Stewart A. Alexander for President
Peace and Freedom Party

May 10, 2007

During the month of April 2007 U.S. Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid told President Bush and the nation “That this war is lost,” referring to the Iraq War; April was one of the deadliest months since the 2003 U.S. lead invasion into Iraq.

Reid has been very skeptical that a troop surge, an additional 30,000 troops, will help to reduce the violence and bloodshed in Iraq; a war that has entrenched American forces in the midst of a bloody civil war. There are presently 146,000 American troops in Iraq.

Reid also used the example of the Vietnam War; 40 years ago President Lyndon Johnson chose to increase the troop levels in that war. The troop surge only produced failing results and America was force to withdraw after eight additional years of occupation.

Reid is now opposing the Iraq War because the U.S. is losing; he initially supported the war and backed the invasion. The war is another imperial adventure by the U.S. and there is a growing divide, by those supporters of U.S. imperialism, that a continued war is weakening U.S. imperialism.

The situation in Iraq is deteriorating on a weekly basis and insurgent’s attacks and car bombings are killing hundreds of civilians and accounts for the deaths of more than 3,370 American troops.

President Bush recently vetoed a $124 billion spending bill to fund the Iraq War through September of this year because the bill provided time lines and bench marks tied to measurable results; however Congress has already spent close to a half trillion dollars on a war that has no end in sight.

Reid’s concerns are well founded; now more than four years into the war, civilian deaths have now exceeded one million, according to recent scientific data. The civil war has created a refugee crisis that now exceeds four million civilians.

Reconstruction efforts have been thwarted by the civil war and will cost an estimated two trillion dollars. Repairing the nation’s infrastructure will take more than a decade however any efforts will be futile until the civil war has ended.

While Bush, the Democrats and Republicans are searching for a military solution, the war continues to threaten the stability and peace in the Middle East and the entire world.

Funding the Bush war with $100 billion is only adding fuel to a fire that is completely out of control. The additional funding will only result in the deaths of more U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, and will increase the threat to the security of Americans worldwide.

Congress should spend only the necessary funds to bring our troops home and to end the occupation. The U.S. should also join the world community in the pursuit of political and diplomatic efforts to restore peace in the region.

For a moment Senator Harry Reid was speaking as a concerned citizen that wants to change the direction of a nation that is on a pathway to destruction; at the end of the day he was another Democrat trying to support the Bush war.

For more information search the web for Stewart A. Alexander for President; Iraq War- Counting the Cost; Democrats Waffling on Iraq War.

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