But fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.
So where do our candidates stand on Iraq and what does it mean to us here in Massachusetts? Our Primary is now February 5th, closer to actually mattering in the process and I don’t know about you but every day, I am getting emails from all the campaigns inviting me to come on up to New Hampshire where it is, presumably, even colder and snowier than it is here. Joy.
The problem with the Iraq issue is that like health care and global warming, it’s become a standard issue. What I mean by that is that the candidate stands there, he or she, and says solemnly, we must get all Americans health care, (applause) and solve Global warming (applause) and end the war in Iraq (applause)
My personal wake up call came at the debate in New Hampshire, there’s that state again, when the candidates were asked:
will you commit to having all troops out of Iraq by 2013?
Let me preface their responses.
2013 is 6 years from now, so this is not a rapid withdrawal, or a hasty retreat, this is enough time to plan, have conferences, plan again and then do an orderly withdrawal.
6 years is, obviously, 72 months, so you could withdraw 3,000 troops a month and easily meet the goal.
So I was somewhat shocked when Senators Clinton, Obama and Edwards all said ‘no.’
And I was intrigued that Governor Bill Richardson, who is clearly the most seasoned in terms of foreign policy among all the candidates, said yes.
He has also said yes to getting all the troops out in 2009.
This got me thinking.
What is the cost of the war continuing to us here in Massachusetts?
According to the National Priorities Project, the war to date has cost Massachusetts residents $12.8 billion and it has gone on for four and a half years.
So six more years? That’s another $10 – $20 billion.
And on their site, you can actually break it down even more. Essex County where I live in the summer and have for my whole life, cost to date, $7,800,000. Just think about the fire in Gloucester recently where budget cuts meant the Fire Department was short 2 firefighters that might.
Almost $8 million spent. 2013? Another $7 – $10 million out of the pocket of my fellow residents in Essex County.
There is the human cost as well.
Massachusetts has lost 64 young men and women to the war in Iraq. Are we prepared to lose another 50 or 100 men and women? To what end.
These are the questions I am asking myself as I look at whom to support.
And I want a commitment. Firm, absolute, no backing out commitment from our candidate in 2008.
How about you?
Here are some sites I found useful.
This is the site the Richardson Campaign put together about the top candidates and their stands on 2013.
2013istoolate.com
This site breaks down the cost of the war but state and county, and occassionally city as well.
National Priorities Project
This site has wounded and casualties by state and city, horrifying.
Iraq Casualties
On this site, I’ve probably argued dozens of times that the Democrats should pull the plug on Iraq and force the Nixon Bush Administration to withdraw completely. There are multiple reasons for that:
With a Democrat in the White House, there’s room for nuance again! Remember diplomacy. Won’t it be great to be doing diplomacy again? Some sensible job for the U.S. military might emerge from diplomacy — or none might.
<
p>Keeping the peace on the Iraq-Turkey border might even be an excellent use of U.S. troops. Who knows? It’s very hard to say, and I’d be happy to give a Democratic President the benefit of the doubt and not insist on the kinds of restrictions that should have been put on the Bush Administration.
and the troups would be out of Iraq by mid 2009
And watch half of the population of DC have a heart attack.
I was against the war from the start and this position has never wavered even won the US was ‘winning’ but I have also always been in favor of winning the war or at least leaving the country in one stable peace to prevent the vacumn that could lead to a regional war, a genocide within Iraq, or both.
<
p>It looks like violence levels are down, this is not because the surge is working like the Pentagon and even the New York Times are saying, but rather it is because the ethnic cleansing is mostly done and the regions in fact have been seperated. This tragedy has likely cost a few hundred thousand Iraqi civillian lives, coupled with the high civillian casualty rate of the initial invasion and occupation and it will be just as bad as Darfur except the blood will be on our hands.
<
p>Fortunately if we can get a Congress and a President that actually work together and believe in diplomacy I am quite sure they could hammer out a revenue sharing agreement that will leave Iraq with enough stability for the US to begin withdrawing. I think the last US troop will leave Iraq by 2009 too late for most Americans I am sure but still a lot earlier than 2013. And when they do come back they deserve a heroes welcome and more importantly the most well funded, well equipped, well staffed, and attentive VA possible.
<
p>…to get rid of half of official and self-appointed DC (I’d begin with David Broder and the second-tier comedian Maureen Dowd and work down from there), but it’s unlikely that Kucinich would be elected.
<
p>Jconway’s asssessment directly above regarding the subsidence of violence in the center of Iraq is largely correct, but it has been reported that Turkey has started retaliating against the Kurds in the north for their attacks against Turkey. And that Basra in the south is largely run by gangsters, and will likely to continue to be after the British withdrawal. It ain’t over, but you will see little of the repercussions reported in the US media.