Home > Kucinich: New Urgency to bipartisan efforts to pass "Homeward Bound" Resolution

Kucinich: New Urgency to bipartisan efforts to pass "Homeward Bound" Resolution

by Open-Publishing - Thursday 30 June 2005
11 comments

Demos-Actions Wars and conflicts International USA

Iraq Withdrawal Bill Critical and Timely

There is a new urgency to our bipartisan efforts to pass House Joint Resolution 55, a bill to establish a plan to begin the end of the war in Iraq. Last night’s nationally televised speech by the President made it clear we are in Iraq for time indefinite. While the Administration relentlessly conflates Iraq and 9/11, the war in Iraq is not about Saddam and WMDs anymore. It’s about terror, terrorists, and anti-terrorists: the President told us that over thirty times in his speech. The President also urged us to have courage.

H.J. Res. 55 is an opportunity to rally the nation around a bipartisan plan to bring the troops home. It requires the Administration to "develop and implement a plan for the withdrawal of United States Armed Forces from Iraq." Its original cosponsors are Walter Jones (R-NC), Neil Abercrombie, (D-HI), Ron Paul (R-TX), Marty Meehan (D-MA), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA) and myself.

The bill, entitled "Homeward Bound", requires the Administration to announce not later than December 31, 2005 a plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq, and to begin bringing our troops home not later than October 1, 2006. This will be the beginning of the end of the war in Iraq.

Withdrawal from Iraq has never been in the Administration’s plans - not when the war was being planned, nor during its execution. The occupation in "sovereign" Iraq will continue unless we stop it. We are building several permanent military bases in Iraq. "We will stay in Iraq as long as we are needed, and not a day longer," the President said last night. When the Administration ties Iraq into the "War on Terror" the war never has to end. It then becomes a steady source of cash for the 20,000 "private contractors" in Iraq, some of whom were paid with the $10.8 billion in cash that cannot be accounted for in a program where the U.S. had oversight responsibility.

The longer we stay in Iraq, accidentally killing tens of thousands of civilians, we create more people who swear vengeance against America. Pre-war intelligence, including C.I.A. reports, saw no serious link between Osama Bin Laden and Hussein. Recently, the New York Times reported on a C.I.A. report stating that now Iraq has become a breeding ground for terrorists. Highly-sophisticated explosive devices are being tested on our brave soldiers with devastating result. The U.S. death toll will soon rise above 1,700. While the ranks of the volunteer army, the reserves and the National Guard are being depleted, the Pentagon is using a private firm to amass names and detailed personal information on millions of 16-18 year olds. The cost of the war will soon approach $300 billion and the nation’s budget deficit is $368 billion.

Everything about the war in Iraq has been wrong. It was wrong to go in. It is wrong to stay in. It is wrong to keep our troops in harm’s way. H.J. Res. 55 gives us a chance to right the wrong and exit with a plan which is sensitive to the security concerns of both the Iraqi people and the American people, because the truth is that this war is making people in both countries less safe.

It is time to begin to organize efforts to contact individual members of Congress to support H.J. Res. 55. It is time to plan teach-ins at high schools and college campuses. It is time to mobilize peace marches for September. It is time to join the nationwide effort to create a cabinet-level Department of Peace. It is time to reclaim our active citizenship. It is time to prepare to leave the cocoons of fear which some may have been spun into. A new America is about to emerge.

Our President has urged us to fly our flags in support of our troops this 4th of July. I agree. Fly the flag. Support the troops. Bring them home.

www.kucinich.us

PLEASE call or write your representative and lend your voice in support of the ’Homeward Bound’ resolution.

’’I’m from Hawaii, and I know you either ride the wave or the wave rides over you," said Representative Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat. ’’Democrats would be well-advised to ride this one. It’s just a question of time for the party to realize that."

’’We have people who are coming at this from a lot of different places," said Representative Maxine Waters of California, a founder of the House’s 50-member Out of Iraq Caucus, which advocates for an immediate end to the conflict. ’’It’s getting better, because members are responding to the polls and asking the right questions now. But we have to bring more attention to this issue. We cannot be silent."

