Earl Blumenauer: “today we take another step in ending the war in Iraq as we consider the measure to withdraw our troops by next April.…”

“today we take another step in ending the war in Iraq as we consider the measure to withdraw our troops by next April. Each day, support for President Bush's war crumbles as evidence mounts of the cost of this debacle: $10 billion a month, more lives lost, and thousands of hopes and dreams shattered. We who opposed this war from the start for the reasons played out every day on the front pages of our newspapers understand that the redeployment of 200,000 American soldiers and contractors in Iraq will take some time to implement, but that is no excuse not to start now as rapidly and responsibly as possible to get our people out of the crossfire of this religious civil war. They have done all that they can, all that we should expect of them. I call on the doubters in Congress to stop enabling the President; instead, to join us in supporting the strongest, most direct measure possible, not just to send the President a message, but to rein him in and bring our soldiers home from this nightmare.”