Monday, November 21, 2005

Ford Offers President Plan For Progress In Iraq

Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. sent a letter to the President today calling on him to be honest with the American public about pre-war intelligence failures and set forth a detailed plan to finish the job in Iraq and bring American troops home. The text of the letter is as follows:

November 16, 2005

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Bush,

I hope this letter finds you and the First Lady well.

Recent events, especially the questions about whether you and your Administration manipulated pre-war intelligence to take the nation to war, should force a renewed effort to shoot straight with the American people about the war and bring in new staff and energy to the White House.

I supported the authorization of force (H.J. Res. 114) on October 10, 2002 because I believed your Administration's intelligence to be accurate that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and that Saddam Hussein, to use Vice President Cheney's words, had reconstituted nuclear weapons. In fairness to you Mr. President, your predecessor, President Clinton, believed that Iraq had WMD. However, you took us to war, and now serious questions have arisen about the intelligence.

I am concerned about this for two reasons. First, your response to your concerned critics is to accuse us of a lack of patriotism and support for the troops. Your fiery speech on Veteran's Day blasting Democrats and Republicans for urging a full examination of events leading up to the war was counterproductive and mean-spirited. Any American has the right to question their President about his actions. You may disapprove of the question or even the way it is asked, but you have no right to denounce dissent as unpatriotic. A more responsible path would be to find out why U.S. intelligence was so wrong so that future military engagements will be based on facts rather than hyperbole. That is the real lesson of this unfortunate moment.

Second, you make the point that because the Congress and Senate voted to authorize the use of force, we too are culpable. I accept my responsibility. But understand Mr. President, you came before the country and went before the world as Commander in Chief of the United States armed forces and declared that Saddam Hussein was such a threat to U.S. security that force was required to stop him. We believed you. And, now that no weapons of mass destruction were found, you curiously maintain that your reasons for war remain justified. That is dishonest and wrong. It was your Administration's intelligence, and you must accept responsibility for it.

Our number one priority now is to finish the effort in Iraq right, which means arming the Iraqis with the tools to self-govern, empowering the world community to play a more substantial role in fighting terrorism and rebuilding Iraq and then bringing Americans home to their families and loved ones.

To do this, I recommend the following:

First, follow the model of John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan and take responsibility for your Administration getting some of this wrong. The American people respect honesty and humility. Moreover, honesty is strength. This effort will help win broader international support for our efforts to build democracies across the Middle East.

Second, rekindle our confidence in your Administration by bringing on some new national security team members. The current team has lost its credibility with the country and the Congress on Iraq. In addition, Mr. Libby's indictment for allegedly lying to a grand jury about the revealing of a CIA operative's identity because her husband offered conflicting evidence about Iraq's threat to the United States doesn't inspire confidence either.

Third, start an international fund to build schools and hospitals across the Middle East and Africa. Our long-term effort to win the hearts and minds of Arabs must involve building institutions designed to enrich the lives of Arabs and demonstrate a real partnership between western nations and the Arab world to make America and the world more secure. An educated, hopeful and healthy population of Arabs and Africans will be less inclined to do harm to themselves and us. America, working in concert with European and Asian nations, should jumpstart the effort financially and ensure that the fund is transparent and adheres to the strictest governance and accounting rules.

Fourth, renounce permanent military bases in Iraq. While countering the insurgency in Iraq may require our assistance for the foreseeable future, we should not maintain a permanent military presence there. Instead, we should hold true to your commitment to stay in Iraq as long as we are needed, and not a day longer. To do otherwise would be a disservice to Iraqis who are working to build a nation of their own and a broken promise to our troops who are giving them the tools to do so.

Fifth, embrace the movement in Congress led by Senator McCain banning cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of detainees by all United States government agencies. The United States has long stood as a champion of human rights and a supporter of the principles embodied by the Geneva Convention. Yet when the abuses at Abu Ghraib came to light last year, Americans and foreigners alike were justifiably outraged. Allowing our armed forces or the Central Intelligence Agency to adopt conduct state-sponsored torture would further stoke this outrage. More importantly, as Senator McCain has eloquently noted, it would undermine our greatness as a nation. I urge you to do the right thing, Mr. President, and reaffirm our integrity and our decency by signing the prohibition against torture into law.

Finally, and perhaps most important to achieving democracy in the Middle East, we need to reduce our reliance on Middle East oil by more than 75% over the next ten years. The energy bill Congress passed is already obsolete in that it does more to prolong our dependence on current sources than it does to make us independent. A new bill, with incentives to develop hybrids, extract clean coal and energy from soybeans and other agricultural products and extend tax breaks to develop wind, solar and other renewable sources of energy, is needed from you no later than January 15, 2006. Congress should make it the first order of business for the second session of this Congress. Energy independence will accelerate democratic reforms in the Middle East, unleash a new era of U.S. economic and job growth and pave a new path of environmental responsibility for the world to follow. We owe this to the more than 2,000 dead U.S. soldiers in Iraq and the tens of thousands of seriously wounded Americans who fought in Iraq -- not to mention the tens of thousands of brave Iraqi women and children who have lost their lives in this war.

I hope you take these recommendations to heart Mr. President, and not view them as anything but recommendations to strengthen our country. Your love for America is no greater than mine. May your faith continue to sustain you, Mrs. Bush and your family during this difficult time for our nation.

Sincerely,

HAROLD FORD

Comments: Once again, while his opponents sit back and bicker, attack, and mislead, Congressman Ford is putting forth real solutions to real problems.
  • Read Congressman Ford's op-ed on the war in Iraq here!
  • Read Congressman Ford's letter to President Bush regarding the war in Iraq from June 2005 here!

Updated Comments: This country needs to have a serious discussion about the war in Iraq.

New ideas, new strategies, and new tactics need to be discussed along with the direction of the war.

The situation in Iraq is not helped one bit when Republicans attack Democrats who offer an alternative vision for the war or raise questions about the intelligence that was used in the lead up to the war.

It is time to get serious. Real questions require real answers.

And this dire situation calls for a real discussion.

The American people deserve it.

I am proud that Harold Ford Jr. is fighting the good fight.