Everett, Wash.
Published: Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Three months is too long to wait for progress in Iraq

John Burbank / Syndicated Columnist

 As my readers have probably figured out, I am a Democrat. On Thursday, I became an ashamed Democrat, because party leaders caved into George W. Bush's demand for funding the war in Iraq, with no requirements for speedy withdrawal.

The war in Iraq has hit Washington state especially hard. Thus far, 70 Washington residents have been killed in Iraq. Ten times as many have been wounded. Our military hospitals are crowded with the men and women who have sustained life-long injuries and incapacitations. One hundred and fourteen soldiers from Fort Lewis have been killed. The memorial wall at Seattle's Benaroya Hall to honor the war dead is running out of room, as each month more Washington citizens come home in coffins. Over Memorial Day weekend, 11 more American soldiers were killed in Iraq.

Who won in the congressional vote last week to authorize funding for the war? Certainly not the troops. Their rotations are being extended. Bush has declared that we should expect more deaths in the coming months (somehow, this is an indication of progress). The troops and their families can expect more of the same - loss of life, lifelong psychological illness, shattering of their own personal American dreams.

The Democrats certainly were not winners. If they had refused to budge, the president would have had to. But the opposite occurred last week. You can't be for peace and vote for war. You can't wage a war without troops. So by funding the troops, we are funding the war. If we wanted to end this war, we would stop funding the troops in Iraq and fund their withdrawal. Period.

There are some required reports in this legislation funding the war. But they are meaningless. If the president finds that the Iraqi government is making progress, whatever that means, it becomes the reason to maintain and increase our presence in Iraq, with more American soldiers getting killed as a result. And if the report shows that the Iraqi government is failing to make progress, then that just shows that we have to increase our presence in Iraq, to create the "breathing space" to enable progress. Either way, Americans lose and our world becomes more dangerous.

Forty years ago, Sen. Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson was a war hawk, a Democrat who advocated for the Vietnam War and continued to vote for more funding for the troops and armaments raining terror and destruction in Vietnam. More than 50,000 U.S. troops died in this conflict, and millions of Vietnamese were killed, injured and displaced. Even today unexploded bombs take Vietnamese lives, and the lingering effects of Agent Orange result in birth deformities and continue to poison Vietnamese soil. You think we might have learned a lesson.

But five years ago, Norm Dicks, the Democratic congressman who represents Tacoma, Bremerton and the Olympic Peninsula, stood right next to George W. Bush in endorsing the congressional resolution enabling Bush to invade Iraq. Former Reps. Jennifer Dunn, R-Bellevue, and George Nethercutt, R-Spokane, current Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Tri-Cities, and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell joined Dicks in supporting the invasion. The excuse now for this vote is that we had the wrong intelligence. But some brave politicians did their own research and realized the lies of the Bush regime and the folly of the enterprise and voted against this invasion, including Sen. Patty Murray and Reps. Jay Inslee, Adam Smith, Brian Baird, Jim McDermott and Rick Larsen, all Democrats.

Last week, some of representatives played musical chairs, as if this was all a game. Yes, we deserve to thank Inslee, Smith and McDermott for voting against this bill funding the war to the tune of $95 billion. But we have to note that five Democrats - Murray, Cantwell, Dicks, Larsen and Baird - all voted to fund the war. They were joined by Republicans Hastings and Dave Reichert.

What is the excuse now? Some people say it is only three months' authorization. That's three months of digging ourselves further into the quagmire of Iraq, three months of more death and destruction, three months of hundreds of Americans being killed and thousands being injured. How much is the life of an American soldier worth? Three months of waiting, finger-pointing and indecision, three months of Bush's "getting the job done?"

Three months is too long to wait. One day is too long to wait.

John Burbank, executive director of the Economic Opportunity Institute (www.eoionline.org), writes every other Wednesday. Write to him in care of the institute at 1900 Northlake Way, Suite 237, Seattle, WA 98103. His e-mail address is john@eoionline.org.
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