Keep the Pressure On

“With all the November political changes, you are going to have to change your goals, aren’t you?” a friend asked.

In a word, no! No winning team stops at the five- yard line.

Because of your efforts, the political environment is headed in the right direction. Voters have repudiated one-party government and the lack of progress in Iraq. President Bush has responded by removing Donald Rumsfeld – finally – as Secretary of Defense.

However, we still have no plan in place to withdraw troops from Iraq.

A full debate on how to settle American withdrawal is upon us. While we continue to pursue the proposal of Families of the Fallen for Change, we would welcome any plan that would take the troops out of harm’s way without leaving the Iraqis in a full-blown civil war.

The Nov. 7 Midterm election has shifted our foremost goal from calling for a debate on Iraq to keeping pressure on Congress and the Administration to come up with and implement a plan for withdrawal.

Debate alone is not sufficient: an average 2.32 American troops are killed each day. The price of delay is unacceptable.

Thanks to you, we’re on the way to withdrawal from military involvement in Iraq. We’re not there yet, and we can’t let up the pressure. -- Rosemary Palmer