SENATOR GRAVEL OFFERS A PLAN GUARANTEED TO END THE WAR IN IRAQ
Washington, DC May 14th — At 9:30 AM, at the National Press Club, Former United States Senator and Democratic Presidential candidate Mike Gravel introduced the United States Armed Forces Withdrawal From Iraq Act, a tough law with sobering consequences to finally get the Bush Administration’s full attention. Gravel will also outlined in detail a very tough legislative strategy to close out the war by Labor Day and have American troops home by Christmas. The only requirement is congressional leadership.
The Senator said, “The Congress must stop acting alone on the war issue and bring the American People into the fray to adjudicate the constitutional confrontation between the Congress and the President, if we are to end the mess Bush created before January 2009.”
“Constitutionally the Congress is the superior power. The President can only enforce the law and obey it like any other citizen. Congressional timidity over the years encouraged by political partisanship has unleashed an imperial presidency. When the presidency falls into the hands of a messianic true-believer like Bush the result is a morally questionable foreign policy and a domestic disaster threatening the nation’s safety.” The Senator pointed out.
The essence of the Gravel Plan: the congressional leadership must draw-out over days and weeks, if necessary, repeated daily cloture votes in the Senate and repeated daily veto override votes in both chambers to give American voters time to weigh-in and force two-thirds of their Senators and Representatives to vote to override the President’s veto of the American will.
Gravel added: “In the face of a President oblivious to human suffering and death, the voting public is the only power that can stop the war. The Congress can and must energize this citizen’s power. Timidity, compromise, comity and politics as usual are not viable alternatives to LEADERSHIP when Americans and Iraqis are dying every day.”
