President Sinkford's Call for Withdrawal
December 6, 2005
Dear Representative,I urge you to support legislation that would require the Administration to create and implement a plan to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq. I believe that continuing to pursue a military-based strategy that has failed to produce peace—a strategy that has tragic human consequences almost every day—is ethically and religiously bankrupt. The time for a change of course is long overdue.
In the months prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA)—together with other members of the Win Without War coalition and many other faith groups—called for diplomacy and international cooperation rather than unilateral military action. Much to our disappointment, the Administration proceeded without exhausting diplomatic options and without broad international support.
As war became inevitable, we know that officials at the Pentagon intentionally worked to decrease the influence and role of the State Department, thereby excluding the nation's top experts on the Middle East from the planning process. From the earliest days of the invasion, the lack of adequate planning became painfully clear. As U.S. forces either destroyed or failed to protect important cultural, economic, and political institutions, Iraq was plunged into a state of chaos. The quality of life for most Iraqis, and especially those in war zones, became significantly worse. Terrorists around the world, as well as fundamentalist clerics who had been marginalized in Hussein's secular Iraq, were handed a powerful platform for organizing against the United States.
As support for the American military presence dropped, both in Iraq and internationally, the Administration had an opportunity to both increase the likelihood of success of the mission and decrease the substantial human and economic costs borne by the United States by internationalizing the rebuilding effort. Again, rather than involving the world's foremost experts on building democratic institutions, namely those individuals and agencies of the United Nations, the Administration choose to keep the U.S. military in rigid control of the reconstruction. This decision, which was accompanied by giving American corporations a near-monopoly on contracts and access, only increased the perception that the United States objectives were more about economics and power than about building a free and democratic Iraq.
I do believe that progress has been made. A brutal dictator has been removed from power. The public approval of a draft Constitution was an important step. Unfortunately, the pace of progress is far slower than the pace of suffering. In particular, the United States' inability to stop deadly terrorist attacks has resulted in an unacceptable level of fear and anxiety among both our troops and the people of Iraq.
Despite the ongoing violence and insurgency, President Bush refuses to acknowledge either strategic errors or the need for change, repeating instead that we should "stay the course." Yet there is a growing body of evidence that the present - namely continuing to rely primarily on U.S. military might—is wrong.
As many of us having been saying since even before the war, and a growing body of religious, military, and political leaders are saying now, the U.S. cannot create peace in Iraq with military force. Instead, the key to overcoming insurgency is achieving economic and political stability—a process that we believe is undermined by the large-scale presence of the U.S. military. By setting a clear and public timetable for withdrawal, the United States will finally give the Iraqi people credible evidence that we do not intend to maintain a large, permanent military presence, thus removing one of the most significant driving forces behind the insurgency.
Although the President of the United States has the authority to carry out military action that has been authorized by Congress, I believe that Congress has an ethical and legal obligation to step in when the President unnecessarily endangers U.S. military personnel. Again, I urge you to support legislation that would require the Administration to create and implement a plan to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq.
In Faith,
Rev. William G. Sinkford
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
