Oregon Legislature Passes Nonbinding Resolution Opposing Troop Surge And Seeking Withdrawal Of U.S. Forces

Although the legislature of the state of Oregon has no binding power to alter American foreign policy, they nonetheless passed a nonbinding resolution by a vote of 33-27 that opposes the troop surge in Iraq, and also proposes a timetable for a withdrawal of U.S. troops. Today, the Oregon Senate is expected to follow the Oregon House and approve the same measure. This sets up an interesting situation for Democratic Governor Ted Kulongoski who is a former Marine and who is known as a strong supporter of Oregon military forces. the Governor has attended virtually every funeral of a fallen soldier from both Iraq and Afghanistan, unlike any other governor in the nation.

And once again the important issue of leaving Iraq in some sort of more stable condition before the American troops exit is not answered in the nonbinding resolution as well. Essentially, the problem is that the U.S. broke Iraq in an effort to get rid of one bad dictator and to justify a search for oil by the big oil industry interests which are so powerful within the Bush Administration, but left Iraq with a sectarian civil war that threatens the entire region and all Western oil supplies should fighting spread to Iran and Saudi Arabia. The war has also left 2,000,000 refugees, yet the U.S. has only allowed about 700 Iraqi refugees a year into the U.S. , but this may soon be increased to thousands a year. Interestingly, Sweden has taken on many refugees in Europe, while Jordan and Syria have taken on many refugees in the MidEast.

In reality, probably no one in the U.S. really wants this war anymore. The Bush Administration is probably likely to eventually accept that many Iraqi military units are relatively effective, and then begin a politically based "withdrawal" after declaring some sort of technical victory. But with little doubt, Iraq will hardly be in as peaceful of condition as it was at one time. And it will be a long haul before the nation becomes peaceful enough to spur widespread business investment and really begin to grow an economy.