Forum posts

  • Oh So much is at stake to discuss, where to begin....?

    I have a question. Who would request payment in billions of dollars in cash for services rendered FROM THE US TAXPAYERS?
    If this is not accounted for I fear that the entire process of funding and disbursments for the war is not only potentially corrupt but the fact that untracable cash payments are being made, then who would require cash, other than some type of operation WHOS IDENTITY WAS TO REMAIN UNTRACABLE AND UNDEFINABLE would be part of a US government operation in the so called "War on Terror". It seems that we should also include in your Demand-For-Proof-And-Accountablity-bill not only withdrawls but detailed accounting and a congressional hearing into who authorized the OMB to WALK DOWN to the FEDERAL RESERVE BANKS and withdraw 10 billion dollars in cash, and NOT EVEN THE BANKERS hickuped on that one or SAID a PEEP to ANYONE, especially when it was drawn down on the accounts of the federal government against the general tax payer funds. Who has the power to allow that? Who could authorize that type of transaction? And what kind of government and banking officials were involved and when is a full record of the account going to be supeona’d from the Fed Reserve Banks on how did they allow the treasury to disburse that much cash onto the street without any discussion of authorization with congress or the PAYER OF THE DEBT, that American TAX PAYER. That is what should be delt with in another bill folks. I would like a full acounting of the money, because if they are going to enslave us as taxpayers for the next 20 years and make my children pay off their debt while their children live off the fat military contracts then that makes the American Worker nothing but dumb cheap tax paying labor chump. And that my friends is now a personal problem I have with the entire system as it now stands. And I will say this, and that is if they think they are going to get away with anything they better get dual citizenship with a non extradition country, because this is my country, and as a taxpayer I paid for it and I have a LEGAL right under US and International law to assure that those assets are not being MISUSED.

    And DK if they are going to railroad your bill to the side, start another forum with Conyers and others and push to get testimony from contractors, bank reps, and service recipients as to the costs paid, detailed invoices, and bank account audit trails which must be kept according to US Treasury and Fed Res Requirments, and create another "Downing Street" but call it the "War on our Economy, AND Peace of Mind brought to You by this Administration" and a President who put us into a War On Terror through his NON PEACE oriented philosophys and a corporate agenda of personal greed that has shifted the debt to the common man who dies in this war while the children of the wealthy military contractors live plush and high laughing at all the economically deprived who are forced to enlist in the support of this war as they have no other PEACE TIME JOBS of CHOICE". Bring that to the publics attention it should help GW economic speechs focus on the more of his well crafted News-Speak propaganda and how the "military contractors" are supporting the economy with their offshore NON TAX PAYING ACCOUNT and corproation structures" Bring that UP.

    peace out 7b

    • Oh and one more thing. Start a forum to invoke Executive Order 11110 signed by JFK 12 days before his assasination. It states that the US has the right to print its own money and it a quatity it sees fit, and come up with a HJ-Bill# that would invoke that to ward off the coming Federal Reserve Collapse and complete take over of the US government and the economy by the corproation bankers who are being backed in this scheme by the world banks (especailly Wolfie the new Prez) to disable the American Democracy and make the US into one large giant Arms Creating Corporation and Prison Slave state makeing these weapons and to enslave the rest of the the world to their disfunctional psychic greed religion. I thought I should share that with you since we need all the help we can to bring back the US from the death dealers and their War Machine. Long live the Department of Peace and the Order of Freedom and Trust to build the better world that we all know is possible.

