The Sixth Year of War
Op-Ed
The Sixth Year of War
Dear Friends:
Today marks the start of year six of the war in Iraq. Nearly 4,000 U.S. servicemen and women have been killed in Iraq, and tens of thousands have been wounded, many with permanent disabilities. In addition to the human cost in lives and suffering for U.S. troops, their families, and Iraqi civilians, this war is costing American taxpayers $330 million every day or $12 billion per month.
President Bush's war in Iraq has no end in sight. 160,000 U.S. troops continue to fight there. While there has been a reduction in violence from the bloodiest periods of 2006 and 2007, it has come at a price. At present, according to the New York Times, "91,000 Iraqis, many of them former enemies of the American forces, receive a regular, American-paid salary for serving in neighborhood militias." These armed militia men are not integrated into the regular Iraqi military or police force and are non-combatants only as long as we pay them. The strategy of buying off former insurgents has calmed the situation in the short-termbut what happens when U.S. taxpayers stop paying? The prospects of returning to extreme violence and a raging civil war in Iraq appear high unless the Iraqi government can find political solutions to resolve ongoing tensions.
Since October 2002, when I cast my vote against authorizing the preemptive war against Iraq, I have opposed this disastrous policy. Ending the U.S. military presence in Iraq will require a new President and a Congress with the will to demand a timeline for withdrawal. It is time for the U.S. to end the war in Iraq and the Iraqi government to secure their nation and run their own affairs.
Last Week, the House passed the FISA Amendments Act (H.R. 3773), a bill to modernize the laws that govern U.S. intelligence gathering. This bill will give our intelligence agencies the tools to keep Americans safe while ensuring that that power cannot be abused to violate our most precious freedoms.
More and more evidence is emerging that the Bush administration has abused its intelligence gathering powers. In 2005, we learned that the government had circumvented intelligence laws to spy on Americans' phone conversations. Last year, an investigation found that the FBI had misused tools intended to fight terrorism to conduct unrelated domestic surveillance. And just this past week, reports have surfaced that the FBI requested thousands of phone records to cover up its previous abuses, and that this and other questionably-obtained data is being compiled by the National Security Agency in a massive data-mining operation about which we know almost nothing.
Despite this deeply troubling pattern, the Bush administration insists that Congress should update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to grant even broader spying powers. Democrats are committed to keeping Americans safe, and we have offered a compromise that would address the administration's legitimate concerns. President Bush, however, has refused to negotiate. Instead, he waited until the old FISA law expired, then claimed that our intelligence agencies no longer have the tools to fight terrorists.
This is simply not true. The surveillance powers established under the original law will remain in effect for at least the next six months. While President Bush and his allies in Congress shamelessly exploit the threat of terrorism to try to frighten Americans into accepting their demands, Democrats are using this time to carefully craft new legislation. The FISA Amendments Act passed last week protects our national security while rigorously defending civil liberties and ensuring accountability for the Bush administration and telecommunications companies that may have broken the law.
The President should stop the scare tactics and sign this legislation.
Click here to learn more about the FISA Amendments Act.
Sincerely,
Betty McCollum Signature
Congresswoman Betty McCollum
Serving Minnesota's Fourth Congressional District
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