The Bush administration on Monday asked Congress for nearly $46 billion in additional war spending for 2008, calling on U.S. lawmakers to approve the money before adjourning for the holidays.
"Parts of this war are complicated, but one part is not -- and that is that America should do what it takes to support our troops and protect our people," Bush said in an appearance with members of veterans groups at the White House.
Most of the $45.9 billion request is for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the expected cost of those conflicts to more than $192 billion for the budget year that began this month.
The administration has already sought $147 billion for 2008. Most of that money goes to Iraq, which is currently costing the Pentagon an estimated $2 billion a week.
But, "Parts of this war are complicated, but one part is not -- and that is that America should do what it takes to support our troops and protect our people"? Though it is certain that parts of this war are complicated and that America should do everything it takes to support our troops, only George Bush and his Administration could make this doubly a lie?
The first and most transparent lie is calling it a "war". It is no longer a war:
Outrageous amounts of men, women and children are dying every day, but this is not a war. This is an occupation.
That's the word that neither side likes to use, but it's the only word to describe it. The Republicans want to play offense in the occupation and the Democrats want to play defense in the occupation, but at the end of the day it's still an occupation. It is an occupation based upon oil and privatization, an occupation based upon big business and reconstruction contracts. It is an occupation that is the cause of the violence and instability in Iraq and it is an occupation that we have to start looking at if we are going to stabalize Iraq and bring peace and security there, as well as in America.
And it is this occupation of Iraq that is fueling the insurgency, the instability and the death; something becoming painfully obvious to just about everyone except the Bush Administration, Republicans and the Democratic Presidential "frontrunners".
Consider an ABC poll from April which found that 97% of Sunnis and 83% of Shia opposed the presence of U.S. military. This same poll also indicated that the entire infrastructure is growing steadily worse, as the availability of power, clean water and jobs are declining. Worse yet, last month a BBC poll found that 60% of Iraqis approved of attacks on U.S. forces. The same poll found 70% of Iraqis saying that security has been steadily deteriorating, even with the surge in troops.
But, if you had any doubts left, take a look at the MSNBC article from last week:
At a Baghdad jail for prisoners who have attacked U.S. forces, everyone — to a man — says it was the U.S. occupation of Iraq that drove them to violence. And they are not alone. Across the Middle East and South Asia, the same story can be heard in Internet cafes, mosques, safe houses and prisons.
“The U.S. says this war is part of the global war on terrorism,” Saedi Farhan, an Iraqi engineer who took part in an attack on U.S. forces, said in a weekend interview with NBC News. "But people here say that the war has increased fanaticism and brought terrorism to Iraq."
And with these facts staring us in the face we see George Bush staring at us with a second, even grosser, lie: that supporting the troops means appropriating more money to continue the occupation. Continuing this occupation only ensures more of them to die! Supporting the troops means one thing: ending the occupation and bringing these brave men and women back to their their country, their homes, their families.
Dennis Kucinich, the only Democratic Candidate to consistently oppose this war/occupation from the start to the end, spoke out again today-against Bush and this occupation:
“Equating support for the troops with funding to continue the war is cheap political rhetoric. Americans have made it very clear that they want the troops out of Iraq. This money will only keep them there indefinitely.
“Nearly 4,000 Americans have died and an estimated one million innocent Iraqis have perished in an unjust and unnecessary war. How much more carnage has to go on before the President considers supporting the troops by bringing them home?”
He reminded everyone that we can end this war anytime we want, by not presenting, or simply blocking a bill rather than hiding behind the phony political excuse that we don't have the votes to override a veto. That is, he has been the only candidate with the will to tell us the truth about our options:
“We do not have to fund the war. The Democratic leadership must tell the President NO to any additional funding. No legislation is required. No vote is required. We have the money to bring the troops home. It does not require a vote. The only thing required is honesty, integrity and a willingness to end the war.”
And as the only candidate to accept these truths, Kucinich is the only candidate to offer a plan that fully ends the occupation, stabalizes the region and brings all of the troops home: H.R 1234. His plan will:
(1) the United States should end the occupation of Iraq immediately, simultaneously with the introduction of a United Nations-led international peacekeeping force pursuant to an agreement with nations within the region and which incorporates the terms and conditions specified in section 1;
(2) the Department of Defense should use readily available existing funds to bring all United States troops and necessary equipment home while a political settlement is being negotiated and preparations are made for a transition to an international security and peacekeeping force;
(3) the Department of Defense should order a simultaneous return of all United States contractors and subcontractors and turn over all contracting work to the Iraqi Government;
(4) the United Nations should be encouraged to prepare an international security and peacekeeping force to be deployed to Iraq, replacing United States troops who then return home;
(5) the United States should provide funding for a United Nations peacekeeping mission, in which 50 percent of the peacekeeping troops should come from nations with large Muslim populations;
(6) the international security force, under United Nations direction, should remain in place until the Iraqi Government is capable of handling its own security;
(7) the Iraqi Government, with assistance from the United Nations, should immediately restart the failed reconstruction program in Iraq and rebuild roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, and other public facilities, houses, and factories with jobs and job training going to local Iraqis;
(8) the Iraqi Government, in an act of political sovereignty, should set aside initiatives to privatize Iraqi oil interests or other national assets and abandon all efforts, whether at the behest of the United States or otherwise, to change Iraqi national law to facilitate privatization;
(9) the Iraq Government, in an act of political sovereignty, should set forth a plan to stabilize Iraq's cost for food and energy, on par to what the prices were before the United States invasion and occupation;
(10) the Iraqi Government, in an act of political sovereignty, should strive for economic sovereignty for Iraq by working with the world community to restore Iraq's fiscal integrity without structural readjustment measures of the International Monetary Funds or the World Bank;
(11) the United States should initiate a reparations program for the loss of Iraqi lives, physical and emotional injuries, and damage to property, which should include an effort to rescue the tens of thousands of Iraqi orphans from lives of destitution; and
(12) the United States should refrain from any covert operations in Iraq and any attempts to destabilize the Iraqi Government.
Support Dennis Kucinich and an end to this occupation!
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