Terrible Arithmetic

Dennis Kucinich on the House floor on Monday:

Depending on whom you listen to, the insurgents in Iraq are either in their "last throes" or they are growing in size and strength. But both the administration and critics seem to agree that the U.S. military will be deployed to Iraq for a long time to come. It is our quagmire.

Every day our forces wake up in Iraq, more die and are wounded, and more families on the homefront are strained and suffer losses. Meantime, the vitality of the U.S. army is shriveling, as they are not able to bribe enough young people to join to fight this war in Iraq.

At some terrible point in the future, the nation's leaders will say "enough is enough." Whether the number of casualties at that point is 15,000, or 20,000 or 50,000, I do not know. Whether the cost at that point is $250 billion, $350 billion or $500 billion, I do not know. At some point, the terrible arithmetic of the war will add up to overwhelm everybody.

But this war can end another way. It can end if enough members of Congress consider and cosponsor H.J. Res 55, a bi-partisan bill introduced last week, to require the President to initiate troop withdrawal no later than October 1, 2006. Thank the troops, and bring them home.