Paul Richmond, Democratic Candidate for U.S. Congress

Washington's 6th District

2023 East Sims Way, #263, Port Townsend, WA, 98368

Phone: (360) 379-5575, Fax: (360) 379-5116

www.richmond4congress.com

MEDIA RELEASE, May 15, 2008

Forty hours before Democrats in Washington's 6th Congressional District will meet to endorse a candidate, Incumbent Norm Dicks broke with the majority of his party and voted to support continued funding of the illegal Iraq War and Occupation. The Campaign of Paul Richmond issued this Statement:

We are astounded that our opponent Congressman Norm Dicks joined with a minority of Democrats in voting for continued funding of the useless and illegal Iraq War and Occupation.  (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll328.xml)  While the vote was thankfully defeated (147 Democrats, 2 Republicans voted No, 132 Republicans merely voted present.) it shows that the Congressman is at odds with the majority of citizens, the majority of Democrats, and his constituency.

The rank and file of the Democratic Party has been asking for the U.S. to leave Iraq for many years. 

• At the 2004 National Convention the majority of the delegates wanted us out. 
• The Democrats won majorities in both houses in 2006 in large part because this war had gone on too long and people wanted us out. 
• At the local party's conventions and platform meetings, it's one of the main things people talk about. 

The money that's being wasted killing people in Iraq could be used to feed us here, educate us, give us medical care, end the repossession of our homes.  We can build an infrastructure that isn't falling apart.  We can start whole new industries around fuel sources other than petroleum. 

Estimates are now that the Iraq War and Occupation will already cost us Six Trillion ($6,000,000,000,000) Dollars.  That does not include the more than thirty thousand (30,000) wounded veterans and their families.

The war and occupation in Iraq has brought us more than 4,000 American dead and more than 30,000 Americans with wounds that are nearly fatal. 

This last means tens of thousands of young Americans with parts of their bodies no longer working or parts of their bodies missing.  It means thousands of young Americans with parts of their skulls blown off trying to learn how to speak, trying to learn to walk, trying to learn to feed them selves again.  It means thousands of young Americans spending their lives around machines that help them breathe.  It means thousands of young Americans who need their relatives to help them with their catheters so that they can even urinate. 

And as for the country we are supposedly trying to save, when you add in the number of refugees, wounded and dead, the number of Iraqi people whose lives have been utterly annihilated now far exceeds the number of people living in the 6th District and rivals the entire population of Washington State.

Dick's loyalty to the military economy is understandable.  It has brought jobs to the region.  But they are not sustainable jobs.  And our country's obsession with the military at the expense of all else is the reason the rest of the economy is in a tailspin.   When there's no money to bail out people who are losing their homes to predatory lenders, but there are millions to build planes and boats that even the military doesn't want, there's a problem.  When there's no money to give 47 million U.S. Citizens health care, but there's billions for private contractors, there's a problem.  When there are estimates that there are 200,000 homeless Veterans because of previous wars, and there's money to keep this farce going, it's a problem.  

When you look at the world's strongest economies, Germany and Japan, and notice that they're economies that were forced to move away from war related industries, there's a solution, and it's pretty obvious.  It's also pretty obvious Norm Dicks isn't going to take us in that direction.

Enough is enough.  For years the majority of Democrats in Congress, including Congressman Dicks seem to have acknowledged that their votes authorizing the Iraq debacle were a mistake.  This vote doesn't seem to bear it out. 

Voters in this election, have a choice as to whether they want to continue down this road.  Paul Richmond has opposed the U.S. slaughter in Iraq since 1991.

This Saturday Democrats in the 6th Congressional District will meet to endorse Richmond or Dicks.  This recent vote by Norm Dicks makes the choice crystal clear.