Barbara Lee, CPC Bring in Experts for Iraq Solutions Former Senator George McGovern Lays Out Withdrawal Plan
(Washington, DC) – This morning, U.S. Representatives Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Co-Chairs of the 64-Member Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), and Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chair and Co-Founder of the Out-of-Iraq Caucus hosted a forum with former Senator George McGovern, Dr. William Polk and former Director of the National Security Agency, General William Odom, as part an ongoing effort to examine policy options for achieving U.S. military disengagement from Iraq and bringing U.S. troops home.
“The Republican Congress refused to acknowledge or take responsibility for the disaster in Iraq,” said Lee, whose alternative to the resolution that authorized the use of force in Iraq would have allowed weapons inspectors to finish their job. “Those of us who opposed this war from the beginning are making sure that, at long last, Congress has an informed debate about how to put an end to this debacle and bring our troops home.”
“President Bush went before the American people Wednesday night and made the case for escalating his failure, what we are talking about here is finding a way to turn that around,” she said.
McGovern is a decorated WWII combat veteran, former U.S. Senator (S.D.), ambassador, and Democratic presidential candidate. Polk taught at Harvard University, founded the Middle Eastern Studies Center at the University of Chicago and helped draft the plan that got France out of Algeria. Odom headed the NSA during the Reagan administration. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute.
The topic of discussion this morning was McGovern and Polk’s new book Out of Iraq: a Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now, which proposes withdrawing U.S. troops before the end of June, 2007, increased reconstruction assistance and the implementation of an international stabilization force, drawn largely from Arab and Muslim countries, to complement the work of Iraqi security forces. The McGovern-Polk plan also emphasizes one action Lee has long called for, namely making it clear that there will be no permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq.
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