Article: Open Letter to Next Intell Chief Reyes from Marcy Winograd

OPEN LETTER TO NEXT INTELL CHIEF
FAXED to REYES: 202-225-2016

December 18, 2006

Dear Congressman Reyes:

My name is Marcy Winograd. I am the progressive anti-war candidate who challenged Jane Harman in the June Democratic Party Primary. Following the Primary, in which I garnered 38% of the vote and a third of the delegates to the California Democratic Party convention, I blogged on OpEdNews and called
Nancy Pelosi's office urging her to appoint someone other than Harman to chair the House Intelligence Committee.

Given the stir created in the 36th CD and across the nation, the questions raised about Harman's lack of oversight, and the overall impact of Primary challengers on this November's mid-term Iraq War Referendum, it is safe to conclude that my
candidacy contributed to your ascension to the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee.

Hence, it is with a great sense of urgency that I reach out to you.

House Speaker-Elect Pelosi passed on Harman for the significant post of Intel Committee Chair and chose you, instead. Based on your original vote against the war and Rep. Pelosi's stated confidence in your leadership, all of us breathed a sigh of relief, but not for long -- because you soon announced that you would vote to send an additional 20,000 American men
and women to Iraq. Turning a deaf ear to the voters who cast their ballots to end the war, you called for an escalation of the Bush administration's trillion-dollar occupation -- an occupation that has already killed almost 3,000 American soldiers and
hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians.

I am deeply disappointed, Congressman Reyes, because with all due respect, as long as US troops occupy Iraq there will never be peace.

People, most importantly the Iraqis, detest foreign occupations and their accompanying depredations: torture, detentions without trial, permanent military
bases, lawless private contractors, and expropriated oil fields. The US war and occupation of Iraq, based on a false premise of the threat of WMD's (Or was it 9/11 or to bring Western democracy to the middle east?), is a failed policy.

You may argue that US troops must stay in Iraq until enough Iraqi troops are trained to stabilize the country. The problem, however, is not the lack of training, but the lack of credibility of Iraqi troops
under the command of American generals. As long as the US occupies Iraq, every US-trained Iraqi soldier wears a bulls-eye. US involvement in Iraq is part of the problem, not the solution.

In truth, the only difference between getting out now and getting out another 20,000 troops from now will be the numbers of dead Americans, Iraqis, and others throughout the Middle East, for an escalation of the US war in Iraq will only lead to regional insurrection and occupation. Do we want to risk a destablized Middle East with crashing governments from Karachi to Beirut? Iraq does not have WMD's, but Iraq's neighbor, Pakistan, could plunge the region into a nuclear hell.

Please, Congressman Reyes, summon the courage and wisdom with which you initially opposed the Iraq War Authorization. Reconsider your call to send more troops to Iraq. It is time for our sons and daughters to come home to their loved ones and for you and the rest of Congress to make that happen
by cutting the funding for this occupation. I urge you to be the responsive and visionary leader these difficult but crucial times require.

Sincerely,

Marcy Winograd