      Create a bill to put the power of money in the hands of the people, not the privately held Federal Reserve which only issues debt notes for the exploited American taxpayer. This is truely unconsittutional as was the creation of the Fed in 1913. Create forum discussing that and boy will you have so much support, because you would be doing the very thing to BRING POWER to THE PEOPLE, and that WOULD BE ECONOMIC POWER to USURP the CORPORATION ENSLAVEMENT that LABOR has undergone, and to realign the people with the principles PUT IN ACTION by PUTTING OUR MONEY INTO THE PEACEFUL DEPARTMENT OF PEACE and It’s FORWARD THINKING AGENDAS, NOT THE MILITARY AGENDAS being brought about by the current banking establishment and their quest for domination over the labor of mankind and their political institutions now infested with their greed ideologies.

      Go DK, Create
      The DEPARTMENT of PEACE,
      The DEPARTMENT of PEACEFUL MONEY and Participtory Economics

      peace out 7b

  • Kucinich is on target....it is time to move on this resolution....Bush’s speeches are often hard to understand ... he is now proclaiming a third world war in the battle against terrorism that started on 9-11 and the invasion of Iraq as a pro democracy move. I was waiting for this administrations next move to understand where they were planning to go... an endless war is not in our best interest.

  • write someone else’s representative??

    We need to put public pressure on anyone who might be open to truly supporting the troops. Many republicans are just now understanding that they have been duped. If they lied to get us into the war....chances are they are still lying. Why should we even have to ask for an exit plan? It is outrageous that the Bush Administration doesn’t have one.

    I have read that both Republican Rep Howard Coble and Republican Rep. James A. Leach are behind the plan to bring our troops home. It seems that if we can convince enough republicans, the rest of the democrats will fall in line or risk losing their jobs. The American people aren’t going to put up with the apathy of some of these democrats much longer. It is their job afterall, to be the opposition. It is almost understandable why the republicans voted party line, but the democrats have no excuse for continuing the lies.

  • George W. Bush on President Clinton not setting a timetable for exiting Kosovo

    “Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is.”
    George W. Bush, 4/9/99:

    “I think it’s also important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they will be withdrawn.”
    George W. Bush, 6/5/99

  • Discretion is the better part of valor.

  • The truth is we cannot end the "war in Iraq" because what is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan are not wars but economic struggles. With America and Americans being the one’s struggling; the foundation of Capitalism requires an ever expanding money supply and the production of goods and services to maintain a flow to the money supply.

    Like a river, that depends on continuous and new contributions, i.e., water, from some other source, usually a source dependable and a source at the beginning, the beginning of the river having become a river. The American system of wages, Americans no longer being people who make for themselves their own necessities, food, clothing, a place to find shelter, i.e., a house; when any society grows to depend on Government and Industry as their sources for the necessities of life, then, the continuous re-supplying of money is essential to continuing that way of living.

    As it is, America cannot back its money by anything(s) other than productivity, invention and land, the selling of Government Bonds backed by these but mostly by the word. The word of the International Banker’s, who are presently standing behind America; the recent turning of the Euro scare into nothing more than a scare shows the dependence these International Banker’s have grown to have, with America. Except there is a continuing and ever growing supply of money, made in and used in America, and, something to back this money up, something, like OIL. Then, the whole can of worms falls over, the people scrabbling to get their fair share of the worms, before they escape into the ground, a real free-for-all during which America and Americans will bear the blunt of the -collapse. After which, the Banker’s and the Politicians, will be hard pressed to remain free men and women, this nation, up against the wall so that a Civil War is most likely.

    As much as we want to think the Politicians and the Banker’s under whose control the politicians are, are, only thinking of themselves, in fact, there is a real crisis brewing. A monetary crisis the likes of which is incomprehensible to anyone living today or in all of the history of the modern world. We, might think the Politicians and the Bankers are intending Nuclear War when in fact it could be they are doing their level best to prevent a nuclear war, at least, an all out nuclear war. We might think it is unconscionable that the Leader’s of humankind in the Western Hemisphere may be or are planning a general genocide of ’worthless’ humanity, from off the face of the Earth; avoiding the question, how long can Earth and Business continue to support what is for the most an irresponsible, unproductive, selfish and self-centered population(s) of peoples? Peoples, who, if push does come to shove will cause the "End of the World" to be a reality.

