Disarm

This week the House voted 399 to 24 to extend the ban on the U.S.
building permanent bases in Iraq past the end of September 2007.
Although this measure by itself will not stop the war or the president's plans for a long-term military presence in Iraq, the House action is another demonstration that members of Congress are concerned about the direction of U.S. policy in Iraq.

The Senate should be debating the Defense Appropriations Bill at any time.
Here are some highlights. Many of these are Cold War Weapons, which is a good subject for letters to the editor:

Future Combat Systems (FCS) ­ Fully funds the Administration's $3.6 billion request for Future Combat Systems, an advanced collection of armored vehicles, robots, and aerial drones connected through a sophisticated battle command network. The House cut $867 million from FCS in its version of the authorization bill.

The Senate has taken a first step toward banning the export of cluster bombs, a weapon with a particularly deadly record of killing and maiming civilians.  Just before the July 4 recess, the Senate Appropriations Committee added a provision banning cluster bomb exports to the bill funding the State Department.

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the Reliable Replacement Weapon during the week of June 25.

The House Appropriations Committee has already voted to zero out funding for the RRW. The Committee said that, almost two decades after the end of the Cold War, the United States does not have a plausible nuclear strategy and essentially put a freeze on long-term spending until we develop one.

The Democrats are again considering introducing another Resolution for withdrawal from Iraq. To date all legislation calling for withdrawal includes approval by the Iraq parliament of an oil law as a major benchmark before withdrawal can begin. However, the media is not telling us about the contents of this law and most people are unaware of its significance. This law was essentially drafted in Washington and is meant to privatize the Iraq oil industry, and turn as much as 70% of the profits for up to thirty years over to foreign oil companies. In the past Iraq oil revenues paid for modern infrastructure, education, health care, and many other citizen benefits. Ask your congressional delegation how Iraqis are to rebuild their country if they lose access to their oil revenues and demand that they remove the benchmark for the oil law. This may allow the Iraq parliament to defeat the law and introduce one that will benefit their country.