Pombo Supports Bush's Iraq War

At yesterday’s Bush/Pombo fundraiser in Stockton, George W. Bush made the following statement:

Iraq is a central part on the war on terror, and we have a plan for victory there. We have a security plan that will chase down those extremists and radicals who would like to do us harm, and enable the Iraqis to defend themselves. We have a political strategy, and that is to stand squarely with the 12 million people who said loud and clear: We want to be free.

You know, it must seem like an eternity to you, when you think about those elections last December. It certainly does to me, in some ways. Ultimately, when this chapter of history will be written, however, it's going to be a comma -- the Iraqis voted, comma, and the United States of America understood that Iraq was a central front in the war on terror and helped this young democracy flourish so that a generation of Americans wouldn't have to worry about the extremists emanating from that country to hurt the American people.

The stakes are high. The Democrats are the party of cut and run. Ours is a party that has got a clear vision and says we will give our commanders and troops the support necessary to achieve that victory in Iraq. We will stay in Iraq, we will fight in Iraq, and we will win in Iraq.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, the Iraq Veterans for Progress were making a statement of their own:

ATLANTA — Iraq Veterans for Progress (IVFP) is supporting the campaigns of four candidates running for the US House and Senate, and creating jobs for veterans at the same time: by sending veterans of the US Invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan to help the campaigns in any way they can.

Air Force Veteran Tim Goodrich, who also co-founded Iraq Veterans Against the War, is the Executive Director of IVFP, a political action committee that launched a little over one month ago in Los Angeles, California. […]

IVFP supports several platforms they see as solutions to ending the US Invasion of Iraq, bringing the troops home in a safe, timely manner, and perhaps preventing this situation from happening in the future.

These goals include: Replacing US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, renouncing the practice of preemptive war, using military intervention only as a last resort, and ensuring Veterans receive the benefits to which they are entitled. […]

IVFP is supporting candidates running for office who will help make their goals a reality.

The candidates are: Jerry McNerney (CA-11), Bruce Braley (IA-01), Sherrod Brown (OH-Senate), and Patrick Murphy (PA-06), all Democrats. […]

IVFP, instead of just sending cash donations to campaigns, is paying Veterans a small sum of money ($2,100) while the Veterans personally help the campaign. In other words, the Veteran offering his or her paid service is the donation, and it also creates a temporary job.

As I write this, CNN has just updated its report that 15 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq in the last four days — the number now stands at 18.

18 American soldiers dead so far in the month of October, while George W. Bush travels around the country raising obscene amounts of money for his enablers in the Republican Congress. Here’s more from what Bush said yesterday:

You just got to know there's some fine, fine, brave men and women in uniform, and some not in uniform in the intelligence services, doing everything they can to find the enemy every single day. It's hard to plot and plan when you're hiding in a cave and are on the run. And that's our strategy, and that's the way we're going to keep it.

Well, you heard it straight from George W. Bush’s lips. If you think the Bush Administration has a “clear vision” and a “plan for victory,” if you think we should stay in Iraq until we have achieved some Pyrrhic victory, and if you think we should sacrifice our valiant soldiers in ever-increasing numbers in the debacle that is Iraq, then you should support Richard Pombo so that Bush can continue his foreign policy disaster unabated. After all, as he demonstrated in 2004, Bush knows how to interpret a Republican victory:

"I earned capital in this campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it," Bush told reporters. "It is my style."

On the other hand, if you agree with the veterans who have actually fought in Iraq, seen the chaos and devastation first-hand, who have suffered the physical and emotional wounds incurred by Bush’s Iraqi fiasco, you need to help Jerry McNerney. He will demand accountability from the Bush Administration and support our troops so that no American soldier is ever needlessly asked to make the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

Tags: CA-11, Richard Pombo, George W. Bush, Iraq, Iraq War, Iraq Veterans for Progress, IVFP, Iraq Veterans Against the War, IVAW, Jerry McNerney