Why I Support the Responsible Plan to End the War

Five years ago, Gordon Smith and George Bush led our country in war. It's been a disaster. Nearly four thousand military men and women have given their lives, and billions of dollars have been squandered.

The plan was authored by distinguished military experts, including Major General Paul Eaton (U.S. ARMY RET.) former Security Transition Commanding General, Iraq; Dr. Lawrence Korb former Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration; Brigadier General John Johns (U.S. ARMY RET.) specialist in counterinsurgency and nation-building; and Capt. Larry Seaquist (U.S. NAVY).

Yesterday, I joined Darcy Burner and other congressional candidates around the country in signing on to the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq.

I opposed this war publicly from the very beginning. It's now long past time to bring our sons and daughters home, repay the debt we owe our veterans, and restore America's standing in the world.

It's not enough to wait for a new president to lead us out of war. We must start today to bring our troops home.

The plan calls for a new diplomatic dialogue with allies in the Middle East and around the world to gain back the trust that has been lost over the last eight years. We must replace American contractors with Iraqi contractors -- and increase Iraqi involvement in rebuilding their country. And tribal leaders in Iraq will have to take responsibility for what's happening in the region.

The plan to end the war will immediately:

• End military action in Iraq and transition control of and responsibility for Iraq to the Iraqis;

• Create the capacity for nation-building and the use of diplomatic
  power by both the United States and the international community; and

• Commit to human rights in Iraq.

The plan will also prevent another military disaster like Iraq, by:

• Restoring American moral standing in the world;

• Restoring transparency and accountability to the executive branch;

• Incorporating ongoing war funding into the normal Congressional
  budgeting process;

• Removing fraud and abuse from the U.S. contracting system; and

• Developing a clean energy economy.

Senator Gordon Smith and the Bush administration led us into this war and have never offered a plan to get us out. Smith has manipulated and confused the media and the public and done nothing to bring an end to this war.

In December 2006, shortly after voters repudiated the war in the 2006 election, Smith gave a speech saying that he was "at the end of my rope" and calling the war "absurd." Since then, he's voted five times to keep our troops in Iraq.

From 2002 to 2007, Gordon Smith voted over 20 times to fund and authorize the Iraq war.

And he was one of the earliest and proudest supporters of John McCain for President, who has promised to keep us in Iraq indefinitely.

It's time to send Gordon Smith home to Oregon.

Visit JeffMerkley.com to learn more and join our campaign for progressive leadership for Oregon. I hope to earn your support for the U.S. Senate.

Comments

[Rowland]

Al Gore, speaking of the objective, recently said [about our goal]: "To get our troops out of there as soon as possible while simultaneously observing the moral duty that all of us share " including those of us who opposed this war in the first instance " to remove our troops in a way that doesn"t do further avoidable damage to the people who live there."
Congress needs to first begin a debate on a resolution on the question of abandoning the goal of forcing the Iraqi Parliament to pass the Iraq Hydrocarbon Law and the expected Production Sharing Agreements that would greatly favor American oil companies. They can easily have a national consensus about that.
Democratic candidates must begin demanding that the United States tilt in favor of the Sunnis to handle the oil revenues of Iraq. They, the Sunni, would then have to work out the sharing arrangements with the Shia and Kurds to get the oil out of the ground.
The matter of reconstruction, reparations and infrastructure building must be in the hands of the Shia and Kurds. Their goal must be to build a true nation there that will homogenize the people and end sectarian tensions.
By bifurcating efforts we can expect a self-interest balance among the warring factions.
The United States must then withdraw to guard the six oil pipelines and the banking in and out of the country so that the oil money flows through the Sunnis. We have seen that the Shia cannot resolve to treat the Sunnis fairly and this will otherwise perpetuate the civil war contrary to the method suggested by Gore.
The United States must then turn over the tasks the new exit strategy entails to the UN and get out.

[RReno]

We cannot exit Iraq as carelessly as we entered. While this report represents a good start, it places it's "accent" on a unilateralism rather than multilateralism.

[sarahlane]

I'm glad to see another progressive candidate joining this growing movement to end the war. I hope this gains steam and sitting legislators endorse the plan as well. In just two days, we will have been in Iraq for five years. It's past time to bring the soldiers home! As an Oregonian, I hope that we replace Republican Gordon Smith with Jeff Merkley. Smith voted for the war and has continued to fund it. Merkley, otoh, is a proven progressive legislator who has been opposed to the war from the start.

[bdunn]

Its good to see so many candidates signing on to this excellent proposal. Considering Merkley's time serving both the Congressional Budget Office and at the Pentagon working to stem the spread of nuclear weapons, you know he didn't take this decision lightly. This is exactly why Jeff Merkley should be the next Senator from the great state of Oregon

[hopeless277]

PLEASE STOP CALLING IT A WAR!!!! It's an illegal occupation of a soverign nation by an imperialist invader. And the occupying force is like a knife in the heart. Can't pull it out and can't leave it in. Regardless, it's not up to you, me, the president or the congress whether we stay or leave. It's up to the president's corporate masters. Do you really think they will agree to stop the biggest gravy train in the history of the world??? Hell, no! The U.S. will be in Iraq far beyond our lifetimes. We will not leave until one of two thing happens. One, we will be driven out by force by a combination of religious factions. We will replay the helicopter on the roof scenario on a much larger scale. Two, a revolt in the ranks of the military. When the rank and file finally realize that their sacrifice is and was only about the oil, they will revolt. Maybe not violently, but they will not patrol and probably go AWOL if given a chance. Either of these situations will be tragic. Many lives will be lost. Good thing that this country has no concience or it might tear this nation apart. Ah, to live in interesting times.

[PreemptiveKarma]

Thank you, Speaker Merkley!

This is a GREAT plan which clearly has generated a lot of buzz already. That will only continue to build to a crescendo as more and more patriotic, progressive Americans learn more about it and add their voices to yours.

For those Huffington Post readers who may not be as familiar with Jeff Merkley as we Oregonians are, he's far too modest to mention this but he is the ONLY candidate for Senate in Oregon with a visible and growing list of military veterans who staunchly support him to be our next Senator. None of his opponents, including Sen. Smith (R), even have a list of veteran supporters on their campaign sites.

Jeff Merkley is the real deal.

This plan is the real deal.