Sun Journal - "The Iraq War: Five years and Counting"

Op-Ed

Sun Journal - "The Iraq War: Five years and Counting"
by Rep. Tom Allen , Guest Columnist

Recently, we passed some ominous benchmarks in the Iraq War.

March 19 marked the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the war. On Easter Sunday, total U.S. armed forces deaths in Iraq reached 4,000; another nearly 30,000 of our service men and women have been wounded, many with crippling physical and psychological trauma. In the last few weeks, the direct cost to taxpayers of the war topped half a trillion dollars.

The war's greatest toll is the loss of loved ones and the enduring burdens our wounded warriors and their families will bear. To honor their sacrifice, we must provide them the health care and benefits they so justly deserve.

The enormous pressure on our military and their families is not limited to casualties. I have attended many ceremonies in recent years as Mainers left for Iraq and Afghanistan, and each time I shake their hands I pray that they will come safely home. Since September 2001, we have deployed nearly 1.7 million U.S. troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, nearly 600,000 on more than one war zone rotation.

Admiral William Fallon, outgoing commander of the U.S. Central Command, told Congress earlier this month: "Our troops are in need of a change in the deployment cycle. I look at my commanders, and some of them have logged more months in Iraq in the last decade than they have at home by a significant amount."

I hear that strain expressed, and feel it most personally, when I meet the brave men and women who must leave their families once again, and return to Iraq.

The damage to America's military readiness is also abundantly clear.

"The cumulative effects of the last six-plus years at war have left our Army out of balance, consumed by the current fight and unable to do the things we know we need to do to properly sustain our all-volunteer force and restore our flexibility for an uncertain future," Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey told Congress in February.

Then there is the continuing war in Afghanistan, al-Qaida's base for the Sept. 11 attacks where Osama bin Laden and his zealots continue to plot future havoc.

"There's no question that something has to be done to deal with the millstone that Iraq is on Afghanistan, in terms of public perceptions, in terms of funding, in terms of dealing with Afghanistan on its own merits," Karl Inderfurth, former assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs told the Senate in February.

Finally, there is the Iraq War's impact on American taxpayers and our faltering economy.

The $338 million the Iraq War costs each day would cover the annual health care expense for 270,000 children, additional Alternative Minimum Tax relief, heating assistance for 800,000 families or 1,700 additional guards for our borders. In Iraq, we are building hospitals, schools, roads, bridges, water quality treatment plants and electric generation and distribution, while infrastructure in Maine and across America crumbles.

Because we are paying for the war by deficit spending, our foreign debt has soared and capital for private investment has dwindled. Oil prices have more than quadrupled since 2002 to more than $100 per barrel. Filling the fuel tanks in their cars and homes wrecks family budgets in Maine and nationwide.

Gen. David Petraeus, who now ably leads our forces in Iraq, told me in Baghdad last summer that if we continue in the direction that President Bush has set, we will be in Iraq for another 10 years. If we stay that course, how many more of our courageous military will die or suffer life-shattering wounds? How much more strain can we place on our armed forces, our homeland security and our international prestige? Can we afford to spend another trillion dollars in Iraq that we could better use to shore up our nation's defenses, tighten our homeland security and invest in tax relief, health care, education and other priorities of American families?

I voted against this war, have called for a responsible deadline to bring the troops home and have been outspoken in my criticism of the President's policies. Unfortunately, the President and his allies in Congress blocked all efforts in 2007 to end the war. I will continue to oppose funding for the Iraq War that does not include a clear, responsible end to America's involvement in that country's ongoing religious civil war.

Source