Dear MoveOn member,
President Bush told us last night that he plans on keeping 130,000 troops in Iraq indefinitely—no end in sight.
Bush's strategy? Distract from that grim proposal by making a big deal out of the 30,000 "surge" troops
that are returning next summer—despite the fact that they were coming home anyway because the
military is stretched so thin. But if he can convince the public and the media that his plan
is a "withdrawal," Congress won't be able to pass real legislation to end this reckless war.
We've put together a new ad that calls Bush's bluff and tells Congress that his plan isn't going
to cut it.
We want to rush it onto TV Monday. But to do that, we need your support.
Can you chip in $25 to get it on the air? Click below to contribute and watch the ad.https://pol.moveon.org/donateIf you're wondering where the president got the idea of trying to frame his plan as a "withdrawal," you don't need to look any further than Republican activist, Grover Norquist. He told Bush back in July, "The one-paragraph explanation of what we're doing in Iraq has to have the word 'leaving' in there."1 Apparently, Bush took his advice.
If President Bush can successfully position his 30,000-troop withdrawal as "leaving Iraq," it'll remove all of the pressure on Congress to actually end the war. Whether he succeeds will depend
on elites in the media. And they're already falling for his spin like they have so many times before.
Check out these headlines:
"Bush says he'll start bringing troops home before Christmas," Los Angeles Times
"Bush agrees to limited troop cuts," MSNBC
"Success Allows Gradual Troop Cuts, Bush Says," New York Times
We need to drive home that this isn't a withdrawal plan at all. When we elected a new Congress back in 2006, there were 130,000 troops on the ground in Iraq. Then Bush sent 30,000 more into harm's way. Bringing them home now just takes us right back to where we were a year ago. Plus, the president would be forced to bring these troops home anyway. USA Today reported last week, "Pentagon officials have said they cannot sustain this year's buildup of about 28,000 additional troops past next spring because of the stretched personnel demands on the U.S. military."2
All this plan does is run out the clock out on Bush's presidency—leaving the next president to clean up the mess in Iraq. In fact, it's been reported that this is the "central goal" of his remaining days in office.3
We can't wait that long.We need to send a strong message to Congress and the media: This is just another example of the Bush administration betraying the trust of the people. First he said he had a plan to turn things around in Iraq. Then it failed. Now he's telling us that the inevitable return of 30,000 troops is a withdrawal plan.
Click below to watch the new ad and chip in $25 or what you can affordhttps://pol.moveon.org/donateWe've lost close to 4,000 American troops in this war. We've poured half a trillion dollars into it. Every day we turn on the news and we hear about more devastation in Iraq. We need Congress to start bringing our troops home this fall.
Thanks for all you do,
–Nita, Marika, Adam, Eli and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Friday, September 14th, 2007
Sources:
1. Conservatives call for Bush to emphasize 'leaving Iraq', The Hill, July 27, 2007
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2971&id=11250-2919065-TRSIKX&t=42. "Bush: Security "success" may bring troops home," USA Today, September 3, 2007
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2970&id=11250-2919065-TRSIKX&t=53. "In book, Bush peeks ahead to his legacy," International Herald Tribune, September 2, 2007
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2972&id=11250-2919065-TRSIKX&t=6http://www.moveon.org/
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