March with Merkley to end the madness in Iraq!

Posted by Carla Axtman on March 13, 2008

Step out with Jeff Merkley this Saturday in Portland at noon, to march against the Iraq War.

Jeff Merkley is the only candidate in the U.S. Senate race in Oregon to speak out against the war from the beginning. He knows that the Bush-Smith policy in Iraq is a failure and is fed up with their excuses for this foreign policy disaster.

In the 2007 legislative session, Jeff sponsored the anti-war resolution House Joint Memorial 9.

The House of Representatives took up HJM 9, “Urging President and Congress of United States not to increase numbers of troops in Iraq and to withdraw troops from Iraq and redeploy troops not later than first quarter of fiscal year 2008.” [H.J.M. 9, summary, 2007]

Jeff Merkley has a five-point path for stability in the region that will redeploy American combat troops and engage the Iraqis in rebuilding their country:

• Remove all combat troops starting immediately and completing the redeployment in six to 12 months: Americans can’t be seen as an occupying force
• Eliminate permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq
• Engage Iraq’s neighbors in a diplomatic effort to secure the peace– particularly Turkey, Iran and Syria
• Remove all American contractors from the country and replace them with Iraqi contractors
• Direct our attention toward stronger engagement with the Iraqi Parliament and Courts

Jeff supported the Feingold-Reid Amendment, a responsible plan for redeploying troops from Iraq. The amendment proposed a phased redeployment from Iraq to begin immediately and would have cut funding for future deployments.

Jeff will bring the kind of oversight that Gordon Smith has been unwilling and unable to offer, and help America restore its status as a respected world leader.