Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-OR: A Plan For Iraq

My Congressman has offered up a plan for ending our involvement in the War On Iraq that I think has merit.

I'm interested in DUer's opinions. Here it is:

link here: http://blumenauer.house.gov/Issues/Issue.aspx?SubIssueID=106

<snip>

# Immediately clarify, forcefully and plainly, our long-term intentions and intermediate objectives in Iraq so that a withdrawal would not be viewed as a retreat or lack of will and vision. Renounce any permanent designs on Iraq's territory or resources, and plans for permanent bases there.

# Return to the United States the approximately 46,000 Guard and Reserve forces in Iraq immediately following the December elections.

# Draw-down the rest of the U.S. forces over the next one to two years, based on a detailed plan for the transfer of security responsibility on a sector by sector basis. The vast majority of these troops should be brought home. Others should be redeployed to Afghanistan to create a larger security footprint and help prevent the reemergence of the Taliban. A small rapid-reaction force should be left in Kuwait that can protect against any destabilizing coups. Until the withdrawal is complete, the troops remaining in Iraq should focus on holding and stabilizing population centers, rather than hunting down and killing insurgents.

# Shift reconstruction aid to Iraq away from large projects undertaken by foreign contactors towards small, locally oriented projects run by Iraqis. We can help create jobs, give Iraqis a greater investment in their success, and avoid corruption and price-gouging at the same time. Continued funding must be based on results.

# Increase support for the non-governmental organizations that provide much-needed training and assistance to Iraqi political leaders, labor unions, and civil society organizations which provide the backbone of any democracy.

# Seek a new United Nations resolution in favor of international efforts to support Iraq, including U.N. supervision of political and democratic development and training of civilian government capacity, a program to disarm, demobilize, and reintegrate militias, and responsibility for securing munitions and weapons.

# Work to bring other countries in to the training and stability force, under NATO control, if possible, and accept offers from Egypt, Jordan, France, and Germany to train Iraqi troops out of country.

# Diplomatically engage all of Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria, to begin a regional security dialogue with an aim towards restricting their destabilizing interference in Iraqi affairs.

# While we should not negotiate with terrorists, the US needs to make a renewed effort toward a political solution by diplomatically engaging nationalist, not radical Islamic, faction leaders who might be willing to support a stable Iraq without a U.S. presence, in an attempt to drive a wedge through the insurgency. This can be based on similar efforts to engage the IRA in Northern Ireland.

# Allow the Iraqi government to set its own economic course, rather than insisting on the quick privatization of government services, the reduction of government revenues, and the elimination of a social safety net which will lead to increased social disruption and instability.

# Refocus on the real war on terror and other national security threat, including preventing the reemergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, disrupting terror networks across the world, eliminating the social and political conditions that provide support to violent extremists, and developing real strategies to deal with nuclear proliferation in North Korea, Pakistan, and Iran.

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Sounds good to me.

Kicked and Recommended.

I hope his plan gets some national attention.

Great guy and a true liberal in the best sense.

Peter DeFazio and Earl Blumenauer, who earns extra props for his tireless advocacy of mass transit and other alternatives to the automobile.

i can't support that ... every single day we remain in Iraq brings more problems for the US ... i don't believe there can be a political settlement while the US remains inside Iraq ...

the rest of the ideas sound reasonable ... so, for example, if you stick with Murtha's idea of getting all US troops out of Iraq over the next 6 months, and then you push the kinds of diplomatic, political and reconstruction programs this plan call for, then i think i could support it ... but not with another year or two of occupation ...

if nothing else, it's good the nation is finally focussing on Iraq ... i wonder whether the republicans in Congress will press for withdrawal to diffuse the politics before the midters ...

But I don't think it's gonna happen.

As you said, at least ending the war has made the menu, even if it's not the House Special quite yet.