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Last Updated on July 23, 2014.

July 23, 2014
Dear Members of the House of Representatives:
Representatives Jim McGovern, Walter Jones and Barbara Lee have introduced H. Con. Res. 105, a privileged resolution to direct the President to remove U.S. troops from Iraq within 30 days, or no later than the end of this year. We urge you to co-sponsor and support this important resolution.
This resolution, which provides an exception for those troops needed to protect U.S. diplomatic facilities and personnel, is likely to be voted on in the full House before the end of July. The sponsors are using the special procedures outlined under the War Powers Resolution that requires the House to take up this bill after 15 calendar days.
Last month, President Obama announced that 300 personnel would be sent to Iraq, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support, augmented by Apache attack helicopters and drones, after military aggression by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. A few days later, he announced another 200 personnel were soon to be deployed. There are promises to send many additional Hellfire air-to-surface missiles.
As the United States knows from past, bitter experience in Vietnam, a small military engagement can escalate into a major military war that is disastrous for the United States. There is little a few hundred or a few thousand troops can do in Iraq that 140,000 could not do at the height of American involvement in Iraq.
President George W. Bush signed an agreement before leaving office to withdraw all American forces from Iraq by 2011. That decision should not be reversed.
Congress has the constitutional responsibility to debate the merits of American military involvement in Iraq before the first American casualties. Whatever your position on Iraq or this resolution, the measure provides an opportunity for sorely needed debate on a very critical issue.
We urge you to co-sponsor and support the resolution, and to oppose what is likely to be a tabling motion before the end of July.
Sincerely,
Pat Alviso
Military Families Speak Out
Fred Azcarate
USAction
Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans
CODEPINK
Becky Bond
CREDO
Simone Campbell, SSS
NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
Angela Canterbury
Council for a Livable World
Jeanne Dauray
Progressive Democrats of America
Carolyn Rusti Eisenberg
United for Peace and Justice
Michael Eisenscher
U.S. Labor Against the War
Jenefer Ellingston
DC Statehood Green Party
Hannah Frisch
Civilian Soldier Alliance
Anna Galland
MoveOn.org
Carol E Gay
NJ State Industrial Union Council
David Gibson
Peacehome Campaigns

Andy Griggs
Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace
William Hartung
Center for International Policy
Susan Henry-Crowe, M.Div., DD
The United Methodist Church- General Board of Church and Society
Matt Howard
Iraq Veterans Against the War
Rev. Linda Jaramillo
United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries
Kevin Kamps
Beyond Nuclear
Aura Kanegis
American Friends Service Committee
David Krieger
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Tikkun Magazine’s Network of Spiritual Progressives
Paul Kawika Martin
Peace Action
Stephen Miles
Win Without War
Andrea Miller
Progressive Democrats of America
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
Jim O’Brien
Historians Against the War
Jon Rainwater
Peace Action West
Diane Randall
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Paula Rogovin
Teaneck Peace Vigil
Nathan Ruggles
Intercommunity Justice & Peace Center

Susan Shaer
Women’s Action for New Directions
Alice Slater
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, NY
Guy Stevens
PeacePAC
Paul Walker
Green Cross International
Jim Wallis
Sojourners
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
The Shalom Center
Jim Winkler
National Council of Churches, USA

July 23, 2014