Sacramento Veterans, Religious Leaders Ask Rep. Matsui and Congress to Stop Funding Iraq Occupation
Dan Bacher
January 06, 2007
Veterans, religious leaders and anti-war activists converged on the federal building in Sacramento on January 4, in conjunction with a series of massive protests nationwide, to announce the intensification of a campaign to ask Rep. Doris Matsui and Congress to end all funding for the bloody Iraq occupation.
The news conference was timed on the morning that the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives and Senate began a new session in Washington D.C., after being given a clear mandate by the voters on November 7 to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq. It was also timed just days after the grim milestone of 3,000 U.S. dead and over 600,000 Iraqis killed in Bush's illegal war was reached.
During the conference, George Main, President of the Sacramento Chapter of Veterans for Peace (VFP), Bishop Beverly Shamana of the United Methodist Church California-Nevada Annual Conference and Winnie Detwiler, Board Member of Sacramento Area Peace Action, passionately urged Matsui and Congress to stop funding the Iraq occupation - and outlined their objectives for the campaign. After the conference, they delivered a letter to Matsui's office urging her to take a public position on ending funding for the war.
George Main, who was one of the key targets of a Pentagon nationwide illegal spying campaign against anti-war activists uncovered by the ACLU in November, and Cres Vellucci, another VFP member, tried to get a meeting with Matsui over her position on funding the Iraq occupation, but were rebuffed.
"There will be no more free passes for Rep. Matsui,” said Main, a member of the Sacramento Coalition to End the War, the group that sponsored the press conference. “By cutting off funding the war will end, as will the killing and maiming of tens of thousands Americans and Iraqis, and the waste of hundreds of billions of tax dollars.”
In the Congressional Voting Record for 2005 compiled by the Peace Action Education Fund, Matsui received a 92 percent rating for her votes on war and peace. Unfortunately, in spite of her otherwise good record, she has voted to continue funding for the occupation.
Rep. Matsui has not publicly declared her opposition to the war or signed on to initiatives to truly end it, despite the obvious public mandate in the November elections suggesting voters wanted the war to end,” stated Vellucci, “She also has refused to personally meet with constituents, including veterans.”
Main emphasized that the $70 billion Congress voted to fund the Iraq occupation last June is more than enough to fund the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops. He also criticized President George W. Bush's proposal to fund a “surge” of 20,000 more troops, contending that the so-called “surge” is really an escalation of the increasingly brutal and violent conflict in Iraq. Bush will likely propose $160 billion in supplemental funding to continue and expand the U.S. military occupation of Iraq.
Bishop Beverly Shamana urged Rep. Matsui to make the moral choice to stop funding the Iraq occupation. “It is time to bring the troops home,” she stated. “What the Bush administration is doing in Iraq now is an offense to the God of Christians, Jews and Muslims.”
Shamana said it was time for people to be “prayerful with our feet, letters, emails and phone calls” and get Matsui and Congress to stop funding the occupation.
Winnie Kaneshiro Detwiler emphasized the devastating costs of the war in terms of lives and dollars.
The American people told Congress on November 7 that they want the occupation of Iraq ended,” said Detwiler. “We want Representative Doris Matsui to make a public commitment that she will vote against ANY more funding for the occupation of Iraq.”
She continued, “The President wants to expand this war, an illegal and unjustified war that has already cost hundreds of thousands of lives, as well as 378 billion dollars. It will continue to cost the lives and futures of many, many people - in this country and elsewhere for whom those billions of dollars could have been used for health care, for food, for education and for our environment.”
Detwiler detailed the alarming costs of the war in the Fifth Congressional District alone - and all of the good, productive things that our tax dollars could have funded instead of more killing and destruction.
The National Priorities Project, which studies the budget of the Federal Government, states that taxpayers in the 5th Congressional District, are paying almost $684 million for this tragic fiasco,” said Detwiler. “This $684 million could have been spent instead for healthcare for 280,000 people, or over 10,300 elementary school teachers, or over 81,000 spaces in Head Start Programs for pre-school children, or for housing, disaster preparedness, job training or many other constructive uses.”
Detwiler concluded, “We know that Representative Matsui has committed to protecting Social Security, yet the spending of hundreds of billions of dollars on this tragic occupation of another country jeopardizes the future of Social Security and Medicare - programs that the working people of this country rely on for their old age security.”
