Friends,
I'm Doug Denneny, a decorated Iraq War combat veteran running for U.S. Congress in Virginia's 11th Congressional District in Northern Virginia. Doug's Picture My website is Dougforcongress.com and I'll be live blogging tomorrow night (Sunday) at 8:00 pm e.s.t. and I'll be ready to answer your questions. I've been endorsed by Congressman Patrick Murphy and Congressman Joe Sestak, as well as VETPAC. I look forward to your support.
Here is the lead paragraph of an article from the AP last week entitled, After surge, 140,000 troops to remain in Iraq:
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is projecting that when the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq is over in July there will be about 8,000 more troops on the ground than when the buildup began in January 2007, a senior general said Monday.
That will bring us up to 140,000, from a pre-surge starting point of 132,000 in 2007. So just for fun, let's assume this summer the Bush administration calls for another surge. If it is as successful as this one, we'll ramp back up to 180,000 or so troops, then in the summer of 2009, we'll reduce back down to 148,000. And then in 2010, we'll surge again and reduce back down to 156,000. If we hang around for a hundred years as a Republican presidential contender said, maybe we'll reduce it down to 140,000 plus 8000 times 100, only 940,000 troops by 2108! Now that's what I call progress in Iraq!
Now, I know that was a little far-fetched, but let's think about this.
Remember the Bush line, "when they stand up, we'll stand down." Looks like the only folks that are standing up are our troops. Where is the outrage? What is our strategy here? Our men and women fought for the Iraqis' "breathing space" and ... silence. No political concessions from the Iraqi government. No power sharing. Nothing, nada, zip. All we've seen last week is Turkey invading Iraq from the north and a carbomb killing 40 people in the south.
Why change when Uncle Sugar has your back?
We'll surge, lose a lot of American's lives, wound thousands more, and then return to a pre-surge number plus 8,000? Are we on a path to victory? Of course not, because, as I've always said,
The U.S. military can't end the war in Iraq, it is up to the Iraqi politicians to change the course and end the war in Iraq.
But from the Bush administration, same old same old. They don't get it. We must force the Iraqi politicians to make tough choices and concessions. We don't need to make the U.S. servicemembers continue to suck it up with 15 month tours in Iraq, back to back rotations and stop-loss quasi-draft programs. We need to give the Iraqi leaders tough love and tell them the U.S. troops are not staying around forever (or increasing in number).
We've got Americans that are putting their skin in this game, and it's not a game. It's life and death for them and their families. I'll never forget missing every holiday in 2002 getting ready for our deployment to Iraq. I'll never forget my young son crying in my arms, knowing that his daddy was going to go off in harms way for a very long time. I'll never forget the jubilation of being shot at and not getting hit.
We need to begin a tough love program now. We need to bring our troops out in a smart, phased withdrawal and force the Iraqi leaders to stand up and make the tough decisions.
As your next Congressman, I vow to fight for our troops, as hard as they are fighting for us.
Will you join me in my fight? Please visit my website at Dougforcongress.com and please contribute to my campaign. I have an end of month FEC report and I need your contribution to our campaign to show them that we, as a nation are tired of politics as usual with Iraq and we need to elect an Iraq War Combat veteran to help us end this war. Will you help me?
I look forward to your questions on Sunday night at 8 pm e.s.t. I'll post another diary tomorrow afternoon. Please spread the word.
Thanks,
Doug Denneny
Congressional Candidate
D VA-11
www.dougforcongress.com