Richardson Speaks Out On Iraq War

The following is a letter from Bill Richardson to his supporters. I thought it was worthy of wider distribution, and have reprinted it here for anyone to read. It is good to know there is a candidate who wants to end our Iraqi occupation now -- not next Fall or next year.

It's time every single member of Congress caught on to two things: 1) the Bush Administration will not end this war until they are forced to, and 2) it is wrong to wait until September or October to stop the killing.

Congress has the power to stand up to Bush and end this war right now -- before the summer break.

Article 1 of the US Constitution gives the Congress, not the President, the right to declare war. And the War Powers Act specifies that the President may not continue a war without Congressional authorization. In 2002 Congress passed a resolution authorizing the Iraq war because the administration claimed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and links to Al Queda.

Saddam is dead. There never were any WMDs or ties to Al Queda. The basis for the 2002 war authorization is gone.

If Congress passes a resolution de-authorizing the war, the President has no legal authority to continue. De-authorization cannot be vetoed, and it would legally require Bush to begin bringing the troops home. If the President stalled on redeployment, Congress could pass funding legislation requiring him to withdraw.

Congress lost an opportunity last month when it caved before the administration and passed an Iraq war spending bill without a timetable for withdrawal. But it is not too late. If Congress de-authorizes the war before the summer recess, our troops could be home in six months.

The American people elected Democrats last November to end Bush's war. It is time for Congress to do what it was elected to do. It is time to stop deferring to a stubborn President who persists in a failed policy.

Some Democrats say wait -- wait for the fifth anniversary of the original war authorization, wait for General Petraeus's report on the effects of the escalation, wait for George Bush to see the light. Well, I don't buy any of it. The time for waiting is over. People are dying every day. If Congress doesn't act before they leave for the summer, the only thing that will change between now and the end of the year is the body count.

I served in Congress for 14 years and I know that Congress has the power to act, and I know from experience that when the people demand it, Congress will respond.

We can use the leverage of our complete withdrawal to bring the warring factions to the negotiating table. Our continued presence in Iraq enables the factions to delay the necessary compromises and fuels the insurgency by feeding the belief held by most Iraqis that we are in Iraq to occupy their country indefinitely and plunder their oil. That is why we must remove ALL the troops as soon as possible. I have a plan for rebuilding stability in a post-war Iraq, but Congress must take the first step.

We have a responsibility to ourselves and to the Iraqis to embrace a new strategy of military disengagement and diplomatic re-engagement. We owe it ourselves and the Iraqis to end this war now.

The President won't do it. Congress must.

Sincerely,

Bill Richardson