Here is the text of a message from Bernie Sanders:
Dear [Concerned Vermonter]:
Thank you very much for contacting me about the situation in
Iraq. During the last several weeks my office has received many
communications regarding a wide range of issues relating to Iraq, so let
me take this opportunity to address some of them.
As you know, I helped lead the opposition in the U.S. House of
Representatives to the resolution which gave President Bush the
authority to go to war in Iraq. I opposed that resolution because I
believed then and do now that the Administration rushed to war without
the justification required by international law. As you no doubt
remember, when that vote took place, United Nations weapons
inspectors were in Iraq attempting to determine whether Iraq was
pursuing weapons of mass destruction. Unfortunately, the President
decided to short circuit the UN inspection process and to proceed
militarily with virtually no international support.
I am not happy to have to say that many of the concerns that I
and other Vermonters had about going to war have come to fruition.
Despite the Administration citing Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass
destruction program (WMD) as the "imminent threat" for going to war,
no evidence of an active Iraqi WMD program has been found. Some
"intelligence" information, such as the uranium that allegedly was sent
from Niger to Iraq, has turned out to be blatantly false. As President
Bush, himself, has been forced to admit, there is also no evidence that
Saddam Hussein had anything to do with the horror of September 11th.
There is also no credible evidence of a relationship between Saddam
Hussein's government and the terrorist organization Al Qaeda.
As many had predicted, winning the war against Saddam
Hussein has turned out to be much easier than securing the peace.
Tragically, it seems that every day we read about another young
American who has been gunned down or killed by a bomb. As of today
over 800 U.S. service members have been killed in Iraq while over
4,500 have been wounded. On May 25th, we learned of the deaths of
two Vermonters from the National Guard and the wounding of six
others. In addition, thousands of innocent Iraqis caught in the crossfire
of war have been killed and maimed. In addition, despite
Administration assertions that this war would not be expensive, we
have already spent over $150 billion with no end in sight.
As bad as the situation in Iraq was, recent developments have
made it worse. Virtually every American was appalled by the horrific
photos and video tapes showing the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners.
There is no question but that these photos, widely seen throughout the
Arab world, will fan the flames of anti-Americanism - which is already
very high. To my mind, Congress must make certain that a thorough
investigation of the prisoner abuse is undertaken and that the
perpetrators at all levels are brought to justice, including private
contractors. We must make sure that a few junior soldiers are not the
only ones punished when there appears to be credible information that
this barbaric conduct was ordered and condoned by higher level
officials.
In my view, the struggle against international terrorism is
critical. What I am most distressed about is that there is growing
evidence suggesting that the President's invasion of Iraq has made the
world less safe and has, in many ways, strengthened the hand of Al
Qaeda and international terrorism. A recent report from the
International Institute of Strategic Studies states that the two military
centerpieces of the U.S.-led war on terrorism - the wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq may have boosted Al Qaeda and brought them in many new
recruits. In other words, much of what we are currently doing is
counter-productive.
A number of Vermonters have expressed the view that Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should resign or be fired. I do agree that
Secretary Rumsfeld has shown himself to be unfit to be the United
States Secretary of Defense. But, as a member of Congress who has
strongly disagreed with Rumsfeld on almost every issue relating to Iraq,
I don't believe that his resignation would address the central issue at
hand. To the contrary, I fear that a Rumsfeld resignation could give the
President an easy way out of the justified criticism that he is receiving
for his Iraq policy. What we need is a fundamental change in our Iraqi
policy, and not just another Bush Secretary of Defense who would very
likely carry out the same failed policy.
Given where we are today in Iraq, let me give you an overview
of some of the approaches I believe the nation must take and what I will
be pushing for in Congress:
According to a recent public opinion poll, 88% of Iraqis now
say they regard the Americans in their country as occupiers, and only
7% view them as liberators. That will not change, in my view, unless
the Iraqi people are given real sovereignty. From what we have been
told it appears that President Bush's "Transfer of Power" to Iraqis on
June 30th is more a public relations gambit than a significant
development. How much real power will the Iraqi people have over
military operations? How much power will they have over their oil
resources? How much real power will they have in developing
meaningful economic reforms? These are some of the questions that
must be answered if we are going to seriously transfer "sovereignty" to
the Iraqis.
Second, terrorism will not be defeated without very strong
international cooperation. To what degree President Bush is able to
bring that about, given his refusal to seriously work with the UN and
some of our long-time allies, remains in doubt. In my view, the
President needs to abandon his my-way-or-the-highway mentality that
helped get us into the mess we are in today. He needs to reach out to
our European allies and the United Nations to build a real partnership in
Iraq that leads to the restoration of Iraqi self-government with shared
contributions of troops and financial assistance from other
industrialized nations. This type of multinational approach is much
more likely to result in a stable, peaceful Iraq and will minimize the
risk of harm that our young soldiers face everyday.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the President must
develop an exit strategy to bring our troops home - sooner rather than
later. There is no easy answer to the incredibly complex problems we
face in Iraq, but a strong case can be made that the presence of
American troops there is only making a difficult situation worse.
Thank you for contacting me about this important issue. For
more information about what my office is working on in Congress,
please be sure to visit my website at http://bernie.house.gov. Once
there, I invite you to sign up for my periodic email updates, the Bernie
Buzz, at http://bernie.house.gov/buzz.htm. Please be aware that due to
security screening procedures, postal mail to my office is still
experiencing delays which will lengthen the time its takes me to get
back to you. The fastest way to contact my office is by calling 1-800-
339-9834 or by visiting the contact page on my website at
http://bernie.house.gov/contact.htm.
Sincerely,
Bernard
Sanders
Member of
Congress
http://bernie
house.gov