Five members of the Traverse Area Peace and Justice Community presented their concerns to Rep. Camp. Although we requested a town hall type meeting open to the public, Rep. Camp was only available at his office and the meeting was limited to 12 individuals from this anti-war group.
In the photo: Dennis Bean-Larson, Tom Shea, David Warren, John Lewis, Marain Kromowski, Peggy Fry, Eric and Rep. Dave Camp
Read article in the Record Eagle - here
The following statements were read to Representative Dave Camp during the meeting:
For millions of Americans every single day has now become a mix of emotions as we read and hear about US and Iraqi losses. Perhaps we don’t hear enough about it, or that it hasn’t personally touched as many people as did the war in Vietnam in the years before and after I served there. Let’s not let this misguided conflict escalate to that point.
Like millions of other Americans I watched with fear as the first one then the second towers of the World Trade Center fell in New York City. I listened as the details were unraveled and the perpetrators were identified and linked to Terrorist Organizations in Afghanistan.
With millions of other Americans and people all around the world, I feared for our troops as we invaded Afghanistan and I listened while the Bush Administration told us of the imminent threat from Weapons of Mass Destruction that were being manufactured and stockpiled in Iraq. I watched while we invaded Iraq preemptively and without world-wide support.
And I’ve watched and listened during the last four years while first one and then another of the reasons for this action has been proven false. I’ve watched while the morale of the American military has been eroded by repeated deployments and poor equipment.
The Bush/Cheney war in Iraq has proven to be even more catastrophic than any of us might have predicted. It has killed too many Americans and too many Iraqis. The Bush/Cheney war has destroyed the un-free but functioning nation of Iraq.
It has increased the threat of terrorism, empowered our enemies, and inspired hatred of the United States all over the world.
The cost of the Bush/Cheney war will ultimately exceed a trillion dollars. It most certainly has become, as Al Gore has said: “the worst strategic mistake in the entire history of the United States.”
And I say it has to end.
To those who want a strong national defense system, I say that that this war, and this administration, has seriously weakened our military forces. This administration has inadequately equipped our troops, extended tours of duty, and it has failed to provide for proper treatment of physically wounded soldiers and those with continuing psychological problems.
To those who want the United States to be a moral leader in the world, I say that this war, and the Bush/Cheney administration, has made us the bully of the world.
This administration has preemptively invaded another nation on false premises, has ignored due process in the detainment of prisoners and civilians, and has legitimized torture in the name of freedom.
To those who have served your country in peacetime or in other conflicts and who question our patriotism or our support of our soldiers, I say that Dissent is Patriotic.
To the Americans who have been hesitant to step forward and criticize our leaders, I say it is our duty as citizens to step forward and tell our leaders that we demand an end to these misguided policies.
--Dennis Bean-Larson
I am here today to hold you - my congressman to an electoral mandate to end our occupation of Iraq and to de-fund (not re-fund) the war. If you vote to give Bush another $100 billion to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan our occupation will go on and on, thousands more of our kids will die and the destruction of Iraq will continue..
59 percent of Americans surveyed want our representatives to support withdrawal by August 2008.
Assuming we want to bring the troops home, what’s the best way for you and Congress to make that happen? Some in congress oppose using the power of the purse to make it happen because that would somehow hurt our troops. But Congress can fund the only thing that would protect our troops, a withdrawal.
The following statements are taken from the Federalist Papers written by Alexander Hamilton in an effort to educate voters on why they should ratify the constitution.
“Our constitution states clearly that the power to end wars resides in the Congress most clearly through the power of the purse and the EXPRESS requirement that no appropriations for a standing Army last for more than 2 years. In this way, any war would require a reauthorization from Congress every two years by its decision to fund the war”. (Federalist 24, Hamilton)
“The legislature of the United States will be OBLIGED, by this provision, once at least in every two years, to deliberate upon the propriety of keeping a military force on foot; to come to a new resolution on the point; and to declare their sense of the matter, by a formal vote in the face of their constituents. They are not AT LIBERTY to vest in the executive department permanent funds for the support of an army.” (Federalist 26, Hamilton).
The framers of our constitution knew full well that the Commander in Chief– once he has started a war - will be in no position to end it.
During the Vietnam war, it took congress five years – beginning in 1968 – proposing bill after bill to defund the war – finally passing the bill in 1973 – cutting the purse strings of the president. 30,000 more of my brothers and sisters died in the war during those 5 years.
So, if the debate in Congress is about whether to attach a few soft benchmarks to Bush’s request for more money to maintain the occupation on his terms, he will feel little sense of urgency. But if the debate is about whether to provide only the money needed to bring the troops home, Bush will understand that time is running out for his strategy – and that he can no longer afford to casually dismiss diplomacy and the logic of withdrawal.
--Peggy Fry
We need to start talking seriously about withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq. Many historians mark the loss of the US war on Vietnam from the end of the Tet Offensive in 1968. It took another 6 years for the US to withdraw. 35 US soldiers have already died in April. If this rate continues, 1400 soldiers will die per year. Using the Vietnam model, prolonging the war for another 6 years, may mean nearly 12,000 US troops dead.
There are already nearly 25,000 wounded US troops. The Department of Veterans Affairs recently revealed that blast waves of IEDs will put at least 30% of the troops at risk of disabling neurological disorders, all without suffering a scratch. That is 45,000 troops at risk right now.
