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My Plan to End the War in Iraq

Since I announced my candidacy for United States Congress in February I’ve been listening. Listening to the issues that matter to the residents of Nebraska’s Second Congressional District. I’ve spoken at Union Halls, Resturants, Community Centers, and on people’s porches hoping to gain an insight into what they believe must change in America.No issue has come up more than the War in Iraq; an issue, as a Veteran of the United States Air Force who flew combat reconaissance missions over Iraq and Afghanistan, I am uniquely equipped to lead on.

The primary is only 23 days away! Help us get our change message to the voters with a donation!

While my opponents have only barely mentioned the war in their campaigns, I have made it a central theme of our campaign. Neither has produced their plan to end the seemly endless War in Iraq.

I have.

The war in Iraq has lessened the overall readiness of our military, and distracted us from Afghanistan and the real War on Terror. The war in Iraq has made us less prepared to respond to other potential threats around the world. It has sent our economy spiraling toward recession, shackled us with an enormous debt, and hijacked our energy policy.

Our brave men and women in Iraq have accomplished every mission they were given. They were told to depose a dictator, and in a matter of weeks, they removed Saddam Hussein from power. They were told to ensure we were safe from weapons of mass destruction, and they did that as well. They helped make it safe for the Iraqi people to write a constitution and elect their own democratic government, and they have helped to train the Iraqi military to protect their new institutions. There are no more appropriate missions to assign our military in this war. It is time to bring the troops home.

There are six steps we must take to get our troops out Iraq:

1) We should bring our troops home as quickly and as safely as possible. We should set a plan for steady removal of troops, and not deviate from it. My recommendation would be no less than one brigade a month. This rate would allow for the troops that are leaving to do so in an orderly fashion, and would not place undue strain on the troops remaining.

2) Continue to train the Iraqi military. Encourage the Iraqi government to build its own defenses so that it is not as vulnerable to outside influence or internal strife. While our troops need to get out of this civil war, we still need to work closely with the Iraqi government as an ally, help them to train their own military, and provide them advice and consultation whenever possible.

3) If the Iraqi government fails to provide for adequate security, we should encourage the local sheiks to provide that security as we redeploy. If needed, we could work directly with those individuals and provide them with the training and necessary equipment. In fact, some of the most recent progress has come from this approach.

4) The Iraqi government needs to do whatever it takes to secure their oil pipelines and start pumping! This will give them the money needed to pay for the increases in security forces and the overall rebuilding of their country, while lowering our gas prices by increasing supply. If they need more supplies to protect this key resource, we can provide them at a fair price.

5) Keep a rapid response force in the region. We have personnel in Turkey, Qatar, the UAE, and other nations in the region. If, for some unseen reason, we need to send a temporary small force back into Iraq, we will be prepared to do so.

6) Most importantly, do not allow our withdrawal to be subject to the Iraqi government meeting its own goals. We must show the Iraqis that we will not allow them to set our military policy. At this point, there are no more military solutions in Iraq. Ultimately, the Iraqi government needs to reap the rewards and consequences of its successes and failures on its own.

To really end the war in Iraq, and reverse the damage it has done, we must do more than get our troops out. We must also emphasize diplomacy, address humanitarian concerns, restore our Constitution, rebuild our military, return independence to our media, and create a new energy policy which is centered on the United States, and not OPEC.

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We are the underdog campaign in this race. Our Democratic opponent ran, unsuccessfully, in 2006 and has the insitutional support behind him while the general election opponent is a five term incumbent Republican with over $700,000 in the bank.

As a Veteran of the U.S. Air Force, a trained Economist, and as a teacher I am uniquely qualified to deal with three most important issues of our day.

23 Days is all we have left to prove ourselves. Our 100% volunteer campaign is working nearly 14 hours a day, Monday through Friday to help our campaign. Not to mention the dozens of volunteers who have marched with us in parades, phone banked, held signs at events, and canvassed with us through the coldest and rainest days.

But we need your help. Help us get our message of change, real life experience, and leadership out to the people of Nebraska’s Second Congressional District.

Thank you for your time and support.

P.S. Look out for our weekly live blogs on Daily Kos every Sunday at 3 P.M. central.

Carter endorses Responsible Plan for Iraq

Here is the text of Richard’s speech:

Thank you all for coming.

I would like also to thank the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the UNO College Democrats for hosting me here today.

