Members,
Below is the first draft of the Iraq Peace Plan position paper that the
Progressive Caucus is working to develop. It was written by Progressive
Caucus member Harlan Hobgood. It is largely crafted after the
resolution drafted by Congresswoman Lynne Woolsey. We will be
spending much of our meeting on January 27th crafting the final
position paper. Please read the plan below, and come to our
meeting to contribute to the plan development.
Progressive Policy to Withdraw US Forces from Iraq and Start
The Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party recommends
the following policy to be adopted immediately by the CDP with urgent
recommendation that the DNC also adopt it as our national plan of action
to end the US occupation in Iraq, to provide for security during
Iraq's transition toward democratic, to return sovereign control to Iraqis of
their territory, and to provide for peaceful reconciliation as well as the
reconstruction of physical and social capital in this war ravaged land.
1. Multilateral Cooperation
The U.S. must engage the international community, including the UN
and NATO, to immediately establish a multinational interim security
force for Iraq. The Department of Peacekeeping Operations at the United
Nations, for example, is well suited for this task. To show earnest in
this initiative, the US must immediately pay all its arrearages to the UN
for prior peace keeping operations as well as for normal annual UN
operating assessments and any past due obligations to UN specialized
agencies. It must agree to pay now at least half of the cost of Iraq Peace
Keepers and UN trainers for a new Iraq military and the new police force.
Further, the US ambassador to the UN must be instructed to cooperate
in the consensual program for UN reform and to cease and desist from
further obstructionism in this effort. Agreement to start the immediate
withdrawal of US forces and to start positioning international Peace Keepers
must be reached before the end of March, 2006.
2. Diplomatic/Non-Military Initiatives
Starting now, the U.S. must pursue a "diplomatic offensive," shifting its
role from that of Iraq's military occupier to that of a reconstruction partner
with other UN members. This means giving Iraq back to the Iraqi people.
It means providing a substantial share of the funds, perhaps half or more,
necessary to set up an international fund to assist in rebuilding their devastated
economic and physical infrastructure. It means engaging Iraqi firms,
non-governmental and public agencies in the task thus creating thousands
of Iraqi jobs heretofore let to foreign contractors by the occupying authority.
The U.S. must so engage the United Nation Specialized Agencies and
Commissions and international non-governmental organization so that the
UN family, not the US, oversees Iraq's economic and humanitarian needs.
The US must publicly renounce any desire to control Iraqi oil or to determine
the shape of its economy. The US must publicly acknowledge the Iraq
Government's full sovereignty with unfettered right to rescind oil contracts
let during the occupation and to alter any other law, decree or order issued
during the occupation by the Coalition Authority. And the U.S. must declare
and affirm that it will not maintain lasting military bases in Iraq.
3. Post-Conflict Reconciliation and Reconstruction
An international commission for peace and reconstruction must be established
to oversee Iraq's post-war reconciliation. This group should include the states
with common borders with Iraq as well as key members of the global
community who have experience in international peace-building, conflict
resolution, and post-conflict reconstruction under democratic government.
Through this commission talks between Iraq's various factions should be
facilitated as essential to the reconstruction effort, resource allocations, and
power sharing. Likewise, peaceful relations with neighboring states must be
maintained in order to rebuild cross-border physicalinfrastructure, to deal
with water and other shared resource issues, and to find working agreements
to further transnational economic cooperation.
4. Initiate Immediate Withdrawal of the U.S. Armed Forces
Most urgently, the US must immediately initiate the withdrawal of US
armed forces as a demonstration of its determination to carry out this
about face in foreign policy. The cost of the war in Iraq - both human
and financial - has been staggering and is crippling every other aspect
of our political economy as well as ravaging and savaging the Iraqi people.
Tragically, the American and Iraqi lives lost, and the billions of dollars spent,
have failed to actually make our country safer from the threat of international
terrorism. At home, our social safety net is in shambles with falling wages
for the working poor, more people without provision for health care, growing
homelessness, and a untenable, growing divide between the wealthy and
all others. To treat these issues - from international terrorism to the failures
in US economic policy - the Iraq war must be ended. The passing clock
marks more carnage, destruction and wasted resources. It means a U.S.
spiraling even further into debt with gross inequities in society growing apace.
It means an America incapacitated and unable to mount a genuine program
for disaster prevention and post disaster reconstruction, whether this arises
as a result of terrorism or from natural calamity. The U.S. must withdraw its
Armed Forces from Iraq.
5. A Date Certain
Based on international agreement reached by March 1, 2006, the orderly
withdrawal of US forces should begin no later than April 1, 2006 and in
coordination with the arrival of UN peacekeeping forces, be concluded by
December 1, 2006. The Congress should make it clear to the administration
that delay in this timetable will not be allowed by building a stop dates of
funds for overseas military operations keyed to the withdrawal targets.
The Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party submits that
unless a plan of action for ending American occupation of Iraq, a plan at
least as specific as that outlined above, is adopted by the National Democratic
Party, the American people will have little or no confidence that we are worthy
of their support in the November 2006 elections. With such a plan and
candidates for the Senate and the House pledged to fully honor it, the party
will be speaking with one voice. With that message, we can and will regain
control of both the House and the Senate and the means to stop this corrupt
and wrong headed administration from further destruction of progressive
democracy in America.
