[WCUSP] [pdx] Gordon Smith bails out on Bush's war

[yvonne simmons]

Hi all, I am on the board of Peace and Justice works
which was formed after the first Gulf war. A small
group of people make a lot happen and I am proud of
being a member. We have an Iraq affinity group meeting
every month and three WILPF members are a part of that
meeting as well as being board members. As I always
say the board has 5 members, 4 are women and 1 man who
 runs the office and does most of the work.> He has
been very instrumental in getting the peace and
justice groups of Portland working together. And 1325
worked in our organization. Yvonne

How quickly the fruits of the Portland City
> Council's "bring 'em Home" 
> resolution
> last week have bloomed.
> Or maybe Smith saw the writing on the wall with 71%
> of Americans being
> unhappy with Bush's handling of the war.
> 
> --dan handleman\Peace & Juistice Works
> 
> 
> 
> Smith says Iraq war may be "criminal"
> 
> 
>     By MATTHEW DALY
>     The Associated Press
>   , December 8, 2006
> 
>     WASHINGTON, D.C. - Republican Sen. Gordon Smith,
> who voted in favor of
>     the Iraq war and has supported it ever since,
> now says the current
>     U.S. war effort is "absurd" and "may even be
> criminal."
> 
>     In a major speech on the Senate floor, the
> Oregon senator called for
>     changes in U.S. policy that could include rapid
> pullouts of U.S.
>     troops from Iraq. He said he would have never
> voted for the conflict
>     if he had known the intelligence that President
> Bush gave the American
>     people was inaccurate.
> 
>     Citing the hundreds of billions of dollars spent
> and the nearly 3,000
>     American deaths, Smith said: "I for one am at
> the end of my rope when
>     it comes to supporting a policy that has our
> soldiers patrolling the
>     same streets in the same way, being blown up by
> the same bombs day
>     after day. That is absurd. It may even be
> criminal. I cannot support
>     that anymore."
> 
>     Smith added: "So either we clear and hold and
> build, or let's go
>     home."
> 
>     A spokesman said today that Smith did not mean
> to call the war
>     criminal in a legal sense, but in the sense of
> it being ridiculous or
>     absurd.
> 
>     In his speech, delivered Thursday night in an
> impassioned voice, Smith
>     said there are no good options in Iraq, as the
> Iraq Study Group noted
>     in its report this week.
> 
>     Smith, who is up for re-election in 2008, said
> he was "at a
>     crossroads" on the war, adding: "I want my
> constituents to know what
>     is in my heart, what has guided my votes."
> 
>     He said the U.S. military's "tactics have
> failed," adding that he
>     "cannot support that anymore. ... We have paid a
> price in blood and
>     treasure that is beyond calculation" for a war
> waged based on faulty
>     intelligence.
> 
>     Smith added that he is "tired of paying the
> price of 10 or more of our
>     troops dying a day. So let's cut and run or cut
> and walk, but let us
>     fight the war on terror more intelligently than
> we have, because we
>     have fought this war in a very lamentable way."
> 
>     While expressing grave doubts about the Iraq
> war, Smith said he does
>     not believe the United States can retreat from
> the larger war on
>     terror.
> 
>     "Iraq is a battlefield in that larger war. But I
> do believe we need a
>     presence there on the near horizon at least that
> allows us to provide
>     intelligence, interdiction, logistics - but
> mostly a presence to say
>     to the murderers that come across the border:
> "We are here, and we
>     will deal with you."
> 
>     But Smith added: "We have no business being a
> policeman in someone
>     else's civil war."
> 
>     A potential rival of Smith's in the 2008
> election shrugged his
>     shoulders Friday when pressed for reaction to
> the speech.
> 
>     "Better late than never," said Democratic Rep.
> Earl Blumenauer of
>     Oregon after speaking to the City Club of
> Portland.
> 
>     Blumenauer, who opposed the war, has said he
> will make a decision next
>     year on a possible Senate bid. He said he was
> less concerned with
>     taking Smith to task than in a "broader context"
> of seeing the
>     Congress oversee conduct of the war and in
> holding Republican senators
>     who would stand for election in 2008 accountable
> for their decisions
>     on it.
> 
>
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003468687
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 



 
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