions cannot force a political solution, the president announced a military surge to force a political solution. In May, he vetoed a plan to end the war, demanded more time to show the surge could work, and Congress gave it to him. Now, after General Petraeus reports the surge has produced no progress toward a political solution, what does the president want? More time for the surge to work, when we know it won’t.

Our troops are stuck between a president without a plan to succeed and a Congress without the courage to bring them home.

But Congress must answer to the American people. Tell Congress you know the truth - they have the power to end this war and you expect them to use it. When the president asks for more money and more time, Congress needs to tell him he only gets one choice: a firm timeline for withdrawal.

No timeline, no funding. No excuses.

It is time to end this war.

Technorati Tags: Iraq, John Edwards, timeline

In 2006, the American people elected a Democratic Congress to change
course and end this war. It’s the whole reason the American people
voted for change. Yet, 10 months after the election, we still have the
status quo and Congress has still failed to do the people’s will. That
might be the way they do it inside the Beltway, but it’s not the
American way. It’s time to stand up for the American people and against
President Bush’s failed, stubborn policy. Without a firm deadline, a
small withdrawal of only some of the surge troops won’t cut it—that’s
not a solution, it’s an excuse. Congress must not send President Bush
any funding bill without a timeline to end this war. No timeline, no
funding. No excuses.

I haven’t backed any specific candidate yet for 2008 but he really does raise some good points.

Technorati Tags: Iraq, Politics, John Edwards