As a veteran of the war in Iraq, I have a unique perspective on the conflict. I know first hand what has gone well and what has not. Our troops have completed every mission assigned to them, and have done so bravely and courageously. Unfortunately, that is the only part of the war that has been well executed.

The war in Iraq has lessened the overall readiness of our military, and distracted us from Afghanistan and the real War on Terror. The war in Iraq has made us less prepared to respond to other potential threats around the world. It has sent our economy spiraling toward recession, shackled us with an enormous debt, and hijacked our energy policy.

The Iraq War must end.

Our brave men and women in Iraq have accomplished every mission they were given. They were told to depose a dictator, and in a matter of weeks, they removed Saddam Hussein from power. They were told to ensure we were safe from weapons of mass destruction, and they did that as well. They helped make it safe for the Iraqi people to write a constitution and elect their own democratic government, and they have helped to train the Iraqi military to protect their new institutions.

There are no more appropriate missions to assign our military in this war. Our military personnel join the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Marines to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. We can no longer allow our servicemen and women to be used as a police force for hire. It is unfair to those who continue to risk their lives everyday to protect us, and disrespectful to those who gave their lives in that pursuit.

The war in Iraq has become a distraction from real national security concerns. The commanding officer in Afghanistan recently reported that he did not have sufficient troops or materials to succeed in his mission. We need to remember that we got into this war to go after Al Qaeda, the men who perpetrated 9/11. Our excursion into Iraq has directly contributed to the resurgence of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Some politicians will try to tell you that it would be irresponsible to abandon that part of the world, or that we are fighting them over there so that we don’t have to fight them here. These tired talking points do a disservice to the Armed Forces, and cheapen our national discourse.

We have personnel in Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, Turkey, and several other nations in the region. Removing our troops from the middle of a dangerous civil war in Iraq hardly constitutes abandoning the Middle East.

And these politicians who want to use fear tactics to scare us into more war, and more casualties, would do well to remember that if we had been allowed to finish the job in Afghanistan, we would not be fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq at all.

Let’s be clear: the war in Iraq does not make the United States any safer; instead it has made our nation, and the entire world, a more dangerous place.

Not only is ending the war imperative to respecting our men and women in uniform, it is crucial to ensuring our national security.

We must bring our men and women home from Iraq as quickly and as safely as possible.

Our continued involvement in Iraq, in addition to making us far less safe, simply can no longer be afforded.

Nationally, we are spending 12 billion dollars a month in Iraq. This is money that could—and rightfully should—be spent here at home to fix the problems we’re facing. Our national infrastructure is literally crumbling. Public schools are struggling to provide even adequate textbooks for students. 47 million people in this nation, that’s one out of every seven, worry everyday about getting sick or getting into an accident, because they have no health insurance.

12 billion dollars a month. 12 billion dollars. That number is so high, we often loose sight of what else we could do with that much money. So let’s bring that number a little closer to home. Taxpayers—in this district alone—pay 23 million dollars a month to fund this war. Instead, we could do so much to strengthen our communities in Bellevue and Omaha, in Papillion and La Vista, in Ralston and Valley and Elkhorn.

As you know, I’m a teacher, and a lot of my friends are teachers, so let’s look at education for an example. Instead of the taxes paid—by taxpayers in our district alone—for one month in Iraq, we could build two new elementary schools, pay their teachers’ salaries, and provide every single child in those schools with quality healthcare.

And this is just one example of what we could do in one district by forgoing one month in what has become a disastrous war.

We have to get out of Iraq so we can refocus on greater priorities. Today, I am endorsing Darcy Burner’s “Responsible plan to end the War in Iraq.” I am endorsing this plan because it does more than just say that we need to bring our troops home. This plan emphasizes the importance of diplomacy, which this administration has completely disregarded. Darcy’s proposal also recognizes that the mismanagement of the Iraq war has been in direct conflict with the Constitution of the United States.

Every candidate, and every military expert, who has endorsed this plan recognizes that we must diligently work toward true energy independence, rebuild our economy, restore our constitution, and refocus on Afghanistan and win the real war on terror. But we also realize not one of these goals will be accomplished while we are still entangled in Iraq.

As a candidate for U.S. Congress here in Nebraska’s Second District, and as a veteran and an Officer in the United States Air Force, I am proud to join other candidates such as Darcy Burner and Donna Edwards, and military leaders such as Major General Paul Eaton and Captain Larry Seaquist, in endorsing the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq.

You can learn more about the plan at ResponsiblePlan.com.

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