It's been four years today.
On March 19, 2003, President Bush sent the first American troops into Iraq to begin the immoral, unpopular, deadly, and unaffordable war that continues today. More than 3,200 American soldiers have died - including over 40 of our Colorado neighbors and nearly 200 Colorado Springs based soldiers - at least 25,000 more have been seriously injured, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have lost their lives or their livelihoods.
The Bush administration’s endless-war policy has failed by every measure: American troops continue to fight without adequate protection, our standing in world affairs is at a dangerously low point, the situation in Iraq has deteriorated into a deadly civil war, and the rest of the region is as volatile as ever.
You would think that these realities would lead a change in policy. Instead, after four years of an ever-worsening disaster, President Bush wants to continue to escalate the war with more U.S. troops, an open-ended commitment to keep them there, and a blank check from Congress to pay for it.
The people of Colorado are being impacted by the war in many ways. According to the National Priorities Project, as of February Colorado taxpayers alone will have paid $7 billion to fund the war. That does not include the local financial ramifications if the troop escalation continues.
At a time when more and more people, especially children, are un- or underinsured, the cost Coloradans have paid for the war would be enough to provide public health care for more than 2,000,000 people in Colorado over the last four years. Imagine what $7 billion could do for our education system as well....
Members of Congress have a choice: they can endorse the Bush-Cheney policy of open-ended, unaccountable, and deadly permanent war in Iraq, or they can protect America’s troops and set a new course with a date certain for redeployment and no further escalation. |
