Disastrous week for Iraq War

Oct 2, 2006

Dear Friend,

The past week has produced more confirmation of the depth of the Iraq disaster – including official statements that further undercut the Bush Administration’s nostrums on the war.

Most damning was a leaked assessment of global terrorism trends by U.S. intelligence agencies found that “the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.”

In addition, the American military conceded that contrary to earlier indications, the U.S. will not likely withdraw any troops from Iraq by the end of the year due to continuing sectarian violence.

That news was followed by word that the Army’s top officer refused to submit a required 2008 budget proposal in protest of the Army’s dangerous weakness caused by the Iraq war.  It is striking that military opposition to Bush administration policy has spread from retired officers to active duty personnel, and high ranking ones at that.

Council for a Livable World is working to elect candidates who oppose the Bush Administration’s misguided Iraq policies and endorse expanded nuclear non-proliferation programs.

We need your help.

Contribute $25, $50, $75 or more to the Council for a Livable World’s effort to end the Iraq war!

The New York Times first reported on Saturday that a classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) indicated that the Iraq War has actually made the overall threat from terrorism worse. The report is the first formal evaluation of global terrorism by U.S. intelligence agencies since the Iraq War began in March 2003 and “represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside the government.”

The NIE asserts that, contrary to claims by the White House and a recent House Intelligence Committee report, the war in Iraq has played a direct role in fueling Islamic radicalism and that rather than being in retreat, Islamic radicalism has, in fact, grown and spread across the globe.

Only two days later, the Los Angeles Time reported that the Army's chief of staff,Gen. Peter Schoomaker withheld a required budget proposal from the Pentagon last month “after protesting to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that the service could not maintain its current level of activity in Iraq plus its other global commitments without billions in additional funding.”

“’There’s no sense in us submitting a budget that we can’t execute, a broken budget,’ Schoomaker said in a recent Washington address.” 

And a week ago, the Washington Post reported that Army Gen. John Abizaid, chief of the U.S. Central Command, stated that the U.S. is unlikely to withdraw any troops from Iraq before next year due to continuing sectarian violence.

Sectarian violence has threatened to bring a simmering conflict to a full blown civil war. And in what can described as a confession of American weakness in Iraq, when asked point-blank whether the U.S. was winning in Iraq, Abizaid replied, “Given unlimited time and unlimited support, we’re winning the war.”

We need to elect responsible leaders who will make courageous decisions, including withdrawing our troops from the current quagmire in Iraq.

With your support, we will continue to help elect candidates who oppose the Bush Administration’s misguided Iraq policies and endorse expanded nuclear non-proliferation programs.

Contribute $25, $50, $75 or more to the Council for a Livable World!

Sincerely,

Sen. Gary Hart, Chairman, Council for a Livable World
Jerome Grossman, Chairman Emeritus

P.S. For more information on Iraq, visit our web site by clicking here.