Listen up, Congress - it's time to show us what you are made of

Front paged at Booman Tribune and My Left Wing. Recommended at Daily Kos

Forget the talk about wanting Bush to withdraw from Iraq by 2009. Forget the self congratulating with respect to a (warning: .pdf) toothless and meaningless but symbolic vote. Hell, even something like censure is barely sufficient as far as action.

Here is the plain fact. America wants out of Iraq. As soon as possible. Period.

If you want to have any chance of gaining the public’s confidence, and as a nice little side benefit, control of Congress for a generation as well as the next few presidencies, listen and listen good. Get us the hell out. Get our troops home. No more of this “talk pretty and do little. The country can not afford to wait. Our troops can not afford to wait. We should not be there any longer. The Iraqi people and government want us OUT.

Even last February, 72% of Americans wanted the troops out in 12 months. SEVENTY-TWO goddamn percent! And guess what? It has been 12 months, and we still want out. America elected a Democratic Congress to get us out of Iraq. To have a sane foreign policy. To not waste nearly ten billion dollars every month in this sinkhole.

There is a bill in the House to redeploy troops from Iraq by John Murtha. There is a bill in the House to bring our troops home within six months by Lynn Woolsey. There was a bill introduced in the Senate this week by Senator Feingold that will fund the redeployment of our troops from Iraq within six months.

America wants these bills to pass. America wants its troops to come home.

Now is not the time for weak “nonbonding” measures. Now is not the time to debate how long this escalation (that EVERYONE is against) should last. Now is not the time to discuss how many more troops will be sent. And for chrissakes, ANY talk about Iran should be met with derision and outright threats of impeachment or physical removal from office (and immediate commitment to a mental health institution).

I don’t need to spell out the fact that the public is watching, judging you by your actions, imploring for you to take strong action. Those who are seeking the Presidency in 2008 – your actions NOW will determine whether you can be taken seriously as a candidate. And, no this isn’t a threat, but don’t think that the netroots doesn’t have a much larger voice now in terms of getting information out.

If you don’t take action to bring our troops home as soon as possible and bring this occupation to an end, you can kiss any hope of becoming the next President goodbye. Especially if you are a Democrat. You can talk all you want about “if you knew then what you know now, you wouldn’t have voted to invade”. Well, guess what, you DO know what you know now, and you have an opportunity to make amends.

The best part? You don’t even have to be the one to introduce legislation – it is already there for you to support, whether you are in the House or in the Senate. But this is where you take a stand. This is where you lay your cards on the table. This is where you show the country and the world what you stand for.

Stop talking. Start DOING. The world can’t wait.

Not one day longer.