HR 455: "Protect the Troops and Bring Them Home Act of 2007"

Found out about this at the Democracy for NYC meeting in my neighborhood last night. And let me take this opportunity to say that if you aren't working with your local DFA group, you really SHOULD be. They do good work and they really started the surge of the grassroots that grew out of the Dean movement.

New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler has introduced one of the better Congressional Bills regarding the Iraq War. Most of the bills introduced specifically aim to block the Bush/McCain escalation of the war. Nadler specifically aims to bring the troops home in a safe, responsible way.

I met Congressman Nadler at a National Jewish Democratic Committee breakfast a couple of years ago. My son, then very young, liked him and Nadler regaled us with a story of a local legislator giving a long speech holding another legislator's baby, who had been crying. Nadler is a no-nonsense man and someone who will advocate well for troop withdrawal and who can stand up to Republican smears.

Nadler's bill would limit Congressional funding of the war ONLY to protecting the troops while withdrawing and for diplomacy and specifically rules out paying for any additional troops. Withdrawal must start within 30 days of enactment of the bill and end by Dec. 31, 2007. Here is what Nadler has to say on his website:

“It has been wrongly asserted that Congress cannot force the President to de-escalate or withdraw from Iraq because it cannot use its only real power – cutting off funds - lest it be accused of ‘abandoning the troops,’” says Rep. Nadler. “But if Congress appropriates funds, but limits those funds to protecting the troops and redeploying them from Iraq, that would be the best way of supporting the troops. In fact, keeping (or adding) American soldiers in the middle of a civil war with no end in sight is the ultimate act of abandonment. We must save American lives by bringing them home as soon as possible.”

The Protect the Troops and Bring Them Home Act would limit the use of funds to:

1. Protecting our troops while they are in Iraq
2. Bringing the troops home in a safe and orderly manner on a timetable beginning one month after enactment of the Act and ending by December 31, 2007
3. Providing assistance to Iraqi security forces
4. Providing economic and reconstruction assistance
5. Arranging for diplomatic consultations.

“If we want to end America’s military involvement in Iraq’s civil war, the only way we can overcome the President’s stubbornness in keeping us involved in this misguided effort is to limit the use of the funds to protecting our troops while carrying out a withdrawal,” says Rep. Nadler.

Please write your Congress Critter to express support for HR 455. Also write the media expressing your support of Nadler and this bill. This could be our best shot at stopping the Bush/McCain escalation plan, or at least getting it debated publically.

Can I just once again say that I am happy as can be with the Democratic Majority in the House so far!

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