Not Enough

A few days ago a group of veterans, parents and relatives of veterans visited Congressman Ron Kind's office to press him to take action on defunding the Iraq occupation and start bringing troops home. While listening politely, and agreeing that things are not going well in Iraq, Kind made no promises. He supports the Murtha plan, he said. But, talk is cheap. We need to see some action.

On Friday, a local group had a short meeting with Senator Herb Kohl. Many had occupied his offices last fall in hopes of scheduling a meeting. Some were arrested. Charges were dropped, but it has taken several months for the group to get a meeting with Kohl. The results, to those of us who support the protesters and want some action from Kohl, were disappointing. He said he was a quiet man and "not a leader." If only we had elected Rae Vogeler in his place last November ...

Both Kohl and Kind are taking advantage of us voters. We sent a strong message to both - we want the Iraq occupation ended and troops brought home - but they are not doing enough. Both men are fine communicators, but we need strong leaders who are not afraid to take strong action. For example ...

More below.

In a previous post we detailed some of the Iraq legislation introduced in the House. To date, Ron Kind has not co-sponsored one of them. And Murtha's Bill? Even though Murtha's plan to limit deployments based on troops receiving training and equipment and adequate down time is supported by a majority of Americans, the Democrats are self destructing again and there's doubt about whether it will ever see the light of day. And even if it does, it turns out, maybe Kind didn't really mean he'd support the plan that much.

And Kohl?

In June, 2006, Kohl made Matt Rothschild's Iraq Roll of Shame. In fact, seach the list of bills co-sponsored by Kohl and seach on "Iraq." Not one. Not one bit of legislation about Iraq - withdrawing, defunding, redeploying, you name it - has been sponsored or co-sponsored by Senator Kohl. What is this?

It's not enough. It's not enough to talk nice and do nothing. People are dying and being maimed and losing their minds and committing suicide. Our children's future is being loaned to the war mongers.

We have to crank up the heat on these guys. March 16. Watch for more details. This must change.