Lynn C. Woolsey: “one would not travel to a foreign country without making a plan. And one would not buy a house without first making a…”

“one would not travel to a foreign country without making a plan. And one would not buy a house without first making a plan, so why does the Bush administration insist on fighting a quarter trillion dollar war without a plan to end it? It is totally irresponsible for the White House to ask 150,000 United States troops to serve in a dangerous country halfway around the world without a plan to bring them home. With over 1,700 American soldiers killed in action thus far, representing more than 1 percent of our total force in Iraq, our government owes them the courtesy of planning on how we are going to bring them home. Unfortunately, the government has failed our troops in Iraq from the very beginning. First, we did not have a plan on going in and why we were going in. Next, the Pentagon neglected to provide life-saving body armor for each and every one of our troops. A study by the Pentagon released last year stated that nearly one-quarter of those killed during the first year of the war could have been saved with the proper body armor; but we did not plan to protect them well. Now with over 1,700 American soldiers dead, the government has continually neglected to plan for an end to this disastrous war. President Bush likes to talk about the importance of high troop morale, but he needs to talk to the Veterans Against the Iraq War.…”