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| THEY SAY | WE SAY |
| We need to fight them there so we won't need to fight them here. Iraq is a key battleground in the war on terror. | The war in Iraq has made us less safe. The U.S. official National Intelligence Estimate [1] concludes that the war in Iraq has increased Islamic radicalism, and has made the terror threat around the world worse. The number of significant terrorist [2] incidents worldwide tripled in the year after the war started, and a bipartisan survey of national security experts says the war in Iraq is making the world more dangerous for Americans. |
| We need to stay the course. We can't cut and run. | The current strategy is failing. The sooner we recognize that and make changes, the more chance we have of success. Nobody is planning an immediate headlong flight. What's needed is a deliberate, orderly transition. Iraqis need to manage their own affairs. We can’t referee their civil war. 63 percent [3] of Americans and 70 percent [4] of Iraqis want a timetable for withdrawal. That's not running away. That's listening. |
| You aren't supporting the troops. | We are supporting the troops by bringing them home. Republicans defeated by filibuster even a rest [5] for soldiers and National Guard who served far longer than they ever expected to. |
| Give us more time. | The war has gone on for four years, longer than U.S. involvement in World War II. But Bush keeps asking for more time. The so-called "surge" was supposed to be the last ask, and Bush said he needed until September to see if it worked. Now as September approaches, they are asking until spring [6]. Enough is enough. |
| We can't back down to terrorists. | There is no military solution to problems in Iraq. A diplomatic solution is long overdue. We need to regroup with our allies, revisit the Iraq Study Group and cooperate with the Iraqis. |
| The do-nothing Democratic Congress can't get anything done. | Republican stonewalling has reached historic proportions. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's "Six in '06" – bills with broad, bipartisan support -- passed quickly out of the House, then it hit filibusters in the Senate. Virtually every progressive reform, not just Iraq, has been obstructed [7]. When Democrats threatened to filibuster extreme right-wing judicial appointments (while passing other judicial appointments), Republicans cried "Foul!" and demanded an "up or down vote." [8] Now they threaten to filibuster everything [7]. |
1825 K Street, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20006
202-955-5665 (tel) | 202-955-5606 (fax) | www.ourfuture.org
Links:
[1] http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0925/dailyUpdate.html
[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/26/AR2005042601623.html
[3] http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F40F11F93D540C768EDDAC0894DF404482
[4] http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brmiddleeastnafricara/165.php?nid=&id=&pnt=165&lb=brme
[5] http://www.webb.senate.gov/
[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/16/world/middleeast/16commander.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
[7] http://www.ourfuture.org/files/z_historic/tba05/20070629_filibusteredreport.pdf
[8] http://www.ourfuture.org/node/13079
[9] http://www.ourfuture.org/real-cost-iraq-war
[10] http://www.ourfuture.org/realsecurity