The coming showdown between Bush and Congress regarding the Iraq war supplemental funding bill and the deadline for withdrawal will be a monumental occurrence in US history. If Congress has the fortitude to refuse to pass a funding bill without mandatory withdrawal, the President will have no choice but to sign the bill or leave the troops without necessary funding. In this case, it will be quite evident that Congress is the branch of government that is supporting the troops. For that reason it is incumbent upon us, the American people, to take a proactive part in the coming events.
Many members of Congress, especially some of the newly elected Democrats, have taken what they perceived to be significant political risk in supporting the leadership and attaching a time table for withdrawal to the supplemental funding bill. My Congressman, Jason Altmire, voted for the timetable in spite of a formidable number of calls and letters imploring him to break with the leadership and vote against the resolution with a time table. After his vote, he stated he was gratified by the positive response to his vote. We must not stop now! We must continue to flood Congress with calls, letters, and e-mails urging a take-it-or-leave-it stance, again insisting that any supplemental funding bill have a time line for withdrawal attached. The purists among us may insist that anything short of immediate withdrawal is inadequate. While I personally share that view, the reality of the situation dictates that a more pragmatic stance is presently more realistic. No matter where one stands on withdrawal, the present state of affairs is certainly an improvement over the state of affairs before the election.
In essence, the purpose of this post is to urge all progressives to call, write, or e-mail their Senators and Representatives to insist that after the inevitable veto, any subsequent funding bill contain a mandatory time line for withdrawal. The call or letter does not have to be long or eloquent, as after the exhaustive deliberation on this issue it is highly unlikely that our words will affect the ultimate vote. What will affect the eventual vote is the volume of contacts received by Congress. A simple, concise statement of your opinion will be as effective as a three page formal letter. An example of a short e-mail follows:
Dear ____,
I urge you to call President Bush's bluff and, after his seemingly inevitable veto of the Iraq supplemental funding bill, continue to attach a withdrawal deadline to any subsequent funding bill for the Iraq war.
Sincerely,
Of note is the fact that members of Congress consider personal calls, letters, or e-mails more credible than mass e-mails generated by Move-On, PFAW, etc. While I personally participate in these mass e-mails because by sheer volume there is some inevitable impact, any personally generated correspondence carries significantly more weight.
Joe
http://butlerdemblog.blogspot.com
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