In one three week period this year five U.S. military helicopters were shot down. 50 total have been lost. The Michigan National Guard has only 42 % of its authorized equipment. The rest is in Iraq. The head of the National Guard says our “homeland is at risk because we are significantly under equipped.”
70% of Iraqis want the US out within a year. A just out survey from the Council on Foreign Relations also indicates that 70% of Americans want the US out in the next 12 months. Half a million marched in the streets of Najaf this weekend calling for withdrawal. 60% favor attacks on US troops. These numbers indicate that there’s a high likelihood the U.S. will be forced out of Iraq.
The most common response to US withdrawal is that it will bring chaos to Iraq. The current situation remains grim. 650,000 Iraqis may have died. Unemployment is 60%. The cost of fuel and electricity has gone up 270% in one year. One million Iraqis are refugees in Jordan and Syria.
Indeed, there is chaos, and there will be chaos with or without a U.S. presence. The Iraqis can surely look back into the 7000 year history of Mesopotamia and take better care of themselves than the US has done in the past 4 years.
Withdrawal is the honest answer to a dishonest war that should not have been waged and an occupation that is making things worse by the day.
--Marian Kromkowski
Veterans for Peace commits to seeking justice for veterans and victims of war and, along with other veterans and veterans organizations,are distressed with the many instances of our government's failure to adequately support our troops,
overseas and after returning home. The appalling lack of body armour, the lack of awareness and planning for treating brain injuty victims, cutting funds for the Veterans Administration, and the disgracaeful conditions at the Walter Reed Army Hospital are prime examples.
Here is another ongoing situation which we believe Congress is morally obligated to address. Many brain injured military personnel have been pressured and misled into agreeing to a "Chapter 5-13" discharge which label them as having a pre-existing personality disorder, rather than emotional problems from their combat experiences. They then become ineligible for disability benefits, V.A. medical care, in addition to having to repay any pre-signing bonus. In the last 6 years, the Army has diagnosed and discharged more than 5,600 soldiers because of supposed personality disorders, with military doctors often pushing the personality disorder diagnosis and refusing to acknowledge evidence of posttraumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and/or physical trauma. The question is raised as to how they were accepted for military service in the first place. We ask, Rep. Camp, that you investigate what Congress has done or will do to see that such appallingly disgraceful practices are terminated. We would then ask for an answer from you. Thank you.
--John E. Lewis
I’m going talk about how the cost of this war explodes our national debt. The consequences of an overloaded national debt is one more reason to stop funding this war.
Here’s a picture of four-month old Noah, our most recent of ten grandchildren. Noah, like 300 million other U.S citizens already has a $30,000 share of our national debt. When he’s older, and deeper into that national debt, he’s going to ask: Why didn’t you do something about the national debt? Why didn’t you use the money to do something about global warming? Why did you waste money on wars? In some ways they’re all the same question.
We can’t do much about global warming, national health care or even balance the annual federal budget because half-trillion dollars already went to a war that’s not over.
1. Our National Debt = 8 trillion, 854 billion dollars reaching toward another revision of a Cap on what U.S. Government can borrow.
Cost of Iraq War so far = 414 Billion Dollars
Look at the Growth of the National Debt in the last 25 years: (Show Progression - Chart Billions to Trillions in 25 years)
This year of the the projected increase in our national debt, 22% was due to "war, homeland security, and other enacted legislation".
Peter Peterson Nixon’s Secretary of Commerce argues in his book “Running on Empty”,that twin deficits in trade and government spending means $4 billion in foreign capital every day...Part of that is supporting our war.
(Show pie chart - % and cash)
2. Who ‘owns’ this national debt? 300 U.S. citizens. Like Little Noah. All the borrowers, the federal agencies who have borrowed money from the U.S. Government, the public and foreign U.S. bondholders bought bonds expecting interest and the ability to sell the bonds. One way or another, we the U.S. citizens bite the bullet of a federal sellout. Little Noah really will may need an ARC survive, either the rising ocean from the polar ice melt, or a 9 trillion dollar national debt. Flood or federal famine, the U.S. citizens bite the bullet of fiscal breakdown, due in part to profligate spending on an unnecessary war.
(Show Graph National Debt Distribution)
3. How can this happen? One way is for the foreign investors of U.S. Bonds cash out. What happens when these foreign countries start withdrawing their financial support of our National Debt? Our 1930’s Depression combined a stock-market Crash and the Failure of the Bank of Austria. Didn’t we recently bail out Mexico? Look no further than Michigan for what happens when money’s not available
4. We must get control of spending on this war by stopping it now. There a many steps toward that goal. For example, Thank you for voting (HR 1362) the Accountability in Contracting Act to get a little control of abuses by some corporate war profiteers. Your letter in response to our petitins cited $2.1 billion in questionable costs and $1.4 billioin in unsupported costs on Iraq Cotracts. Regrettably the legislation, unlike the Senate bill, did not include fines and punishments for contracting as our petitions to you urged. Example of waste, IED’s kill and wound more U.S troops than any other weapon, 57%. A ‘small ‘Joint IED Defeat office set up, hired 400 people, spent $6.3 billions, an no results . President asking for same amount again.
“Congressman, as Member of Ways & Means you can help cut war funds. In your role on the subcommittee on “Income Security and Family Support,” you must see the impact of the war budget on the unemployed. When our National Debt goes into a head-on crash with foreign countries going selling off the U>S. dollar for better investments elsewhere, it’s these families that bleed.
What actions have you taken or can take to reduce war spending resulting a little control over increasing the national Debt?
--Tom Shea