From Sen Barbara Boxer:
Thank you for contacting me about the war in Iraq . I appreciate hearing from you on the most important issue facing our nation today.
In March and in April, I voted for emergency spending legislation that would have fully funded our troops in Iraq but also changed their mission to a sound one - one that would have taken our troops out of the middle of a civil war and put them into a support role, training Iraqi soldiers and police and protecting U.S. security interests in the region.
However, President Bush would not agree to that. On May 1, 2007, the President vetoed an emergency spending bill that combined full funding for our troops with a new focus on diplomacy, a requirement to begin redeploying American forces by October 1, and a mandate for the Iraqi government to seek a political solution to the civil war in Iraq .
The spending bill that came after President Bush's veto did nothing more than maintain the status quo with a few words about benchmarks. On May 24, I voted against an emergency spending bill that allows the President to continue his one-man show in Iraq . I voted no because I believe that Congress must make it clear to the President that our commitment in Iraq cannot be open-ended and that it is time to start working to bring our troops home. We need to redeploy our troops out of Iraq as part of a sorely needed new policy, one that emphasizes diplomatic and political methods - not military strategies - as the best way of bringing stability to Iraq.
Since American forces went into Iraq in March 2003, more than 3,400 of our troops have been killed. Of those, 21 percent have been from California or based in California . Over 25,000 more have been wounded. Countless numbers of Iraqis have been killed, victims of an intensifying civil war. Furthermore, the first half of 2007 has already been deadlier than any six-month peri od since the war began more than four years ago.
Please be assured that I will continue doing all I can to see that Congress acts boldly to bring this tragic and ill-fated war to an end. Once again, thank you for your letter and for caring deeply about this critical matter.
Barbara Boxer
United States Senator
Please visit my website at
http://boxer.senate.gov
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