CONGRESSMAN JOHN HALL GOES TO IRAQ, LOOKS AROUND AND RETURNS TO AMERICA TO EXPLAIN WHY HE WILL NOT VOTE FOR BUSH'S SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGET REQUEST

left to right: that's Howie, John Hall, John Amato and Lucas Gardner a couple weeks ago

John Hall is an outspoken progressive freshman congressman in a Republican-leaning district and he's facing a multimillionaire opponent who is willing to spend millions of his own dollars smearing him and distorting his record. But unlike some Democrats in similarly uncomfortable positions, John is not playing the Republican-lite game. Instead, he stays in touch with his constituents and actually tries explaining his thinking on key issues to them so they understand where he's coming from when he votes as their representative.

Last week he was part of a small congressional fact-finding delegation that went to Iraq. In a letter to his constituents he went through all of his experiences from visiting with soldiers from Westchester County who are stationed there to doing one of those heavily guarded McCain market tours in a part of Iraq Bush claims is safe-- "If this is one of the safest parts of Iraq," writes John, "I worry what the dangerous parts are like"-- to playing songs on his guitar for recovering military personnel at Landstuhl Medical Center at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany on the way back to the U.S. He concludes by explaining why he has decided to vote against Bush's request for more money for an endless occupation.

My conclusion is that we should never send our Armed Forces to carry out a mission that is not militarily achievable. Based on comments by Ambassador Crocker, and the fact that since the September report to Congress the top four Iraqi leaders have not even been in the country at the same time, I continue to believe that American involvement in this war must be ended. This is a political and civil conflict that can only be resolved by the Iraqis themselves, by deciding whether they want to compromise and live together, or continue to fight along religious, ethnic, or tribal lines.
This week President Bush asked for more war funding, bringing his total request for this year to nearly $200 billion. Based on what I just witnessed, and in order to bring the Maliki government back to reality, I will not support such a request without a timeline for redeployment or withdrawal of our troops. I recognize the imperfection of any proposed solution, but if the Sunni Shayks in Anbar can get together, perhaps the Shia mullahs in Basra can also. The Kurdish north already has a functioning government, if they can restrain the PKK from attacking Turkey. Baghdad is a problem, but it is and should be the Iraqis’ to solve.

We should start by turning over Saddam's palaces to the Iraqi government; I heard repeatedly that our control of the palaces is seen by local population as a sign of occupation.

We should assure the Iraqis and surrounding countries that we have no plans for permanent bases, and cease building anything that can't be eventually turned over to them.

We should follow the reductions in troop levels already announced by General Petraeus this fall and next spring with more redeployments and continue to hand Iraq back to the Iraqis. We must determine a date to end this unnecessary war, which has sapped our military, drained our treasury, and damaged our reputation around the world.

As you know, John is, like last year, a Blue America-endorsed candidate for Congress. If we like his approach and would like to see him continue working for us in Washington, please consider making a contribution to his campaign.