I was glad to see that Rep. Jones is leading a bipartisan effort to press President Bush to create an exit strategy and timetable for withdrawal of our troops from Iraq. Being an occupying force in Iraq with no end in sight only fuels the insurgency there. I think our strategy must change in order to succeed in Iraq, shifting from gun-barrel organizer of a new government to a real economic development organization as Oxfam (www.oxfam.org.uk) envisions:
> a sustainable livelihood (the means to earn a reasonable living over many years)
> education and health (access to basic services)
> life and security (when conflict or natural disasters strike)
> a right to be heard (by those who make the decisions that affect their lives)
> a right to equity (not to be disadvantaged because of their gender or ethnic identity)
A sea-change of this sort would certainly leave our armed services vulnerable to attack, but considering that the vast majority of insurgent attacks have targeted Iraqi nationals the risks may not be so bad. In order to make this change credible to the rest of the world and feasible, I also fear the subcontractors to US DOD such as Bechtel and Halliburton would have to be terminated so that real development expertise such as that from the NGOs could get traction and start rebuilding instead of what appears to be a systematic looting of the natural resources of the country and a systematic fortification of the country as a regional military control complex. It would seem necessary to allow a national variety of oil company to emerge, perhaps at a Kurd, a Shiite and a Sunni controlled entity for a little healthy free market competition.
I ask you to join the thirty other members of Congress already cosponsoring the resolution and convince them to amend it appropriately, and then support it by voting for it.