Statement of position on the occupation of Iraq

My dad wrote this up for the El Dorado contingent of active Democratic party folks... I edited and added a little of my own. I kind of like the combination. I urge everyone to read the administrations recently published "NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR VICTORY IN IRAQ" - decide for yourselves if you think this team serves our national interests or could achieve any victory that would be recognizable.

This post is dedicated to the men and women of the Armed forces of the United States:

Why we should get out of Iraq now.

The US led Iraq occupation has become a disaster that more time, money and allied lives cannot save. Early support for the war was based on what has been demonstrated to be faulty and intentionally deceptive intelligence. The rank and file membership of the Democratic Party can no longer support the misguided policy that the continued occupation of Iraq represents. The administration led the people and representatives of the United States into a war under false pretenses that serves only to undermine our national security, waste the lives and limbs of our brave soldiers and kill or maim the innocent Iraqi men, women and children it states whose liberty we sought to protect. It is time to come home.

The leadership of the Democratic Party must offer a policy that does justice to our most basic democratic principals, rebuilds the trust this occupation has cost the United States among our most respected allies, and respects the rights of the Iraqi people to self-determination.

We, the Democrats of El Dorado and Lane Counties, urge our national leaders to immediately call on the administration an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq for the following compelling reasons:

1. The occupation of Iraq does not, and never has, represented our national security and does nothing to reduce the threat of terrorist acts against the United States.

2. As an occupying and foreign force in the region, the United States acts as a focal point for the insurgency, swelling the ranks and helping the recruitment of radical elements in the entire region. It also provides the insurgency with a unique training opportunity against the best trained military force in the world.

3. The "War against Terrorism" has compromised the long established principals of United States military justice. The abuses of prisoners and mistreatment of innocent Iraqis is just one example of the failure of our leadership to lead by our most sacred values. The administrations refusal to sign a bill prohibiting the abuse and torture of prisoners is testament to our inability to lead with our principals.

4. We are engaged in a war that has no meaningful international support because we have openly declared, as a bully in a schoolyard, that you are either "with us, or against us." The very idea of patriotism has been corrupted by those in the administration and their supporters who claim that dissent for the war equates to treason and cowardliness.

5. America will build democracy in the middle east and elsewhere by being true to our democratic values at home and not by seeking to impose those values on others.

6. Let us use our resources wisely, to rebuild the primacy of American economic and educational power rather than continuing to throw lives and money at the administrations misguided and incompetent attempt to build an American empire and "New World Order."