    It is easy for us to insist the Leadership do this or that, but, the real picture is not understandable to us, if it were then masses of people would already be in the streets, killing other people, and like there is no tomorrow. Which, there might not be for some of our children, which, is a sure bet; Mother Nature, torn and treated with utter disdain by most of the human populations finding it harder and harder to cope. To cope with us, i.e., humanity. For, people are bent on destruction, even it need not be.

    I am unable to delineate the real-deal because I am not aware of what the real deal is, but, I think the conclusion I have drawn do give something of a true picture relating to why we cannot pull out of the “Wars” we are presently embroiled in, relating to why we are in these wars, in the first place, and, why so much of what we know is happening to us and to our nation America, are happening. Please, be considerate of my voice, for, I am a voice lacking in so many ways -true understanding.

    We are, all of us, responsible for whatever happens to us and/or the nation(s) we live in. It is time we shouldered the blame, at least most of it, and stop, blaming everyone and everything else.

    • Nice piece of work. But it is a little bit on the side of a psy ops piece. You indicate that you think Bankers and Polititans are somehow acting on behalf of some common mass of people. That could be nothing further from the truth. All wars are TOP DOWN. The money comes first. Then the leaders and mouth pieces are chosen. The agenda is set. The propaganda is distributed. The drain on the economy chosen to crash to provide the war profit cycle for the bankers to provide the private corporation banking the military muscle to carry out their support their use of THEIR MONEY and their POLITICS. That is all that is behind this. I know I worked for major elements in the banking system. I have seen and heard the planning of the military, the money loaning programs on land and homes, and the "impending issues needed to sieze control" and the "excuses to take what they want under their convient setup"... It is all about using money to create the desire and mind control to FOLLOW BANKERS ORDERS.

      Thats all their is to it. Nothing Else. Politics is mass media propaganda. If you have nukes and control the money flow. Who can stand against you? Who? YOU ARE GOD. That is ALL.

      peace out. Use the Force of Peace and Information of TRUTH

    • And another thing almost all money is fiat. Their is no base of using OIL or gold or any other psychological mind control economic propaganda. Money is just numbers on paper. Either electronic, or actual. It need be back by nothing. Bankers make up this stuff and always have to incur THE USE OF DEBT insturments to seize control of resource, agendas, and politics. Credit Cards, National Debt, The Stock market are all JUST GAMES invented to make you believe in the value and use of money. Its all lies. The only things of actual value is

      A peace time of interacting intelligent beings using their minds and their resources to their common and personal highest good.
      That is all. Money is Mind Control. It is the oldest form of a scam and a lie to take property, influence minds, and to create just like false religions that originated in Babylon false systems of abstract numerical value that could be used to enslave great groups of people into little economic slave camps call "cities" while the slave trading money changers dreamed up their next stupid mindless economic development plan. Like the one they backed to build the A Bomb and create the un-obtainable peace through the constant use of threat against any form of progressive NON Money ORIENTED SOCIETY. Its part of the money changers Mental Illness.

      peace out . Economics is just slavery with an abacus.

  • AT FIRST I THOUGHT THE WAR IN IRAQ WAS THE RGHT THING. I NO LONGER FEEL THAT WAY. ALSO, I HAVE A SON WHO WILL SOON BE IN IRAQ. I BELIEVE THEY SHOULD GET OUR TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ. THE SOONER THE BETTER!! THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD HAVE TO GIVE AN ACCCOUNTING TO THE PEOPLE ON EVERY DIME THAT IS SPENT. AFTER ALL, IT IS OUR MONEY THEY ARE SPENDING.

    LR IN KENTUCKY

    • Your son is not obligated to serve in an illegal war, nor serve a commander and chief who has lied to US and our congress to start a war of aggression.

      www.objector.org

      Please tell your son to read about Depleted Uranium before he considers going to Iraq. 50% of Gulf War I vets are on permanent disability. 11,000+ have died since the first Gulf War.