My letter to Congressman Brian Baird (WA-03)

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday August 25, 2007 · 6:41 AM PDT

2007/08/25 · 06:41

My Congressman, Brian Baird, (D) seems to have drunk the Kool-Aid.

Republicans also cite shifting sentiments among Democrats, such as Washington state Rep. Brian Baird, upon his return from a recent visit to Baghdad.

"I believe giving it more time is worth the risk," Baird, D-Vancouver, said Wednesday. "We need to sustain the investment, at least for a while, in the belief things are getting better."

I'm sure it'll comfort all those Gold Star Mothers to know that Brian Baird doesn't want to write off their "investment." Me? I wrote a letter.

Dear Congressman,

I am somewhat disheartened by recent reports in which you are quoted as essentially saying we should "stay the course" in Iraq; it is ridiculous to hope at this point that the folks we bombed, that we kept in the dark most of the day for 5 years, that we kept without clean water,that we kept without gasoline, that we kept without security, are going to at any time soon morph into a state that will be in our best interests.

It is ridiculous to think that we can negotiate a peace based on the idea that we can bring sworn-to-the-death enemies together any time soon. It is even more ridiculous to think that this is because of oil, regardless of any other considerations.

Regarding "if we leave there'll be genocide," you can only offer the alternative of "if we stay the genocide will continue in slo-mo." Not much of a moral imperative to stay there.

We have run out of "Friedman Units" (look it up on Wikipedia if the meaning escapse you). Regardless of what you might have seen on your Potemkin Village tour in Iraq, easily accessible stats in the US show death counts are way up year-over-year (they didn't tell you that deaths were down in the scorching summer months did they? when they always go down every year [only to rise again in the autumn]?)

Finally, I have to wonder about your political intuition as for your recent quotes. Clearly we need an exit strategy, and we need one soon, and we need one that makes us look better than the Brittish did at Dunkirk. But your recent quotes play right into the Republicans.

Please re-think your position on this issue.

Sincerely

This content was created by a Daily Kos Community member.

Make YOUR voice heard!

Comments are closed on this story.