The Sacramento Coalition to End the War is asking people to send letters to Rep. Matsui and visit her office in the coming weeks to urge her to vote against any additional funding of the Iraq War. For more information, contact the Sacramento Area Peace Action website, http://www.sacpeace.org/takeAction.cfm, or call (916) 448-7157.
The news conference was timed on the morning that the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives and Senate began a new session in Washington D.C., after being given a clear mandate by the voters on November 7 to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq. It was also timed just days after the grim milestone of 3,000 U.S. dead and over 600,000 Iraqis killed in Bush's illegal war was reached.
During the conference, George Main, President of the Sacramento Chapter of Veterans for Peace (VFP), Bishop Beverly Shamana of the United Methodist Church California-Nevada Annual Conference and Winnie Detwiler, Board Member of Sacramento Area Peace Action, passionately urged Matsui and Congress to stop funding the Iraq occupation - and outlined their objectives for the campaign. After the conference, they delivered a letter to Matsui's office urging her to take a public position on ending funding for the war.
George Main, who was one of the key targets of a Pentagon nationwide illegal spying campaign against anti-war activists uncovered by the ACLU in November, and Cres Vellucci, another VFP member, tried to get a meeting with Matsui over her position on funding the Iraq occupation, but were rebuffed.
"There will be no more free passes for Rep. Matsui,” said Main, a member of the Sacramento Coalition to End the War, the group that sponsored the press conference. “By cutting off funding the war will end, as will the killing and maiming of tens of thousands Americans and Iraqis, and the waste of hundreds of billions of tax dollars.”
In the Congressional Voting Record for 2005 compiled by the Peace Action Education Fund, Matsui received a 92 percent rating for her votes on war and peace. Unfortunately, in spite of her otherwise good record, she has voted to continue funding for the occupation.
Rep. Matsui has not publicly declared her opposition to the war or signed on to initiatives to truly end it, despite the obvious public mandate in the November elections suggesting voters wanted the war to end,” stated Vellucci, “She also has refused to personally meet with constituents, including veterans.”
Main emphasized that the $70 billion Congress voted to fund the Iraq occupation last June is more than enough to fund the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops. He also criticized President George W. Bush's proposal to fund a “surge” of 20,000 more troops, contending that the so-called “surge” is really an escalation of the increasingly brutal and violent conflict in Iraq. Bush will likely propose $160 billion in supplemental funding to continue and expand the U.S. military occupation of Iraq.
Bishop Beverly Shamana urged Rep. Matsui to make the moral choice to stop funding the Iraq occupation. “It is time to bring the troops home,” she stated. “What the Bush administration is doing in Iraq now is an offense to the God of Christians, Jews and Muslims.”
Shamana said it was time for people to be “prayerful with our feet, letters, emails and phone calls” and get Matsui and Congress to stop funding the occupation.
Winnie Kaneshiro Detwiler emphasized the devastating costs of the war in terms of lives and dollars.
The American people told Congress on November 7 that they want the occupation of Iraq ended,” said Detwiler. “We want Representative Doris Matsui to make a public commitment that she will vote against ANY more funding for the occupation of Iraq.”
She continued, “The President wants to expand this war, an illegal and unjustified war that has already cost hundreds of thousands of lives, as well as 378 billion dollars. It will continue to cost the lives and futures of many, many people - in this country and elsewhere for whom those billions of dollars could have been used for health care, for food, for education and for our environment.”
Detwiler detailed the alarming costs of the war in the Fifth Congressional District alone - and all of the good, productive things that our tax dollars could have funded instead of more killing and destruction.
The National Priorities Project, which studies the budget of the Federal Government, states that taxpayers in the 5th Congressional District, are paying almost $684 million for this tragic fiasco,” said Detwiler. “This $684 million could have been spent instead for healthcare for 280,000 people, or over 10,300 elementary school teachers, or over 81,000 spaces in Head Start Programs for pre-school children, or for housing, disaster preparedness, job training or many other constructive uses.”
Detwiler concluded, “We know that Representative Matsui has committed to protecting Social Security, yet the spending of hundreds of billions of dollars on this tragic occupation of another country jeopardizes the future of Social Security and Medicare - programs that the working people of this country rely on for their old age security.”
The Sacramento Coalition to End the War is asking people to send letters to Rep. Matsui and visit her office in the coming weeks to urge her to vote against any additional funding of the Iraq War. For more information, contact the Sacramento Area Peace Action website, http://www.sacpeace.org/takeAction.cfm, or call (916) 448-7157.
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