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Talking Points: Ending the War in Iraq Choose from this list of talking points to craft your message on Iraq for your meeting. • In recent polls, 64% of Americans said they want US troops withdrawn from Iraq by some time in 2008. Fifty-seven percent said that Congress should have the final say on troop levels in Iraq, not President Bush. • The occupation is providing political cover for groups that are attacking fellow Iraqis. A withdrawal of troops is more likely to reduce violence than increase it. • To stabilize Iraq and protect U.S. troops, we need a timeline for withdrawal, funding for reconstruction, regional diplomatic initiatives, and a prohibition of the building of permanent bases in Iraq. • Some argue that a timeline will allow terrorists to “wait us out.” As Gen. Tony McPeak, member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War, stated, “It's not a question of whether we're going to leave Iraq - it's a question of when. And everybody in Iraq knows that.” It is inevitable that US troops will leave; the best way to avoid greater harm to US soldiers and Iraqis is to leave sooner rather than later. • Congress is endowed with powers to limit and steer military policy. Members of Congress from both parties have enacted legislation to limit funding and troop deployments, including prohibiting funds from being used to send U.S. troops to Cambodia in 1970 and the Boland Amendment in 1982, which prohibited covert military assistance to Nicaragua. • The military needs to be removed to allow focus on reconstruction and stabilization, and turn over control of projects to the Iraqi people. A federal agency recently found that seven of the eight reconstruction projects the Bush administration deemed “successes” are no longer functional. • An Iraq policy where redeployment drags on or where large numbers of troops are left behind will seriously undermine the diplomatic benefits of a military disengagement strategy. Announcing a full withdrawal and beginning it immediately would instantly increase our diplomatic leverage to gain the economic and diplomatic support of regional and international actors. In turn, that leverage could be used to encourage diverse Iraqi factions to come to the table for serious negotiation and reconciliation. • The war in Iraq will soon cost the US over $500 billion, and there is no end in sight. That money could have paid for a college education for half of the country’s teenagers or preschool for every 3 and 4 year old in the country for the next eight years. The US should start investing money in programs that will stabilize Iraq, including withdrawal of US troops, reconstruction, and regional diplomacy. • Benchmarks that penalize the Iraqi people based on the performance of the Iraqi government are counterproductive and are misplacing responsibility for the war in Iraq. The proposed benchmarks, which would withhold economic and reconstruction aid if they are not met, achieve the opposite of what needs to happen in Iraq. Reconstruction must be fully funded and Iraq stabilized for civilians, with the removal of the military presence facilitating that process. |
