[California] Area Reps. Call for Troops Out of Iraq

Tweet "One week after George W. Bush told the nation he would commit 20,000 additional troops to fight on the ground in Iraq, the Bay Area peace community got the bold response it wanted to hear.

"On Wednesday Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland-Berkeley, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-San Rafael and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, introduced on the floor of the House of Representatives the Bring the Troops Home and Iraq Sovereignty Restoration Act that would get U.S. troops out of Iraq within six months.

“'The longer the U.S. stays in Iraq, the worse things get,” Lee told the Daily Planet in a brief phone interview Wednesday.

"More than 3,000 U.S. troops and more than 34,000 Iraqis have died, she said. “We need to bring home our troops. We won’t leave young men and women in harm’s way like this president has done.”

"The bill, supported by 12 co-sponsors, goes beyond the bills introduced separately Wednesday by Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., to halt deployment of more troops to Iraq.

"The Lee-Woolsey-Waters bill would:

• Repeal the authorization to use force against Iraq passed by Congress in 2002;

• Require the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops and contractors within six months of the enactment of this bill;

• Turn security activities and military operations in Iraq over to the elected Iraqi government within six months of enactment; military facilities built by the United States will be turned over to the Iraqi government;

• Prohibit the U.S. from establishing permanent bases in Iraq;

• Accelerate the training and equipping of Iraqi military and security forces;

• Pursue security and stability in Iraq through diplomacy;

• Provide assistance to the Iraqi government in recovering archeological, cultural and historic artifacts that have been lost since the U.S. invasion;

• Fully fund veterans’ health care.

• Prohibit U.S. access to Iraqi oil production prior to the Iraqi government’s establishing clear rules for foreign ownership and participation.

While Woolsey and Lee are co-chairs of the 62-member Progressive Caucus and Waters is the co-chair and founder of the Out of Iraq Caucus, Lee said she and her co-authors need the help of the local community: “Contact other members of the California delegation. They need to come in as co-sponsors.”

And go to demonstrations, she said: “Keep up the street heat. E-mail. Make phone calls. Our community leads all the time.”