Committee Considers Anti-War Resolution; Opponents Fear it Sends Wrong Message

Dubbed the Oregon Homeward Bound Act of 2007, the resolution is a “non-recriminating,” call to help bring American troops home.

Photo by: Tim King

(SALEM) - Dozens converged at the state Capitol Monday, hoping to persuade Oregon lawmakers to oppose President Bush’s plan to deploy 21,500 additional combat troops to help quell sectarian violence in Baghdad and other trouble spots in Iraq.

Steve DeFord, of Salem, is among those who urged an end to the war and a quick withdrawal of American forces.

His 37-year-old son, Oregon National Guard Sgt. David W. Johnson, was killed in Baghdad on Sept. 25, 2004, after an improvised explosive device detonated near his convoy.

“It’s too late for us,” he told teary-eyed lawmakers, urging them to support an immediate troop withdrawal. “Every day seems like forever for us.”

Troops, he said, do not “deserve to die in a foreign land because of lies,” alluding to anti-war sentiment that the Bush Administration deliberately manipulated pre-war intelligence in order to get the congressional support he sought to invade Iraq.

Since the war began in 2003, the Associated Press reports that at least 3,154 soldiers and Marines have died, of them, 80 had ties to Oregon, according to the Oregon House Majority Office.

Some liberal activists, frustrated that Democrats in the U.S. Senate have not been able to follow the House of Representatives and pass a resolution that officially opposes the Bush Administration’s efforts to put more boots on the ground, are turning to state legislators to pass non-binding anti-war resolutions intended to put political pressure on Democrats and some moderate Republicans.

In all, Oregon’s House Committee on Elections, Ethics and Rules heard more than two hours of often-emotional public testimony Monday. The seven-member committee will decide on March 5 whether to send the resolution to the full House, where it would face an uncertain future. A similar proposal languished during the last biennium.

Geri Washington, a senior organizer with Oregon Peace Action is among anti-war activists in Oregon. “Politicians,” she said, “cannot continue playing politics with countless Iraqi lives and the lives of our troops.”

“We want our troops brought home, and that money spent here at home, educating our children, providing affordable housing and healthcare,” she said Monday.

Shawna Hill, of Keizer, sees the war differently. She is the mother of 20-year-old Army Pfc. Ryan Hill, who died in Iraq, on Jan. 20, after an improvised explosive device buried in a construction site detonated near his Humvee.

Forcing the military to retreat, “would make the sacrifice of my son and the sacrifices of three-thousand-plus other mothers’ sons for nothing,” she said.

“The words we choose to use here in the United States have consequences in Iraq, and they can hurt the very people those speaking them want to help,” Hill cautioned. “It is important that we continue to support our troops and to continue the mission.”

Rep. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, agrees. She fears that the resolution could send the “wrong message” to troops – that their service is unappreciated.

“We need to be giving them the tools to finish the job, to succeed, and be victorious and return safely,” Thatcher said, choking back tears.

Rep. Brian Boquist of Dallas, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, is among Republicans who oppose efforts to put more boots on the ground.

“I want to see success in Iraq, and bring our troops home as soon as possible,” said Boquist, who two years ago served in Iraq as a deputy commander of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force.

“This is not a Democrat issue; this is not a Republican issue,” he said. “This should transcend all politics.”

Spearheaded by Democratic Rep. Chip Shields of Portland, the resolution before Oregon lawmakers specifically condemns the idea of a troop build-up, and urges Congress to rescind the 2002 congressional resolution that authorized military force to depose former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party regime. The resolution also calls for troop redeployments by the end of the first quarter of FY-2007.

Dubbed the Oregon Homeward Bound Act of 2007, Shields said the resolution is a “non-recriminating,” call to help bring American troops home.

The resolution, Shields said, was "intentionally crafted” so not to spur partisan debate over faulty pre-war intelligence or any of the other thorny issues that often arise in the war debate.

“It is time for us to put aside differences we may have had in the run-up to the war,” he told committee members and a packed hearing room.

“It is clear that we cannot afford – in either blood or treasure – to continue to provide security for Iraqis forever,” he added. “The right thing to do is to help Iraqis and pull out our troops.”

A left-leaning coalition, of the Progressive States Network, Center for American Progress, MoveOn.Org, and the Service Employees International Union, is galvanizing mostly Democratic legislators across the country to push for just that.

Working in tandem as Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, the group plans to launch a multi-million dollar campaign in at least 24 states to create “a firestorm of grass-roots mobilization” to help bring American troops home.

Calling the non-binding resolution a “first step,” Peter Bergel, executive director of Salem-based Oregon Peace Works, said that invading Iraq was a “mistake” from the beginning.

“The war has not been good for America,” he said. “The war has not been good for Iraq, and it hasn’t been good for the rest of the world.”