I’m writing today to give you a brief update on the issue that continues to be on everyone’s mind – Iraq. Back in their home states this summer, my colleagues in the Senate heard again and again from their constituents that the American people want to end the misguided mission in Iraq. Thanks to you, that’s a message I’ve brought to Washington for years, and one I heard again, loud and clear, in every Listening Session I held last month.

We all know that it is far past time to begin redeploying U.S. troops out of Iraq. However, the spin from the White House has already begun. President Bush and a handful of Republican stalwarts in Congress are pointing to ‘new progress’ since the troop surge began in April. They’re saying that ‘we just need a little more time.’

But what they fail to admit—and what you and countless other Americans have known for some time—is that the time has come for Congress to end what can only be described as the worst foreign policy mistake in our nation’s history. President Bush’s reckless drive to war, his botched handling of the reconstruction, his mismanagement of the occupation, and his escalation of U.S. troops in Iraq has been a complete disaster. The President’s war in Iraq has actually made us less safe as a nation, not safer. And our occupation of Iraq has been a costly distraction from the real war on terror, and it has turned much of the world against us.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and I have introduced a bill that uses Congress’s “power of the purse” to begin safely redeploying our troops out of Iraq in 2008. The Feingold-Reid bill requires the President to begin to safely redeploy troops from Iraq within 120 days from enactment. Our legislation would end funding for the war and establish a set of very specific restrictions upon which President Bush could spend any money in Iraq.

I am going to continue to push my legislation, and other measures in the Senate, forward to end the war and safely redeploy our brave men and women in uniform. I sincerely appreciate all of your support. Please continue to write letters to the editor of your local papers and talk to your friends and family to let them know exactly where you stand. Every voice added to our effort brings us one step closer to our goal.

With high hopes,

Russ Feingold

United States Senator

www.russfeingold.org