Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva Co-Sponsors Bill to Require Congressional Approval for Troop Escalation in Iraq

Representative Raúl M. Grijalva endorsed a bill today requiring President Bush to seek Congressional approval for the troop increase he is expected to announce to the nation Thursday night. Rep. Grijalva added himself as a co-sponsor for the house companion bill to legislation introduced by Senator Kennedy.

Rep. Grijalva has also co-sponsored a similar bill expressing the sense of the Congress in opposition to an escalation of US troop levels in Iraq.

He released the following statement regarding the new legislation:

“The new majority in Congress must carry the message the voters sent in November: that we have a moral obligation to do everything in our power to prevent this President from sacrificing the lives of our men and women in uniform to a failed policy.

“At the same time, this escalation will do nothing to alter the basic situation in Iraq, which is sectarian civil war.

“The awful truth is that this escalation of troops is a cynical attempt to push back the inevitable and terrible consequences of this President’s decision to go to war onto the desk of the next President. All this political blame-shifting would come at a cost measured in hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives.

“The American people have figured out this war, and they see what the President is either unwilling or unable to understand. This war is an enormous strategic, moral, and financial disaster for this nation, and the only humane and sensible option remaining is to start bringing our troops home now.”

Posted Tuesday January 9, 2007 by

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