Sen. Merkley: Let’s “truly end this war.”

This is worth reading and thinking about.  It’s good were going, but three years is a long time to stay.  I see Senators willing to speak up, where so many who claim to be gate crashers are silent.

MERKLEY STATEMENT ON OBAMA PLAN TO

WITHDRAW TROOPS FROM IRAQ

Washington, DC – Today, President Barack Obama outlined a plan to begin a phased withdraw of troops from Iraq, winding down active military engagement in that nation.  Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley issued the following statement:

“Our national interests are not served by the war in Iraq.  I applaud President Obama’s commitment to a solid plan for withdrawing our troops and ending the war.

However, I have reservations about the extended 19 month schedule for the draw down and I am very concerned that the size of the remaining force would still be too great.  It will be hard to argue that our military presence is ‘residual’ when it is comprised of as many as 50,000 Americans.  

“I hope to work with the Obama Administration to truly end this war and bring our sons and daughters home safely.”

Thank you, Senator Merkely.  Someday this man may lead a real movement for progressive change in America.      

2 comments

    • TomP on February 28, 2009 at 01:10
      Author

    Jeff Merkley, a real progressive populist who did not leave his anti-war beliefs behind when he went to Washington.

  1. and time was not another heart breaker, in the endless search for democratic decent representation. However I am relly concerned about what is going on in regards to shifting the war to Afghanistan. What a shell game , some talking head described the move as Obama’s war. I guess every president needs his own signature war. The justification seems to be that we need to stop the terrorist training camps.

    As Bill Mayer said ‘they don’t need monkey bars to be terrorists.’ Raining down violence on nation states has nothing to do with terrorism. Why now? Why at all, they got their pipe line. Is this just another example of monkey aggression for the sake of being tough and commander in chief? As Hilary said when campaigning we need to get out of Iraq in order to prepare for the next war. We apparently aren’t even getting a breather between the two. Insanity!

    It’s not a withdrawal if you leave 50,000 troops there to protect our interests. I hope Jeff Merkley has the courage and principles to talk about about Afghanistan. It has Hillary’s fingerprints all over it. Geopolitics and endless war, sorry excuse for change. Johnson brought good social legislation to us but will always be the Baby Killer to me.          

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